John Pavlovitz, head of North Raleigh Community Church in North Carolina, said the “prosperity gospel” minister had discredited his faith by tweeting out banal platitudes as locals mosques and furniture stores offered shelter from the hurricane that flooded Houston.

“You’ve experienced the wrath of millions of people who watched the week unfold and determined they were witnessing in you and your megachurch’s response to the hurricane—everything they believe is wrong about organized Christianity,” Pavlovitz said, “its self-serving greed, its callousness, its tone-deafness in the face of a hurting multitude, its lack of something that looks like Jesus.”

***

“Don’t wait for an invitation, you don’t wait to be shamed by strangers, and you don’t make excuses,” he said.

“I imagine you feel like this has been a rough week,” Pavlovitz wrote. “It hasn’t. You’ve had the week you probably should have had, all this considered. You’ve had the week that was coming long before rain ever started falling in Houston.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/09/everything-wrong-about-christianity-fellow-pastor-shames-joel-osteen-for-his-self-serving-greed/

Mike Pence Stands By Government Shutdown Threat As Thousands Await Federal Harvey Aid
Last week, Trump threatened to block government funding legislation if Congress didn’t approve border wall funding.



Pence told ABC News’s Jonathan Karl on Thursday that the administration’s “top priority” is dealing with Harvey’s aftermath, but noted that Trump remains hellbent on building his border wall, which the president has warned Congress to approve funding for or risk a government shutdown this month.

When pressed whether threatening to block government funding legislation is a responsible move in the wake of the devastating storm, Pence stood by his boss.

“President Trump has made it very clear that we’re going to keep our promise to the American people,” Pence said about the wall’s construction. “We’ve seen great progress in reducing illegal immigration on our southern border and enforcing our laws.”

“The president has made it clear that we’re going to stand firm and we’re going to build a wall and secure our border,” he continued. “But the priority right now for President Trump and this administration is these families.”

‘Art of the Deal’ ghostwriter: There’s no way Trump will give $1 million to Harvey victims



http://www.rawstory.com/2017/09/art-of-the-deal-ghostwriter-theres-no-way-trump-will-give-1-million-to-harvey-victims/

Tony Schwartz — the author who ghost wrote President Donald Trump’s biggest bestselling book The Art of the Deal — said on Friday that Trump’s pledge to give $1 million to victims of Hurricane Harvey is an empty bluff.

“No way Trump donates $1m of own money to Harvey victims. He only promises to give. Never actually does,” said Schwartz on Twitter, according to the Hill.

“Trump didn’t fit any model of human being I’d ever met. He was obsessed with publicity, and he didn’t care what you wrote,” said Schwartz in 2016. “It’s impossible to keep him focused on any topic, other than his own self-aggrandizement, for more than a few minutes.”

“Lying is second nature to him,” he wrote. “More than anyone else I have ever met, Trump has the ability to convince himself that whatever he is saying at any given moment is true, or sort of true, or at least ought to be true.”