Pastor Joel Osteen is, in the words of (fake) fashion icon Mugatu (played by Will Ferrell in Zoolander), “so hot right now.” The 46-year-old pastor heads America’s largest church, the Houston-based Lakewood Church, with 43,000 people in attendance per week. His 2004 book, Your Best Life Now, was a New York Times bestseller, as was his 2007 Become a Better You. He is hugely popular and hugely influential. Many people at the church where I work read his books, watch his shows, and listen to his sermons. He’s a really likable guy.
Steven Waldman, the founder and editor of Beliefnet.com, the Internet’s “largest faith and spirituality website,” recently interviewed the always-perfectly-coiffed Osteen, providing the good people of Mockingbird a lot of food for thought. (The article appeared in The Wall Street Journal.)
Here are two noteworthy statements by Osteen:
“I believe that when you think of the negative, and you get up discouraged — there’s nothing good in my future — I really believe it almost ties the hands of God. God works where there’s an attitude of faith. I believe faith is all about hope.”
“I believe God’s keeping the records, and I believe you will be rewarded even in this life. Somehow, some way, God will make it up to you. It may be He protected you from an accident you never knew. You can’t give God something without God giving you more in return, whether it’s peace or joy or satisfaction.”
How should we respond? I’ll keep it short and simple. Osteen’s articulation of Christianity is conditional: Think good thoughts, and good things will happen to you. Think bad thoughts, and bad things will happen to you. You pull the lever, God gives the prize.
The problem with this is twofold. First, this conditional relationship implies that the level of your faith determines God’s ability to act in your life. The idea that my mental state could, as Osteen says, “tie God’s hands” is alarming. I don’t want that much power.
Second, this brand of conditional Christianity gives people an impossible task. Just stay positive? What about the very real bondage many people are in? The human condition, described in the Bible, is that “no one seeks God”—rather, we are bound to seek our selves, our own good. To tell bound people, people enslaved to compulsive self-destructive behavior, to just change their thinking is dead-on-arrival.
In the Bible, God is seen as a Savior—someone who rescues people when they are at their worst, not when they are thinking positive thoughts. St. Paul met Jesus while he was still “breathing out murderous threats” against Christians. In Acts 27:20, St. Paul and St. Luke “abandoned all hope of being saved” in a storm at sea, before Paul comes to his senses and affirms God’s presence with him. In Matthew 26, Peter denied Jesus three times, just as Jesus went to the cross to save him (and everyone else). In the Old Testament, God chooses Israel not because of their greatness and strength, but because of their smallness and weakness.
So if you have control of your mental outlook, and if you are able to always do the right thing, Osteen’s views may suffice. However, if you are frustrated, tired, unable to do the thing you ought to do, I suggest you look to Jesus.
COMMENTS
16 responses to “Joel Osteen: Great Smile, Crushing Theology”
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Joel is so popular because:
a.) He is a nice guy
b.) he presents a semblance of control and mastery over life that initially appeals to sufferers. If I am in mid-life, with a couple children and struggling with typical problems like marriage issues, financial problems, depression, purposelessness, rebellious and hyperactive children etc… The message that God will help you out if you do your part is appealing and it might actually work for a little while. But it is doomed to failure.
My question is this: of the 43,000 people that go to his church, how many of them will have a tragedy or a deep struggle with personal failure in the next year that will cause them to leave the church? The dirty little secret of his church (I don’t know this for a fact) is that thousands leave every year-who are replaced however-because his message does not get them through real life. It does get you through the la la land of suburbanites in the spring time of life though.
P.S. Check out this link.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu9k60-GgVk
I am not endorsing this man’s actions at all, they are very ungraceful to say the least, but I did think it was funny
The reason Osteen is so popular is simple…he appeals to the Gnostic in us with his references to the “unlocking the God seeds in all of us”, while at the same time appealing to the our Pelagian side witht his “name it, claim it – but only if you think good thoughts”.
My favorite Osteenism is something he said at the outset of the economic crisis: “People are like palm trees, we all have a bending point”. I don’t even know what that means!!!!
Great stuff, Aaron.
Jeff
I love the Zoolander reference.
One time a co-worker of mine was telling me she was a huge fan of this guy. (She read several of his books) And we starting talking about him and I found out she had no idea he was a Christian. (And I found out she was not either, which also surprised me)
After that conversation, he really went to zero in my book.
Zoolander: All-time best movie about male models ever.
what a lovely mugatu pic
Aaron, I am surprised you did not make a point about Osteen’s second quote in that post: “God is keeping records.”
He says this as if it’s a good thing! We know from scripture that God does keep records, and each of our records (apart from the imputation of Christ) is sufficient to damn us to punishment! Clearly a major issue of Osteen’s (and he has many) is this horribly shallow understanding of sin (aka, a HIGH anthropology).
