What's with this smarmy Joel Osteen?

[Stinky The Clown]

And his equally smarmy wife.

With their smarmy god tour

They've invaded Baltimore and they're getting air time with the 'newz' people falling over each other to report on his smarmy ass.

Who is this guy and why is he in my town?

[scarface2004]

1. elmer grant lives!!

you want god...give me $5!

[Benhurst]

6. Gantry?

[KittyWampus]

10. He's no Elmer Gantry. Might not be my cup of tea, but he offers hope and a positive message

without being a Fundie bigot.

Is that really SO bad?

[TheUniverse]

20. So he doesn't care about the bigotry?

I guess he must be one of the TV preachers who only cares about money then. I guess its a step up the rotten ladder...

[stranger81]

22. I'm not sure it promotes hope or a positive message to tell people

that God wants you to be rich, that if you're rich it's because you're living the right kind of Christian lifestyle, and if you're not rich, well, you're not Christian enough.

His "message" is so far removed from Christianity that I don't even understand why he's allowed in a church.

[hiphopnation]

25. it's a fair question

but the temple in houston -- omfg, i have never seen such a gaudy monstrosity. it's in what used to be the basketball stadium to the rockets. and the FILL that fucker EVERY SUNDAY. It is quite frightening. Complete with waterfalls and a giant band and choir, a separate children's room, jesus (no pun intended) that place is scary.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. sleazeball son of the old man.

His old man used to growl on TV "Come to the Oasis of Looooove".

Joel dropped out of Oral Roberts after one semester. Got a 30 year sweetheart deal lease with the city of Houston to lease the former basketball arena, The Summit, later known as Compaq Center. A real idiot. Lives in a $2 million dollar home in a wealthy area of town.

Wife threw a hissy fit on a plane a while ago because the seat wasn't cleaned up to her satisfaction.

[Loki]

3. Joel just wants you to be happy and prosperous

because if you are happy and prosperous and you like what Joel tells you, you will give Joel lots and lots of your money and he will make you happy that you gave it to him.
Happy, happy, happy Stepford religious quack. H2S - he's from Houston (sorry), and he's just gotten creepier with this message of God wants you to make lots of money and be prosperous. It's the same old rhetoric of I want mine and I want it now, and I don't want to have to share it with anyone. Of course, in Repuglican Houston, see how that kind of message resonates. Smarmy little wife got her nose in a twit last year and got herself removed from an airliner in Colorado. Seems the flight attendant didn't clean off her seat to her liking. I don't want to with these people off on anyone, but if Baltimore wants them, they can have them.

[skyblue]

26. He is something to be feared after all week after week he has 10's of thousands

watching him and sitting in the pews so it's not like he's not making the same amount of money as highly successful musicians who may only get that kind of audience 10 or 20 times/yr and certainly he's a big influence on the culture. And these people don't drop just a few bucks they think if they pay they'll get into heaven. So...

[TheCentepedeShoes]

4. He's a promoter of

the Gucci/Manalo Shop Till You Drop Jeeeezus as opposed to the original robe-and-sandals, be good to your neighbor version 1.0.
Plus, he's from Texas, 'splains all.

[RebelOne]

5. Even the nut jobs at RaptureReady.com

aren't all that impressed by him.

http://www.rr-bb.com/showthread.php?t=17915

[tanyev]

9. OMG. Glenn Beck is "always fair and presents both sides of an issue".

[KittyWampus]

12. Because he doesn't tow the Fundie line and call out gays, blacks, etc etc.

[theboss]

15. He's hated by right-wing Evangelists

They don't think he "preaches the gospel."

To be honest, he doesn't. He makes Jesus sound like a self-help coach.

In the end though, it's his approach to the world and people buy it. So...whatever.

[Stinky The Clown]

19. Well ... *that's* in his favor

But he still seems smarmy

[nealmhughes]

7. I saw it on the telly once when ill early one Sunday morning. The teeth were very nice,

not quite Norm Coleman nice, but nice.

I never figured out if he was a Xian or a Scientologist or a leader of a cargo cult.

I didn't see the wife, but I doubt she could match either the late Tammy Faye Bakker Meisner for sheer shock value, or the woman whose interior decoration leans towards fin de siecle Parisian whore house chic and wears pink wigs (think Eva Gabor on acid meets Mrs. Slocum here).

At least the portion I saw didn't inflict too much John Teschesque music upon the audience.

All in all, quite boring, I must say. No charts as has Mr. Hagee nor any "healings." Why, not even an outburst of glossalalia. My, how Televangalism has sunk.

Synopsis: We miss Earnest Angley. "Baby, say Baaaby!"

[scarpa43]

8. I live in Houston

To me he is the, for lack of a better way to put it, right kind of televangelist.

He is part preacher, part Dr. Phil, part Tony Robbins. To my knowledge he does not preach "send money and you will be saved", it is more motivational, insperational type preaching.

He makes no secret that he brings a lot of money and makes no appology for it.

