Is Joel Osteen Really a Man of God?

Pastor Joel Osteen received backlash and criticism after being accused of not wanting to open Lakewood Church, the mega church located in Houston, Texas for Hurricane Harvey victims earlier this week.
Osteen released a statement explaining his reason on social media. “Dear Houstonians, Lakewood Church is inaccessible due to severe flooding. We want to help make sure you are safe. Please see the list below for safe shelters around our city, and please share this with those in need.”
When the statement was released, people were not satisfied with Osteen’s words and Twitter was in an uproar. Twitter users were saying things like, “Joel Osteen is not a real preacher,” or, “How is a man of God not going to help people during this storm?”
Mass communications professor, Dr. Braima at Southern University, had a few words when asked about what his first reaction was to this news.
“A man of God should have been the first in line to help the community under stress and he closed the door for so long until people started talking, it’s a shame.”
Many people made it evident that they felt the same way and also wondered how a church that seats more than 16,000 people couldn’t be open for the many victims that needed shelter.
A day later, Lakewood Church’s blog posted another statement after getting a lot of backlash. “We do not yet know all the ways we can help.” Osteen also took it upon himself to make a comment on his twitter account saying “We have never closed our doors. We will continue to be a distribution center for those in need.”
Later in the week, Lakewood eventually opened up their doors for people in need and released yet another statement on social media stating, “We are prepared to shelter people once the cities and county shelters reach capacity. Victoria and I care deeply about our fellow Houstonians. Lakewood’s doors are open and we are receiving anyone who needs shelter.”
Mass communications senior, Desmond Dickerson, expressed how he felt when asked how Osteen could’ve handled the situation differently. Dickerson stated, “If he has any misgivings about opening the church up he should’ve gone out to shelters, gotten supplies and sent them out to other shelters so they can get to the people in need.”
Even though the church is currently open to victims, Osteen still received backlash because people on social media were not buying his act.
Mass communications junior, Krista Tolbert, made a few comments when asked how does it make other big churches in Houston, Texas look.
“There’s three sides to every story and there are other big churches, but since he’s well known he should’ve done things differently.”
Entertainer Tyler Perry donated $250,000 to Osteen to contribute to the victims that are seeking shelter at Lakewood Church.
Lakewood is still housing those in need and that are homeless in Houston.