Go to hell Joell Osteen...The Heroin of the Masses...

[lxlxlxl]

It is amazing that people are peddling the worst type of escapsim in a time when numbers, facts, and reality are all people need to understand what is going on. I see pictures of that church's crowd, and hear him boast about how churches are "doing well" and I get sick.

Let's tell people being forced to work 50 years with no security that god is enough, or being "positive" will get you through life. That's a lie. People need to wake up to what has gone on, from the utter failure of the Iraq War and the trauma to this world that war has done, to the banks and creditors that have taken away real wages in favor of a wild west frontier of capital, credit, and the fake economy built around administering and controlling fake finance.

The type of sentimentality people like Warren and Osteen are pushing is absolutely what people DO NOT need right now. They are telling people to not look at what happened, and asking them to exercise an empty faith.

The cyclical patterns of capital exploitation, forced deprivation, and religious/spectacle distraction is in full force now.

[Skidmore]

1. You must be watching that Larry King rerun too.

There is nothing more loathesome than a televangelist and a megachurch soaking the poor. And there is nothing more despicable that one that teaches "prosperity gospel"--greed is your salvation.

Unctious, modulated tones of evil. That man will not be giving up his charter jets and mansions for the starving any time soon.

[charlie]

4. I suppose we'll never know, but you've gotta ask...

How many overleveraged homeowners got in their fix because they heeded that "show faith in God by claiming your goodies in the name of Christ" prosperity gospel crap?

[earth mom]

20. "Prosperity Gospel" is a great way to frame what those snake oil salesmen are selling.

If there is a hell, they will be going there for sure, because what they are doing is NOT what Jesus would do. :puke:

[lxlxlxl]

21. If there's hell below, they are all gonna go...

I didn't make it clear that I am not an atheist per se. I am anti clerical.

I grew up with religion. My ancestors are old Nasrani Christians, but it's clear that organized religion (especially on the level of an osteen ) is here to teach our children that they are weak, god dispenses privilege and desperation, and that anything different from them is evil. We don't get the country we have without getting people to buy into this bullshit on some level early on.

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. Televangelist make their money by convincing you to send YOURS.

bloodsuckers

[kywildcat]

2. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Exactly!!!!! You've summed it up for me! Thank you.

[illuminaughty]

3. It made me want kill my TV too when I saw it the other night

First of all, he looks like he's channeling Ed Grimley. Secondly, I'm sick to death of us vs. them organized religion.

I'm trapped between close friends who returned to being Jehovah's Witnesses and my crazy family's Southern Baptist mentality and the e-mails that go with it. The more research I do on the "creation" of the Bible in general, the more my vindictive spirit takes over and I want to confront them with all their hypocrisy. Opium of the masses, that it is.

[WCGreen]

5. I just concentrate on the preaching of Jesus...

When I get caught up with fundies I just tell them that Jesus went into the Temple not only to mess with the vendors but to show the people that a fancy dancy Temple was not needed to do God's work. That a Temple only inserted a male dominated clergy between the people and God only to make money for those who owned the Temple. Brother Joel a fine example of this tradition.

Two commandments is what Jesus Preached and the Sermon on the mount should tell anyone who is at all serious about abiding by the teachings of Christ would depend solely on that aspect of the bible and leave all the fairy tales and ridiculous rules thought up by nomadic desert people by the wayside...

[lxlxlxl]

23. Agreed...

Don't get me wrong...I don't have anything wrong with actually reading any religious texts. If they were studying the Jefferson Bible I would be o.k. with it. I am personally anti-clerical, and respect the redemption in christianity, but just think it is a problem to let Americans think that their status in life is god-given, and get them to ignore numbers and capital..

[NC_Nurse]

6. I find him sickening as well. The ranks of the Elmer Gantrys of this era are

swelling lately. People just LOVE a huckster, don't they? :eyes: :puke:

[adarling]

7. stopped by his show today on tv

watched a minute or two and then had to change the channel. i was so grossed out by the fact that he was telling people to abandon all those negative people friends and such who are worried about the economy and worry about yourselves. I was like, this is the kinda crap that got us all into this position right now. Thinking only of yourself especially in difficult situations is not something to do. I am so tired of the selfish bullshit people are pulling now, its ridiculous, especially because most of the people in my life recently have been so damn selfish. Greed is what got us into this mess and this "me" attitude that assholes like Joel Osteen are peddling to people. he is as phony as a silicone breast.

[coalition_unwilling]

8. Old Socialist refrain (mocking these sentiments):

There'll be pie
In the sky
When you die
By and by

Long before there was rap . . . :)

[jxnmsdemguy65]

9. Excellent post K&R

Reading it, I remember that I had picked up one of Warren's books ('Purpose-Driven Life') in the past few years. It just went into the garbage. That shit needs to go out of circulation. Why do I need some dumb-f**k megachurch preacher telling me how to live?

[Dangerman]

13. Agreed.

[opihimoimoi]

11. He is an EVIL DUDE...just look at him....ya gatta know he is an ASSHOLE

[apocalypsehow]

18. Yeah, but his wife is a hottie.

B-)

[opihimoimoi]

22. Fried eggs....flat as an omelet

[jxnmsdemguy65]

12. Excellent post K&R

Reading it, I remember that I had picked up one of Warren's books ('Purpose-Driven Life') in the past few years. It just went into the garbage. That shit needs to go out of circulation. Why do I need some dumb-f**k megachurch preacher telling me how to live?

[Celebration]

14. Warren bad

Osteen just slightly delusional.

[DonEBrook]

15. Con-men are recession-proof as long as greed and vanity exist.

It doesn't really get any more complicated.

[BlooInBloo]

16. This is the new shit. Stand up and admit.

[DonEBrook]

17. Marjoe Gortner never went away, he just changed his S.S. number

and got a different outfit.

[alarimer]

19. Joe Bageant: Hope is the junk food of the mind and soul.

Read the letter and the response.

I feel exactly the same way about being on the outside of a mass delusion. And that applies to the crap Osteen is selling as well as the mass delusion that Obama will make everything okay.

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2008/12/obamas-election-will-keep-liberals-happy.html

[The Doctor.]

24. I often find myself hoping the Televangelists are right about there being a heaven and hell...

won't they be surprised!

[Joe the Liberal]

25. I saw him and his wife on Larry King yesterday......

I cant believe so many people actually listen and buy into all his BS. In these tough economic times believing that god will somehow come and save you is absurd.

[Initech]

26. Televangelism is one of the biggest bullshit businesses in existence.

I live in Orange County - home of Warren's church and the Trinity Broadcast Network. These assholes make billions basically peddling bullshit. And the beauty of it is that they pass themselves off as religious organizations so they get tax exempt status. Warren should definitely lose his. What kind of church has 40,000 members and gives Bush a medal of "peace"?

[eilen]

27. If you need some humongus megachurch with big screen monitors, a Bose

sound system requiring studio engineers and a whole chain of franchised minichurches, a television network that sells advertising and some kind of pyramid marketing scheme as well as a steady diet of bullshit books and a "prosperity message" to attract "followers" better known as "contributers".

You have one crappy ass message and a pathetic religion that is bereft of tradition and soul.