Andrew Schwab & Joel Osteen

Andrew Schwab has a blog on relevantmagazine.com and he recently updated it with his experience reading Joel Osteen’s latest book. I was a bit surprised he had bought it to begin with, but I do not pretend to be an authority on either man. I do have to say I was happy to see his reaction was that of shock and horror, and loaded with his unique brand of honesty wrapped in a heavy dose of sarcasm. Yet as he does there was a point where he laid all that aside and offered his sincere thoughts:

"What we really want and what we really need are sometimes two very different things. Be cautious when someone promises that faith is a means to a better life. They may be subtly trying to give you a message that may make you feel better, while neglecting what you truly need…to be broken and molded into a devoted servant, not a well-adjusted overachiever."

He wrote alot more than that, but in the end that best summarizes what he thought. I wanted to comment on it because for a while I've heard about Joel Osteen and this thing called Prosperity Preaching. I saw his interviews with Barbara Walters & Larry King and thought to myself Who is this Kook?

I'll tell you exactly why I thought he was a kook. As I understand it he does not have a cross or other "religious" type glass work or paintings in his church as they might be offensive to some people. You know I actually don't take issue with the fact that his newly remodeled multimillion dollar church might not feature traditional religious symbols. I DO think not having a cross is suspect, but a modern building might aesthetically allow for other mindful expressions of peace and harmony so I have to allow for some degree of openness, but the fact that these symbols were purposefully omitted because they might be offend people is offensive to my sense of what Christianity is all about.

After all what is it that we're really talking about here?

How is Jesus dying on the cross offensive to Christians? He knowingly died for our sin's. It was a beautiful gift! Don't get me wrong it was a horrible undertaking- the actual events that took place leading up to his death- were I can only imagine nothing less than horrific! Any believer who has not seen "The Passion Of The Christ" really does need to see it and from that movie alone you'll get a sense for what Jesus went through for us all. It's tragic and it's beautiful all at the same time and if anyone doesn't get that I'm sorry I do have to question it!

I wanted to send the actual quote to Andrew, but when I searched Wikipedia where I had previously shown a friend the text (she had just recently discovered him and wanted to know more) the offensive cross reference turned her off just as much as it did me and she is Protestant while I am Catholic so I don't think it's a denominational issue I think it's a Christian issue. When I logged onto Wikipedia this time I saw that Joel Osteen's page had been revised and all the criticisms had been stripped away- which kinda shocked me a little. I wondered why and how it became all positive and seemed very promotional in some respects. So I did a Google search and found two kinds of links. Some that were totally positive and seemed again to be promotional in nature and others that were filled with HATE! There was no in between, it was very polarized and I wondered what that meant.

Needless to say I couldn't find the quote....only references to the quote regarding the cross as offensive. I watched some interview clips as well and Joel seemed very likable and very joyous- almost like a stepford wife type of likability. What I did find interesting is that when an interviewer would press him to judge he skirted around judging people claiming that he didn't know if Mormons or Muslims wouldn't be allowed in heaven and I think that statement might be what has set people on fire- which I can understand although I don't think his statement was that off the mark. The fact of the matter is Joel Osteen doesn't know- only God knows who he'll allow into Heaven. We should not presuppose to know God. We should strive to be in relationship with him, but do we know him really? He knows us that's for sure, but do we know him? We know of him through bible readings and we get a sense of him through his miracles and through his son, Jesus. We know he is all powerful and all loving, but I think it's foolish to assume we know that he will deny one man and accept another based on our very limited understanding of God and our very rudimentary intellects.

So here I am thinking this man, Joel Osteen, is a kook and yet he has some interesting qualities. I find a world wide web that is polarized- he is either HATED or LOVED or well promoted at the very least. I find that a trusted source for me- Andrew Schwab is wary of his message and I am in no hurry to learn more about him yet I can't say he is wrong in what I do know, which brings me back to the question:

What is it that we're really talking about here?

This is the main reason why I have reservations about other Christians and other denominations. This is why I am being very careful in my walk. I spent a great deal of time away from God due to the ways of churches and religions and if I learned anything from this brief exploration into the subject of Joel Osteen I've learned that maybe Andrew Schwab is right to be wary and I am right to be careful. Something is amidst here, even if I don't know what it is.