Joel Osteen: Homosexuality, No Pork, and Influence

Joel Osteen is often noted among some evangelicals for being soft on sin and high on fluff (some have said health and wealth) in his sermons. Sometimes even I have mentioned him on somewhat of a negative tone and honestly will try hard not to do that again.
photo © 2007 Cliff | more info (via: Wylio)


Say what we want, Osteen is pastor of the largest church in America. According to his churches website, Lakewood church meets since 2005 in a $95 million dollar renovated arena formerly known as the Compaq center, it seats 16,000. His weekly attendance is over 38,000 along with being seen on television by some 7 million each week and some 20 million each month. Again, this was all taken from their website. Clearly for some time now Osteen continues to have a very strong following and therefore influence on...well...millions.

Yet an interview by CNN's Pierce Morgan who recently took over for the famous and iconic Larry King. Joel Osteen seems to shock even Pierce Morgan in calling 'homosexuality' sin! Now how's that for not speaking fluff! The full interview comes out tomorrow January 26th according to CNN.

In all honesty I actually thing he did fairly well in answering the often asked question to famous preachers about 'homosexuality.' Check out his response below! (Click HERE if you get this via RSS/email)



You may also recall that a few years ago Joel Osteen also stated that he follows the Old Testament dietary laws. He doesn't eat pork! Hey perhaps he's not to far from being a Seventh-day Adventist after all:-) Watch that clip below!



All joking aside. Obviously I don't agree with everything Joel Osteen says, but I certainly can agree, overall, with his biblical stance, yes biblical stance that speaks against the practice of living a homosexual lifestyle and eating 'unclean' foods.

 I bring all this out here at the blog, because this man influences millions of people in one way or another. He will be accountable before God for how he has influenced those people, and you know what I tend to believe that he fully understands that. Nonetheless, I am no one to judge. Yet what about you and me? We too everyday are influencing those around us in some way, wether we believe it or not. We may not have the audience of a Joel Osteen but we do have an audience. Our family, friends, neighbors, and those we work or go to school with.

The question then is not if we are influencing someone, but what kind of influence are we being to others? Are our lives preaching Christian fluff or is it showing that we stand for something? Seems like Osteen stood for something...

Javi