In response to your question: I heard a guy yesterday say that one of the appeals of Osteen is that his messages are extremely “practical.” That is, he is always giving everyday, real-life examples of how his teaching applies. People who think most preaching doesn’t apply to “real life” love this about Osteen. “Finally a preacher who tells me things I can use at the office, or with my family!”
A few months ago, I was talking to a family member of mine who likes Osteen. I pointed out to them that his theology is terrible and that, as a result, he is not only telling his listeners lies, he is doing harm to them as a result. This person responded that it wasn’t fair to be so critical of Osteen because at least he was giving people hope, and that’s what most people need in this broken world. My response to that type of thinking is, do you know what Paul says about people who have false hope? They are to be pitied above all men.
Oh, and this doesn’t follow from what I just said, but I wanted to stick in here: Osteen’s worldview and his theology are INCREDIBLY anthropocentric. Just look at the titles of his books! He has reduced God to the level of a genie who does our bidding!
One more word: For a thorough, insightful critique of Osteen, check out the White Horse Inn broadcast from 1/19/08 entitled “Joel Osteen: A Case Study in American Religion”.
Colton–you’re right, I didn’t hit on that “God the accountant” bit specifically, but that’s what I meant when I said that Osteen’s understanding of Christianity is totally conditional. Quid pro quo. What’s amazing to me is that he doesn’t just say “do good things so you get good things.” He says “*think* good things to get good things.” It’s like some mind control or something. It’s the opposite of the NT, where Jesus has no illusions about people’s inability to control even their minds.
Yep, you are right Aaron. I could easily go on and on about Osteen, but I think (hope) we all understand the myriad and crucial ways in which he is way, way off point.
I think Joel simply suffers from the same thing that most of us do…we choose to look at the Scriptures a certain way, pick and choose that which supports our theology, and dismiss or reinterpret the rest. Let’s be honest about the fact that there are points along the way where we perform some linguistic gymnastics to get a point across–we skip a verse in the lectionary because it appears to clash with our big picture…perhaps we wasted time/money studying Greek and/or Hebrew. Am I alone here?!?!
I spent my college years in a futile attempt to prove to my Arminian ‘friends’ the biblical nature of the TULIP, but it was not without some creative exegesis…especially when it came to the atonement. Even John Owen’s ‘Death of Death in the Death of Christ’ couldn’t make those other verses go away.
Perhaps Osteen is a warning to us as well? Some of you TESM folks will recall Rod Whitacre’s famous ‘describe shapes inside the classroom…now look out the window’ lecture; the idea was that humans tend to build things with straight lines but God works and speaks asymmetrically.
It seems that Osteen likes to build within the confines of ‘positive thinking’ in a world that has simple solutions to complex problems. As Aaron noted, the solution to the crisis typically lies within the grasp of our [fallen] will. The real crisis is that while we all wrestle with imperfect preaching, he tends to obscure the cross with the self rather than the other way around.
I like what Cliff said about things that are half true being doubly false. I think half truths are easier to swallow than whole truths. For example, the half truth “we are far away from God but if we choose to open the door, he will always come in” is easier to swallow then “God decides which door he is going to knock on _and_ he decides who is actually ready to open it.” People like Osteen because he makes people feel like they have ownership over their salvation and their destinies, and who wouldn’t want to feel like they are co-authors with God on the story of their lives? (except those of us who know we are terrible writers.)
First of all, kudos on the Hansel-Osteen connection. I am So inspired right now to make a youtube video of Osteen interviews with zoolander dubs overtop. It might take me a while though.
But to the point, I think the reason he doesn’t just say that if your good, then good things will happen to you, is because he doesn’t believe that anymore than we do. He honestly believes that his positive thinking mantras are in accordance with Scripture, not idealism. Unless he’s a terrible liar and a wonderful actor, he’s fooling himself just as muching as everyone else.
I think that misguided men are often much more damaging that evil men. At some point, the followers of a truly evil man will either leave him or admit to themselves who and what they are actually following. But a nice, misguided man who really does believe his own lies is much more dangerous.
He is someone who deeply disturbs me because often times when I read his quotes, they don’t strike at me right away as wrong. They sound like they could be right. And I have to really look closely and think about what he really said to see that there’s something wrong with it. This to me is frightening.
great thoughts, Rachel! So happy to “see” you on here!
This theology lets us control God, by making God’s love and blessing to us dependent on our own actions.
It’s easy to understand.
It’s how the world already works.
It’s not challenging.
And it has the appearance of being pretty “hopeful”…because if we just try a little we can surely redeem ourselves, right? Cause we’re not that bad after all, right?
Sigh.
– Caroline Dixon
I just love this website.
His smile is so forced looking. I feel like he’s about to lash out and go on a shooting spree. He actually creeps me out. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be one of his parishioners and be going through a divorce, struggling with alcoholism or depression, etc. What does he say then?! And what is his biblical foundation for these axioms?
… He seems so totally skeevy to me!