That is my $0.02 take on it, I have seen about 30 seconds of his show but my impression of him from local coverage is more of a motivational speaker with a Bible in his hand.

[theboss]

11. He's a televangelist who doesn't act like a televangelist

I can't quite figure out his act. His church gets 13,000 attendees every Sunday in Houston and is on in a zillion markets. He sells a billion books.

But he doesn't really preach, and he doesn't really ask for money.

The best way I can describe him is this: He talks for a bit and somehow that makes you feel good and in turn - out of the goodness of your heart - you send him $20. Or buy his book.

I don't even want to call what he does "prosperity gospel" because there is not a lot of "gospel" in it. But people seem to dig it.

Tony Robbins with a Bible is probably the best description.

[KittyWampus]

13. that's not a bad description. At least you didn't trash the man the way so many DU'ers

already have.

My father likes him. I don't but find him inocuous.

[theboss]

14. I think his message is generally empty

But I know four or five people (all black women actually-I don't know if that has any relevance) who love him. My feeling is if you watch a tv show that genuinely makes you feel better about yourself, what's the harm?

A co-worker gave me one of his books. I found it a bit inane but can see why people like it.

He's not political. He's not discriminatory. He's not judgmental. He's just a little creepy.

Good hair though.

[Virginia Dare]

18. He seems to be very popular among African-Americans..

I've noticed that as well, and I'm not sure why I noticed that.

[PassingFair]

31. He's God's Zig Ziglar? n/t

[HamdenRice]

16. As far as televangelists go, he's not a bad person, afik

Let me say first off, almost all of them are horrible and the prosperity gospel types are the worst, followed by the right wing moral zealots.

I read a profile of Osteen and there are two things that distinguish him: First, he is either completely apolitical or actually somewhat liberal. I understand he has refused to condemn gays and lesbians, and says they are welcome in his church, for which he was condemned by the head of the southern Baptists. Second, when asked about other religions, says basically, you don't have to be a Christian. A lot of the times in interviews, when asked whether people of other religions go to heaven he just says, "I don't know," which is refreshing for a minister.

Basically from what I can gather from the little I've seen of him on TV, he's a motivational speaker from a Christian perspective who's not harming anyone but seems to make a lot of people feel better about themselves.

On edit: Oh, yeah, one more thing that has the fundies in a snit -- he thinks married couples should have good sex.

[TheUniverse]

23. If I were to guess, the reason he refuses to condemn anyone is because...

He wants everyone to give him money. This guy has to be one of the biggest whores I have ever seen

[Virginia Dare]

17. The smarmy king..

IIRC he was a child prodigy preacher. He looks like he belongs on the floor of a used car emporium. My MIL used to be fascinated with him until his wife threw that temper tantrum on the airplane at Christmas time. I don't remember all the details but they were on their way to Vail, and Mrs. Osteen had a major hissy-fit and ended up being arrested.

My MIL is not totally dumb and realized then that they were giant fakes.

One other anecdote, when his book came out a few years ago, I noticed a lot of African-Americans walking around with it. The couple of times I've caught several minutes of his show, there appears to be many African-Americans in the audience as well. Not sure of the significance, just something I noticed for some reason.

[TwilightGardener]

21. I'm OK with Joel--he seems like a sincere, positive guy, for a TV preacher.

His wife--mmmm, no thanks. Fakey Fakerson. Saw them on Larry King, and she seems like a phony, airheaded diva.

[Stinky The Clown]

24. Our local newz covering his 'sold out shows' at First Mariner Arena

Not calling them 'services' or 'worship' .... calling them 'shows'.

Like the circus is in town. (It is the same venue the circus uses.)

[Evergreen Emerald]

27. Ms. Osteen had an "incident" last year

http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5477495&nav=Bsmh

HOUSTON -- A Continental Airline flight attendant filed a lawsuit this week saying she was assaulted on a flight by the wife of nationally known pastor and author Joel Osteen.


The Federal Aviation Administration fined Victoria Osteen $3,000 for interfering with a crew member during a Christmas vacation flight to Vail, Colo., on Dec. 19.

Osteen paid the fine in August to put the issue to rest, her attorney Rusty Hardin told the Houston Chronicle. She believes "very, very strongly" that she did nothing wrong, Hardin said.

But Sharon Brown, a flight manager on that trip, said in her civil suit that Osteen assaulted her. Brown is seeking unspecified damages for past and future medical care, emotional pain, mental anguish, suffering and humiliation.

[MagickMuffin]

28. Here's what my MIL told me about him

He thinks women should be submissive to their husbands. Whatever the man demands, the woman should do whatever he says. YIKES!
No way NO how, thank you very much. I can think for myself, and will never be submissive to anyone, period.

Presently, Osteen and several Lakewood Church team members travel across the nation, presenting programs in large stadiums to a paying public.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Osteen

There is more at the link @ wiki.

[spanone]

29. there selling jesus, and i guess folks are buying.....

[DemGa]

30. I don't get "smarmy" from Osteen

Upbeat, feel-good, God loves you, yada, yada.

But not inauthentic. But that's just me.