The Requisite Osteen Post

You can watch the "60 Minutes" feature on Joel Osteen here, as I did.

It's fairly bland. Nothing revelatory.
Except for the interviewer, Byron Pitts, asking some really, really great questions. He asks why no Jesus in the book. He asks if he's more like Dr. Phil than a pastor. This is stuff most interviewers would not have the context from which to wonder about.

There's some stuff from Michael Horton (whose books are in my recommended reading sidebar, fyi) that's pretty good. He pretty much calls Osteen's teaching "heresy."

Okay.

The Internet Monk has the best barnstorming post on the interview. Read it.

Osteen, by his own admission, says he doesn't talk about sin. He doesn't talk about the cross. Jesus shows up at the end of his messages, for what reason I don't know, because he seems incidental or unnecessary during the message itself.

Sin and the cross are necessary components of the Gospel. Excise them and you've got no gospel. No gospel in your teaching means you're teaching something else. Right?

"I mean, there's a lot better people qualified to say, 'Here's a book that's going to explain the scriptures to you.' I don't think that's my gifting," Osteen says.

These facts don't mean Joel Osteen is not a Christian. But they do mean he is not really a Christian pastor and has no business teaching a church. A Unitarian Universalist church, maybe. A life-coaching seminar, a self-help conference sure.

It is a dangerous business, preaching. Eternal destinies hang in Osteen's call of "God wants you to have that promotion at work."

Osteen's biggest sin in the interview? Tucking his T-shirt into his basketball shorts in the driveway hoops-shooting scene. What a nerd.
Pitts should be ashamed he got schooled by Howdy Doody. :-)

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