Many evangelicals consider Pastor Joel Osteen to be a modern-day Billy Graham. Like Graham, Osteen is incredibly popular. He heads the Lakewood Church, the world’s largest megachurch, and is the author of the bestselling power-of-positive-thinking-esque “Your Best Life Now” book series. And like Graham, Osteen tends to focus on positive messages rather than on GOP ideology disguised as theology — particularly the hatred and fear of gay people — that has become an endemic trait of today’s Christian church.
Last week, however, Osteen’s brother-in-law and rival, Rev. Gary Simons, who is head of his own megachurch, the High Point Church in Arlington, Texas, made national news when he abruptly canceled the funeral of a Gulf War veteran after he discovered that the vet was gay:
“We did decline to host the service – not based on hatred, not based on discrimination, but based on principle,” Simons told The Associated Press. “Had we known it on the day they first spoke about it – yes, we would have declined then. It’s not that we didn’t love the family.”
[And...]
“Even though we could not condone that lifestyle, we went above and beyond for the family through many acts of love and kindness,” Simons said.
How did Simons show “love and kindness” to the family of the deceased? By equating their loved one with a murderer:
The pastor said that he could imagine a similar situation involving a different sin. Perhaps a mother who is a member of the church loses a son who is a thief or murderer, Mr. Simons said. The church would surely volunteer to hold a service, he said.
“But I don’t think the mother would submit photos of her son murdering someone,” he said. “That’s a red light going off.”
And then, having proved he is totally unprincipled, at least as it comes to Jesus’ message of love and inclusiveness especially for society’s outcasts, Simons sums up: “Can you hold the event and condone the sin and compromise our principles? We can’t.”
What about the sins of hatred and bigotry, Gary?
The Lakewood Church was founded by John Osteen, the late father of Joel and Gary Simon’s wife, April. According to this unverified account, after the senior Osteen died in 1999, Simons, who was then Lakewood’s youth minister, assumed he would become the next leader of the church, but was passed over in favor of Joel, who had spent 17 years producing the television broadcast of his father’s sermons but who had no experience on stage.
The unverified source says that upon Joel’s ascension, Simons “threw a temper tantrum” and left Lakewood to form the High Point Church, which the source says grew very quickly with funding that was obtained under mysterious circumstances.
Whatever the true story is, eight years after leaving Lakewood, Gary Simons is finally getting the sort of national attention he craves. Unfortunately, unlike his much more famous brother-in-law, he’s more likely to be compared to the late-hater Jerry Falwell than the sainted Billy Graham.
Update: Trish has been pointed out that I appear to be laying responsibility for Simons’ bigotry at Osteen’s feet. Duly noted that Osteen was not responsible whatsoever for the decision to cancel the funeral. I think there is a WWJD question here, however, for Osteen and all evangelicals. Would Jesus condone holding a funeral for a Christian gay man? If the answer is yes, then how can a Christian church refuse to do it?
Megachurch Preacher Who Cancelled Gay Vet’s Funeral Is In-Law of Top Evangelist Joel Osteen…
Many Christians see Rev. Joel Osteen as the new Billy Graham because of his positive message and avoidance of GOP ideology, especially its doctrine of hatred and fear of gays. Last week, Gary Simons, Osteen’s brother-in-law and rival made news when he…
This Mega Church is a MEGA Homophobic church anyway. You gotta wonder why a family would even Think of even letting this place and these hypocrits do the honors of saying a burial service for their son.
Something is fishy here.
Jesus hates blockheads and phonies. I wonder if he hates Nazis as well.
fucking scumbags!
Plastic people, taking advantage of superstitious idiots…those smiles say it all.
Could there be a worse thing for a family who has lost a loved one to bush’s horrendous war than to face this type of discrimination? Yes, the fact that things like this continue unabated all across the country.
ALL organized religions who preach this type of hatred should immediately lose their tax-free status. Hypocricy is rampant in many of these religions, as it is in the cheney/bush administration.
What is interesting about many of these megachurch pastors is that they have no theological training whatsoever and rarely even know how to properly read and understand the bible…they especially have no understanding of the truly radical inclusivity that was the core of Jesus’ message….
The gospel message is full of how Jesus sought out those folks who were marginalized by society and welcomed them into his presence….
The dubious few lines that these so-called Christians quote to condemn gay people were NOT spoken by Jesus!
But then a recent poll showed that only a small percentage of evangelicals can even identify the 4 gospels that speak of the life and teachings of Jesus…or realize that the gospels are different from the letters of Paul who DID NOT speak for Jesus….
Darwin was wrong…man is still an animal.
Nice beard on the gay basher. For homophobic cowards they sure look like a couple of dandies. Who is he modeling his beard after? John Waters. HAHAHA!
Anyone who is willing to spend the time to turn out such a meticulous goatee kinda scares me anyway. I have tried to grow and maintain some rather severe beard styles and lemme tellya, what he’s got going there is hard as hell to get and keep shaped and clean. The amount of work he puts into such an affectation screams control freak to me.
Is there some way we can make smirking illegal? And impeachable?
Lord Jesus,
We ask that You throw Gary Simons into the Lake of Fire to be Burned Alive for Eternity. Lord be our guard against both gloating and pity. We ask this not out of hatred but Love, for your Divine Will. AMEN. GLORY TO GOD.
Why anyone buys into this religion thing to begin with amazes me.despite the fact that they tell people they are working for god the truth of the matter is that they are working to improve their bottom line just like a big multinational corporation.Just take a look at this Osteen guy,he’s perfect,skin,teeth,hair,makeup etc.This guy’s face screams i’m vain as hell and i want to be rich no matter what kind of lies i tell.if i’m not mistaken isn’t his message “God wants you to be rich”.Now if that isn’t hypocrisy i don’t know what is.They all suck.
