joel osteen made his way into the spotlight on cbs’ 60-minutes last night in an attempt to pimp his new book… i’m not so sure it turned out the way he would have hoped.
i like the internet monk’s take on osteen. especially this quote:
“Osteen is a Gospel preacher like Col. Sanders is an army officer.”
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aw, that clip skipped the best part. Osteen plays the reporter in one-on-one and completely schools him. He makes this amazing hook shot, and the reporter says, “how’d you do that?” Straight-faced, Osteen replies, “prayer.”
I thought Osteen came off great in that interview. Much better than where I had him. He’s not a shepherd (’cause you can’t shepherd a 60,000 person church). He’s not a theologian (’cause you need to understand the Bible far better than he does to be one). But, he can still teach Biblical principles as a proper moral foundation that enables people to have better relationships. He doesn’t discard Jesus. He’s just a milkman, and a lot of us are at a point where we want meat. But others aren’t.
i agree that he’s not a shepherd, nor a theologian—in fact, he’s far from both… i don’t even doubt that his self-help preaching doesn’t contain biblical principles. my issue with osteen is the way in which he takes self-help and wraps it in the Bible. he doesn’t start with scripture, he uses it to make his points and by doing so completely pushes it down to where modern wisdom is by far superior. there is, however, a huge range of his teaching that is neither biblical and completely dangerous and this is where i think osteen borders on teaching heresy. this huge range? his prosperity teachings, and his insistence that God wants you to by healthy and wealthy. i don’t see that in the bible, but i think that accounts for over 60% of his teaching…
maybe the most frightening part is how people worship him…
I wanted to hear something about his board game.
I think he figured out how to be Jim Baker without being Jim Baker…meaning he is soaking in millions yet makes it seem like “Its Your Best Life Now”….and dont ask for money on the air just let people send it to me on their own, then take millions from book sales….I dont doubt he does help people learn to love in some ways…it’s still sickening as Aaron said how people worship him…also its all about “ME” and never about “WE”
I honestly will never understand people. Theology and hermeneutics aside – I don’t even think he’s effective on the most practical level. His sermons are awful. His cadence is unbearable. His illustrations are nonexistent. How is a guy like that getting thousands of people to listen – and leave them wanting more to the extent that they will plunk down 20 bucks for a book of recycled crappy sermons? What am I missing?
There is another interesting clip of an interview by Larry King at http://www.forgottenword.org/osteen.html. This site also has a reasonably well thoughtout critique of Olsteen’s gospel, its consistency with Word of Faith’s positive confession, and Olsteen’s educational qualifications. One of the most striking points in the interview is that in response to King’s question, Olsteen can’t say that those who believe they don’t have to believe in Christ are wrong.
In the critique, Olsteen is quoted as saying that people tell him they are not looking for theology. Rather, it seems their ears are itching and Olsteen appears eager to scratch them so that he can grow his church to 100,000 people in services each weekend.