Joel Osteen is the man up front at Houston's Lakewood Church, preaching to an audience of tens of thousands in person, and in the millions digitally. Osteen's "prosperity gospel" ties together elements from Christianity and any run-of-the-mill multi-level marketing scheme. Unlike the average MLM, however, the products Osteen sells are positive thinking, the hope of the blessing of wealth from God, and his own celebrity. In fact, Osteen's fame is such that he's made much more money through book deals and outside appearances than he has within the walls of his church. However, many Christians don't see a lot of Christ in Osteen, and have even compared his philosophy to something decidedly unchristian. Here's why Joel Osteen's teachings have been compared to atheism.
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00:00The highly controversial megachurch pastor Joel Osteen preaches what has come to be known
00:04as the Prosperity Gospel. The main tenet to the Prosperity Gospel is to ignore the Bible's
00:09specific warnings about how riches and salvation don't mix. Instead, you just pray for God's
00:13favor and he'll make you rich.
00:15Despite this ethos being counted among The Washington Post's worst ideas of the first
00:19decade of the 21st century, Osteen's popularity and wealth have only grown ever since he took
00:24over as head pastor of Houston's Lakewood Church in 1999. Attendance at the church has
00:28increased fivefold under his leadership, adding up to a whopping 52,000 people each
00:33week in 2016, making it the most mega megachurch in the country.
00:37Osteen's online reach has grown as well. He preaches to millions over the internet and
00:41beat a personal best for viewership in March 2020, when he tallied around 4.63 million
00:46online churchgoers. While the pastor's signature cocktail of Christianity and positive thinking
00:51is undoubtedly making an impression on more and more people across the globe, others aren't
00:55so easily wooed, including many Christians. His prosperity has been called phony and heretical,
01:01and some have even compared it to, of all things, atheism.
01:12But how does that work? Well, like any growing branch of a well-established religion, Osteen's
01:16Prosperity Gospel has its detractors among others of the same faith. Christian speaker
01:21Matt Walsh is one such believer. He raked Osteen over the coals in a vitriolic op-ed
01:25for the conservative website The Blaze. Accusing Osteen of preaching a milk-toast self-help
01:30Christianity, Walsh noted the conspicuous absence of the words Jesus Christ in the messages
01:34Osteen broadcasts over his media empire, even went so far as to say that the megachurch
01:38pastor's brand of religion is actually worse for people than atheism. Walsh said,
01:43"...an atheist is easier to save than a heretic. Put another way, it's better for someone to
01:47reject Christ than to make up their own version of him."
01:50If Walsh's criticisms sound a little harsh, he can at least point to Scripture to back
01:54up his opinion. The writer of the Bible's fiery disaster movie ending The Book of Revelation
01:58wrote,
01:59"...I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or
02:02the other. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of
02:07my mouth."
02:08While Walsh does have a point, however, he ignores the glaring irony of his own situation.
02:13Just 500 years ago, his particular brand of Christianity was also considered a heretical
02:17misinterpretation of God's teachings.
02:19Over the years, Joel Osteen has been very successful at convincing people that God wants
02:23him, and especially him, to be very rich. In fact, Osteen has used religion to enrich
02:28himself so considerably that some have even accused him of hoarding a massive fortune.
02:32Indeed, he's just one of many wealthy people who become the targets of the have-nots.
02:36But the one big difference between Osteen and all those other industry magnates is that
02:40Osteen's business charter literally says men shouldn't seek out worldly wealth. Still,
02:45Osteen has found a number of clever workarounds to Scripture, such as the passage that claims,
02:49A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Or the suggestion that,
02:54It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to
02:57enter the kingdom of God.
02:59So just how profitably has God's favor anointed Joel Osteen's earthly existence? According
03:04to Celebrity Net Worth, the Christian motivational speaker's prosperity gospel has earned him
03:08a whopping $100 million fortune. However, the majority of that estate has come from
03:12sales of his books and the fees he earns from speaking at non-Lakewood church events. In
03:16fact, he hasn't taken a salary from the church since 2005.