A modern-day Billy Graham? More like a modern day Jim Bakker or Elmer Gantry. WWJD? Throw him out of the temple, I’d say.
Oh, by the way, Gary loves the cock.
They used to call Britain a “nation of shopkeepers.” The US is a nation of salesmen. Megachurch preachers are in the same league as the sleazier elements in car sales or real estate or get-rich-scheme infomercials. A substandard education system helps them out by making sure the US is also a nation of gullible consumers with no critical thinking faculties and a strong desire to be sold immortality.
Ever see the movie “Devil’s Advocate” with Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino?
These people in the pictures above look EXACTLY like the characters in the movie.
I believe the movie is all about this church.
Watch it.
Jesus said whosever will, let him/her come to Him, not whosoever managed to get ’straightened’ out by these mega-ministries. Jesus said for us to allow the wheat and the tares to grow up together, and, at the time of His harvest, He’d gather in the swell of the field to thresh the harvest. Jesus has already set aside a time when He will separate the wheat from the chaff. These people are not GOD, and need to leave judging the world to that HIGHEST authority.
This man gave his life for these very self-righteous sanctimonious ingrates who despise his sexuality more than they appreciate his service to the Nation. I’ll bet these pastors never once hesitated to take this gay man’s offerings and tithes. Yet, because he chose to be open and honest about his sexuality, these sanctimonious hypocrites would withold their hands of compassion from providing this soldier’s family with the comfort of a dignified Christian service. If Jesus had taken this attitude, the woman at the well would have died of thirst, and no one would have been saved on earth. As they think about this gay soldier, so is all humanity in the eyes of the Lord, Who gave His Life to save us ALL, not just these European heterosexual mega-church attendees.
That this soldier loved America enough to give his very life serving this country should have been justification enough for us to honor him with dignity for his patriotism. Furthermore, regardless of his confessed sexuality, this soldier professed a faith in Christ. Jesus will judge him and reward him for that faith the same way he rewarded the Roman Centurion for his faithe that Jesus could heal his servant. We should honor this soldier for his service. No greater love has anyone than to GIVE HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS! Yet, because of this man’s sexuality, this mega-church denied him an honorable burial.
As a straight left-winged progressive Christian, I find this atrocity to be deplorable. And, these people wonder why the world hates the church. Well, the Church has done anything but do the work of Christ in the world of Christ’s creation, particularly these very prejudiced mega-ministries whose weapon of choice is the obscene misinterpretation of the Bible to justify their malicious bigotry and disdain for everything in life outside of the realm of their explanation or control. Jesus, much like His Ancestor and the author of Ecclesiastes, maintain that we should all live our own lives freely, knowing that in the end, THE LORD WILL JUDGE US ALL!
These mega-ministries are going to be really pissed in the end to learn that the Lord never knew them. They’re going to be utterly shocked at the people whom the Lord really knew, however. People possibly like this gay man whom they have denied the dignity of an honorable burial, and whose bereaved family these idiots could not comfort during their mourning.
If evolution was true then why do these people(Osteen & Co) still exist?
What’s that pinging sound? Oh, it’s my gaydar.
Jesus came and gave His life for everyone without discrimination. Jesus was kind and compassionate to humanity by example. Jesus did not want us to be so afraid and suspicious of each other that we were unable to show one another love. Offering to comfort this family during a time of mourning was not granting approval or sanction to the soldier’s homosexuality. Honoring a soldier who died in battle with a church funeral has nothing to do with supporting any particular sexual orientation. This poor man died in uniform in combat on foreign soil in a war these same hypocrites swear America needs to beat back the satanic jihad. The very least these freaks could offer this American family between flag-waving choruses of GOD BLESS AMERICA is the actual blessing of comfort for mourning. WHAT JERKS!
Joel Osteen has a positive message
and he is a great speaker. He had
nothing to do with this incident, but you are trying to associate him with it as much as possible. Why?
I have brother-in-laws that might
do bad things. What does that have to do with me?
Seems like this is more about hating Christian preachers than
homophobia. And that is the real story here.
It’s such a shame that this sort of hatred and homophobia still exists…as a “pastor” he SHOULD be setting an example of what a “true” christian is.
“Fundamentalist Christianity has become a farce in the U.S. Far too many people use religion to back thier hatred and bigotry of anything, and anyone, not like themselves.There are still “true Christians”, but they are by far the minority anymore.
I live in the “Bible Belt”, and see bigotry of this type everyday,perpetrated by people who truly believe that they have Gods blessing to not only hate, but determine who God hates, as well.as for the whole concept of mega-churches, in my opinion, they’re nothing but get rich quick schemes, perpetrated by greedy people who have no concept of real Christianity.The bigger the “church” the more money it can rake in.I’m real sure Jesus would have worn the tailoered Italian suits, and Rolex’s that these “pastors” wear, and would have built multi-million dollar buildings, rather than give that money to make sure the poor are fed, and sheltered.
For these same people to judge a soldier who lost his life in war, simply because he was gay is one of the least christian things I’ve ever heard.I would love to be a fly on the wall when it’s thier turn to be judged,by the only one qualified to judge them-thier God.
Sadly, there are far too many people calling themselves “Christian” who support attacking a sovereign nation, torturing suspects, and demonizing anyone who is not a memember of their particular belief system.
It makes me wonder who got to the people who originally said they’d do the service to have them cancel it.
Not at all Frank Franks.Doe you not see Mr. Osteen’s hypocrisy?My gosh,if not then you need some waking up fella.I’m not a religous person by any stretch and would never want to be.That said i’m quite certain that there is nowhere in the bible that say’s god wants you to be rich,in fact quite the opposite.These guys prey on your ignorance and gullibility and are doing a fine job i might add.