Nothing like a little shaming on the Internet to create a change of heart.
In recent days, megachurch Pastor Joel Osteen faced serious criticism for not opening his famed 16-thousand seat Lakewood Church facility in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Trouble for Osteen began on Sunday when church officials said on social media that it was "inaccessible due to severe flooding!"
That’s when locals began posting photos online showing that the area around the church was wet, but passable. Hoping to quell the growing firestorm, Osteen then released a statement Monday sayingLakewood would “house people once shelters reach capacity." The chorus of anger on social media only raged louder.
Now, the church is maintaining that their door were "never" closed – and Osteen himself is taking to ABC’s “Good Morning America” this morning to attempt to explain himself – after hitting the airwaves locally yesterday to proclaim that Lakewood is “now open.”
NOTE: Joel tweeted prayers early, but did not offer shelter. Also he tweeted asking people to donate, but the link went to his own charity , NOT the Houston relief charities.
note: the pics in this video of flooding a LAKEWOOD are presumed to be from 2001
JOEL OSTEEN tweeted that his 16-thousand seat Lakewood Church was “inaccessible due to severe flooding” – until locals took to the Internet with pictures showing otherwise.
In subsequent days, Osteen said the church would open when other shelters reached capacity…and then he claimed that the church had never been closed at all. That’s why it wasn’t really surprising to see him hit the media circuit yesterday with a variety of interviews proclaiming that he wasn’t a bad guy at all – that the misunderstand was all about social media perception.
Even so, he admitted that the church wasn’t open at first…and he had a reason for that. “If people were here, they’d realize there were safety issues,” Osteen explained. “We were just being precautious, but the main thing is the city didn’t ask us to become a shelter then.”
HERES THE VIDEO from regular people who went to see if the LAKEWOOD CHURCH was really too flooded to accept people in need of shelter