While I was on vacation last week, I saw a commercial on TV for OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network. The spot showed a clip from Oprah's forthcoming interview with Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, TX and perpetual punching bag for theological snobs like me. When Oprah asked questions in the clip regarding Osteen's wealth and preaching of the "prosperity gospel", I thought to myself, "OK, this is one Oprah interview I might actually watch."
So I made sure that I DVR'd the episode and I finally got around to watching it. While I was pleasantly surprised at some of his answers, I mostly heard what I expected.
I was shocked to hear that Osteen does not take a salary from his church. Osteen's income, according to him, comes from his book sales. While that does seem very admirable, Osteen's house (as shown in the interview) is baller. There was a huge grand piano behind him, he and Oprah were lounging on plush couches, and the houses in his neighborhood that you could see outside his window were anything but paltry in size. Osteen overtly does not apologize for his lifestyle, repeatedly referring to it as "a blessing". Well, it's a blessing for him, I guess; not so much for the kid in urban Houston who would do anything just to eat a grilled cheese sandwich tonight. I do think Jesus had something to say about a camel and a needle, as well as something in the Sermon on the Mount about the poor and blessings. Oh, and I think Paul may have had a lot to say about humility too. I can't remember exactly.
Also, I was intrigued by his approach towards ultimate salvation in other faiths. Upon Oprah asking him if Jesus is the only way to heaven (citing John 14:6), Osteen replied that people of different faiths may see Jesus in different ways. It was not the hard-line fundamentalist stance of exclusivism that I expected. While Osteen seemed to beat around the question for a while before he got to that answer, and though it is not the answer I would have given myself, it seems that Osteen may in fact have a brain and think through theological issues rationally (overturning some of my preconceived notions about him).
In my final point about surprises, Osteen seems very much on guard against the slickness of his televangelist predecessors. He is upfront about it in the interview. He knows the tradition in which he stands (seems strange to use "tradition" in a sentence about Osteen). He knows the stories of all of the Jim Bakkers that have gone before him. He desires to be authentic and true to his people. Props to him there. In fact, he may be trying to hard. In his benedictions he will throw in a few "ya'lls" and in his interview he almost seems to go out of his way to utter "Gosh, Oprah" and bashfully avert his gaze for someone who is a dynamic public speaker (ask any speech professional and they will tell you that, despite his theology, Osteen is a master at public speaking). But it is not my place to ultimately say whether or not he is genuine. That is between him, his congregation, and God.
All of this said, my ultimate beef with Osteen is in his general theological approach. Osteen is less a preacher of the Word of God than he is a self-help guru. His sermons are all about the individual and how one can better oneself. While there is a place for this in preaching, the ultimate crux of Christian theology is the Good News about God, not us. Intrinsic to any good theology is the basic notion that we humans are made in the image of God, yet there is, in the words of Karl Barth, an "infinite qualitative distinction" between us and God. In short, there is sin. Furthermore, we are encouraged in our struggle for holiness, not by our bootstraps, but by the community of faith. For a guy who is the pastor of the largest church in the US, he seems to have no ecclesiology (doctrine of the church). In the sermons of his that I have heard, Lakewood is approached as a collection of individuals rather than a community of those called out to bear with one another and serve in God's mission as the Body of Christ. Although it doesn't come through well in our translations (sadly), most of the exhortations in the Bible are in the second-person plural. In other words, Osteen might be best served to remember the deeper communal significance of one of his favorite words: "y'all".
Click here to see a clip from the interview.
