The Osteen Moment: Will You be Ready?

9 CommentsAtheist Tuesday, Think about it!

The Osteen Moment—Your Own Moment Will Come Soon Enough
By R. Albert Mohler Jr.

Joel Osteen found himself forced to answer a question that every Christian, every evangelist—and certainly every Christian leader—will be forced to answer. When that moment comes, and come it will, those who express confidence in the Bible’s teaching that homosexuality is a sin will find themselves facing the same shock and censure from the very same quarters.

Joel Osteen didn’t get where he is today by staking out controversial positions on biblical and moral issues. America’s prophet of Your Best Life Now built his reputation and his international following on an updated version of prosperity theology, laced with ample doses of pop psychology. The ever-smiling and effervescent pastor of America’s largest congregation has done his best to avoid association with doctrinal matters. More to the point — he has done his best to avoid talking about sin.

Osteen would rather offer platitudes about attitudes. “God wants you to be a winner, not a whiner,” he asserts. Talking in any detail about sin would be to insert negativity into his relentlessly upbeat message.

But now, Osteen finds himself in the midst of controversy. Click here to read the rest.

Comments (9)

  1. Garrett

    Reply

    This doesn’t have much to do with atheism at all.

    More like Bigot Tuesday. Eh? Eh?

  2. Steve Sanchez

    Reply

    Bigot? How so?

    You do understand that God also considers lying, stealing, adultery, etc. sin?

    You yourself, in another comment, acknowledged that I love gay people. So, what’s the deal? Are you surprised by this post?

  3. Ryan Shirtz

    Reply

    Garret why so judgemental? I mean did you just wake up this morning and got clued in on the Biblical stance on homosexuality for the first time in your life? and that it hasnt changed in the last 2700 or so years?

    you sound all shocked as if this is something new!

  4. Garrett

    Reply

    Correction: I said that’s what you would claim as an excuse.

    There are rationales behind the prohibition of lying, stealing and adultery. Allowing them diminishes the wellness of us all. There is no such rationale of homosexuality. Allowing two people of the same gender to enter a relationship does me, nor anyone else, any harm.

    I’m not surprised by the post. As years go on you’ll see a slow erosion of the homophobia in Christianity. Much like the misogyny, it’ll become less appealing and hurt your image.

    Take Mr. Miano’s recent post: a women being ordained is “debated” and he simply disagrees with it. Ranting against women in the priesthood is simply not going to happen. But homophobia is still, sadly, largely permissible in this country and thus Mr. Miano goes all-out against that aspect. It’s a good comparison. Had this been fifty years in the future, Tony would downplay the gay aspect.

    As much as you guys loathe to admit it: you soften God’s Word just like the “false converts.” You’re just slower to do it.

  5. Ryan Shirtz

    Reply

    Garrett im really surpised at you, since being an Atheist you have no grounds on which to define anything as being misogyny or homophobic, after all since God doesnt exist its only your opinion that these are evil, and for the recored Christians are not “homophobic” we have a value system that doesnt changed based on the unchanging word of God, Man is made in God’s image, and God made man male and female and they both shall leave their parents and become one flesh in the institution of Marrige , that is God’s design in a very brief theological way. The sin of homosexuality is the distortion and twisting of God’s design to suit ones base desires according to their own will not God’s will. The same goes for Adultery, fornication, beastality, rape, childmolesting ect, man exaulting his will over the Creaters will.

    Your atheist values never account for the cost imposed on society for such values, Abortion, Hiv, various other sexually trasminted diease’s the break down of familys from Adultry ect

    you also seem to forget the millions of deaths caused by Aids/Hiv and how this was trasnmited by homosexual men that had dozens or even hundreds of sexual partners causeing it to spread like a wild fire dosed with gasoline because in the nicest way to say it.. they acted worst then animals in unbridled sexual lust toward one another.

    But of course you demand freedom pretending God doesnt exist , but cant seem to accept the consequences of this freedom so you blame Christians for all of this rather then face the truth that these “freedoms” have a high cost in real lives.

  6. vintango2k

    Reply

    @ Ryan

    You’re blaming homosexuals for AIDS? While it might have been GRIDS in America, since 1981 in Africa an estimated 25 million men, women, and children have died of the disease and over 60 million are reported to be living with it. Two things could have prevented this, abstinence, which is a pipe dream, and condoms, which are practical. You might like to blame fornication or homosexuals for the spread of the disease but HIV is a STD, meaning its going to spread via sexual activity. The virus exploits mankind’s NEED to reproduce and continue the species and it doesn’t care if its done in or out of wedlock. Just like any form of STD its spread all over the place, the only reason why its singled out is because of its tenacity and its lethality. But rather than just lie down and assume that AIDS is God’s punishment, or the work of demons (as Christians thought syphillis was back in ye ole Dark Ages) science has been working on treatments and possible cures for this deadly disease and advocates condom use in order to curtail its spread unlike Christian organizations that have railed against condom use, even in AIDS stricken Africa where its not just the gays who are spreading the disease around.

  7. Garrett

    Reply

    Ryan, we’ve had exhaustive discussion establishing the grounds on which atheist derive their morals. You flat-out ignore or flee from our statements. Please drop the issue until you are willing to engage in an actual conversation as opposed to just speaking at us. Not to mention that there is no evidence for your moral foundation. Any of us can conjure up an imaginary figure and derive morals from it. Add some old documents and a generous helping of centuries, and we’re in business.

    You are homophobic. Homosexuality is considered evil by your faith. Do you not hate evil? Fear evil? Constantly work to make or keep their lives worse? Congratulations, you are a homophobe. I don’t see why you hate the title. God’ s a homophobe too, you know.

    I don’t care what any god has to say on it. Same goes for Yaweh. Until you provide sufficient evidence, I will continue to ignore their alleged rules.

    Actually, I do care about the cost to society, and thus judge things based on the impact to society versus the freedom to do what we want. Bestiality is simply rape against animals, and provides no greater benefit to society (unlike food and clothing). Child molestation (or any sexual assault) can be incredibly damaging to a person, which weakens us as a whole. I also don’t want to be raped or sexually assaulted myself, as does EVERYONE because rape by definition is being forced into intercourse you don’t want.

    HIV, along with other STDs, affect heterosexuals just as much as homosexuals. This is a personal risk one takes when engaging in intercourse, a risk we are lucky to be able to greatly minimize. But gays are reluctant to get tested for STDs because that could potential out them. Bigots like you put these people in the margins of society, where they are at a higher risk of disease. We could push for extensive sexual education, but you would rather hide all this information and leave gays in the dark entirely. Then you go and blame them for a situation you helped cause.

    Your false stereotype of gay men being filled with uncontrolled lust is a product of your fear-addled mind. Many homosexual men and women live in monogamous relationships. It’s, you know, kinda why they want to get married.

    It’s odd that you aren’t against heterosexuality as well. As Vin points out, it’s not gay people causing the AIDS epidemic in Africa. It’s heterosexuals.

  8. Hugo

    Reply

    [EDITED FOR CONTENT]

    Even though I agree with everything you said Garret, here’s a quick clarification:

    “HIV, along with other STDs, affect heterosexuals just as much as homosexuals.”

    That is not exactly correct.

    If you want a quick confirmation of this principle, you can look at the HIV page on Wikipedia where you see the % of transmission for various forms [of intimacy.]

  9. Hugo

    Reply

    Thanks for the editing; that’s why I had put a big ***WARNING*** in the post so that you would edit it if needed.

    I did notice that there are kids commenting on other treads after all, and I know some of you prefer them not to know too much about stuff.

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