A word about Lakewood Church;
Whatever is worked out should have been hashed-out years ago, unless you're telling me that local Democrat officials who run Houston learned absolutely nothing from Katrina and the Superdome debacle. That wouldn't surprise me at all. This is a smear campaign, which is SOP for liberals today. Just because Democrat politicians lavished money on themselves, squandered public funds and failed to prepare properly doesn't mean they get to confiscate private property.
Pastor Osteen has conducted his affairs with integrity. Have Houston's Democrat officials? Whatever monies he receives are given freely, unlike the tax dollars frivolously wasted by politicians. God wants for us to have money, not for money to have us.
The church has a long history of helping and sheltering thousands during floods and is doing so again. They are doing this because they want to, not because some braying internet mob of anti-Christian bigots told them to. Those haters think that other peoples' property, money and houses of worship are all Property of the State, even when the sun is shining and the sky is blue.
FoxNews: "Pastor Joel Osteen, known for his televised weekly sermons, said Tuesday the claims that he didn't want to help Harvey victims were "totally false."
Osteen opened his Lakewood Church in Houston to Harvey flooding evacuees on Tuesday, but the timing of his decision caused a social media backlash.
"You know, we work with the city all the time," Osteen said about the lead-up to the storm. “At that time the city was asking us to use city shelters, Harris county shelters and then when they got filled up that’s when we said, 'Hey, you need more room, Lakewood would love to help out.'"
On Monday, the 16,800-seat church posted on Facebook that its doors would remain shut "due to severe flooding." A series of social media posts, however, seemed to indicate that the church avoided flooding.
"You know, I didn’t pay much attention to it," Osteen said of the social media outcry. "I had staff tell me that there was this firestorm happening. But, we don’t run our lives about what happens on Twitter. I mean, many of those people, some of them possibly, don’t care for us, they’re in another state, they’re not in our shoes where, you know, you can’t necessarily open your building when it’s very close to flooding itself," Osteen said.
"And so, you know, I just don’t really…we’re set on our mission to help people, to love God and love others," he continued. "And so, I just feel like when you do what you’re called to do you’re always going to have critics but we just keep moving forward and helping people. We’ve been doing it for 60 years with my parents here and, so, that’s what Lakewood is all about."
Shelter in the state became dire by Tuesday afternoon with more than 17,000 people seeking refuge from floodwaters, the American Red Cross said. The George R. Brown Convention Center, which had been helping those in need, rapidly exceeded its capacity of 5,000 by Monday night as buses full of evacuees arrived.
"We were blessed to not have flooding here but we’re also very precautious about... before we put a bunch of people in here, let’s make sure that everything is safe," Osteen said.
The pastor also denied charges that he wasn’t looking to help, citing previous instances when the church provided hurricane relief. "Totally false," he said. "This is what we’re all about – helping other people.".......
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| Lord, Bless Your Lakewood Church...Amen! |
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