Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Oh, Oh, Osteen


If all my RevGalPals and other blogging pals lived in Houston, they would never know the heartbreak of Bloggers' Block--all you have to do is turn to the morning paper for your inspiration. (See previous post for explanation.) Maybe the city should change its motto to: Bloggers Paradise.

Gosh, it's been , what, more than two weeks since my last Lakewood-Osteen post? And what do I see on the front page of the Chronicle this morning but a story about Joel ("The Pastor") Osteen's new multi-million dollar book contract !

It seems he made over $10 million from Your Best Life Now. A friend of El Jefe's who attends Lakewood gave him a copy of the book. Here's El Jefe's review of YBLN : "pablum".

Osteen is known for advocating the practice of tithing and last year quit drawing his $200,000 salary from Lakewood on that basis. Let's see...10% of $10,000,000= uh-oh! More than $200K!

UPDATE: El Jefe tells me that according to his friend who attends Lakewood, Joel Osteen is the largest contributor to the church. So I don't mean to imply that he is not tithing, because I don't really know.

And RevGals--Victoria ("The Co-Pastor") Osteen is also getting a piece of the action! Yes, you'll want to watch for the children's book that she is writing. Of course. Don't all "celebrities" write children's books these days? What would that be about? I know -- How to Pretend She's Not Your Mommy When She Has a Fit and Gets Tossed Off the Plane.

Dear God, thank you for the newspaper that keeps me blogging on. Help to settle my queasy stomach when I open its pages. Deliver us from the foolishness of your followers, which comes in both denominational and the non-denominational flavors. Amen.

9 comments:

Jules said...

I think I just threw up a little in my mouth...

see-through faith said...

laughing. I mean isn't that healthier cheesehead?

Princess of Everything (and then some) said...

All I know about him is.....if you find his books at a garage sale....you can sell them at a really good price on Ebay.

LutheranChik said...

For some reason, whenever I see his face on the cover of a book I can't help but think, "Would you buy a used car from this man?"

St. Casserole said...

Independent churches with "charismatic" leaders give me the creeps because eventually, the leaders clay feet show. Then there is misery for those who base their life on the leader. Better to be the ordinary, hard-working preacher in a denomination.

St. Casserole said...

Not that we don't get into trouble as denom preachers...
My point (and I do have one) is that big leaders get into trouble often.

Dorcas (aka SingingOwl) said...

Laughing at Lutheran Chick...

And St Cass, a truer word was never spoken. Do they start believing their own press?

rev-ed said...

Any church built on a leader other than Christ is bound to have problems...

Theresa Coleman said...

Big leader = big trouble.

The Casserole Principle.

I like it.