My Social Media-less Life

I might be lying if I said I never post in an emotional state, but this one feels like a “breach of protocol” in a way because my ire isn’t specifically directed at myself. Someone else is involved in the emotions. So I will try not to lay blame or do anything like name-call (though I’m usually very reticent to do that anyway), but this is a warning… if this post sounds a little heated, it’s mostly just passion. 😉

In April of 2020, the Lord told me to start listening to a certain podcast. I had been resisting listening to it because my mom was a fan and talked about it a lot… sometimes that makes me slow to get on the bandwagon, and that’s probably just a pride issue, but either way… when I hear the Lord tell me to do a thing, I at least start the thing.

I had never been told what to listen to before so that was new, but I learned a lot from this podcast and it helped reset my view on a lot political issues (it’s a mainly political podcast, by the way, thus the lack of naming 😉 ) as well as help get me back into the Word.

The host is an evangelical Christian and his co-host is a Catholic, so every once in a while interesting conversations ensue. This backstory now leads us to last week.

Last week, there was a noteworthy tidbit about a… “marketing/outreach” director at a fairly well-known church who said some things that are basically contradictory to the Gospel message that Jesus died and rose again for the sins of the world. While upset by this sound byte, one person— who is not the pastor— doesn’t necessarily represent the whole church, and I had just listened to a sermon from that church earlier in the week and knew the church hadn’t gone off the rails, at least according to the way the pastor was preaching.

Then the Evangelical host of this show explained to his Catholic co-host that this church was basically a “more fiery Joel Osteen” type of church. On the surface that bugged me, but sometimes he’s not the best at descriptions. And he already has a history of thinking churches with a lot of “hootin’ and hollerin’” and flashy lights and yelling pastors isn’t biblical and all of them are fake and leading people astray. So I kept that in mind the rest of the segment, but it still bothered me because these are brothers in Christ who, not only spoke bad about one church, but two.

And again, the Lord has been doing a work in me because I used to be one of those people that would be quick to throw someone like Joel Osteen under the bus for the fact that sometimes his messages aren’t exactly “on the mark”, as Christians would say.

Over the last 4 years, I’ve come to realize that what matters most is the content of what a person says and the condition of their heart. And one will show what the other looks like. Either way, I have become very slow to respond or react when someone brings up Joel Osteen or another preacher who might fall under the same “fluffy gospel” preaching Osteen tends to lean toward. Besides, Osteen and other preachers like him have big enough churches that I know about them, and based on what I’ve heard from snippets or full sermons, they’re at least PREACHING the Gospel.

Which now leads us to today…

At the beginning of the podcast, they played a clip of Joel Osteen from an unknown amount of time ago talking about how he feels about being called a “prosperity preacher” and how God delights in us having good things and prospering. This entire clip, I had no issue with spiritually. I was confused as to why they were playing it because again, I know this host’s general stance on Joel Osteen.

When they finally got into it, the host used all of the same verses I’ve heard used against Joel Osteen’s preaching in the past, but I realized… it’s all wrong.

The Lord is a Good Father, and a Good Father wants good things for His children. Plus, we are royalty under the King of the Universe and if that doesn’t give us all the right in the world (literally) to at least ACT LIKE we own our immediate surroundings and live with excellence in all areas of our lives, then I don’t know what does.

Needless to say, it was really upsetting to hear someone I’ve listened to for 4 years rail against TWO preachers/churches that, as far as I’ve seen, are not saying or doing anything that is strictly “antichrist” or false teaching.

One of my pastors recently at the end of one of his sermons pronounced, “You need to stop thinking that Joel Osteen isn’t ordained by God to do what he does. That man loves Jesus and he’s doing the best he knows how. Be careful what you say about him; those are dangerous waters you’re getting into.” The pronouncement took us all by surprise because nothing about Joel Osteen had been brought up the entire service, but apparently someone needed to hear that.

And maybe I was that somebody. Ever since then and especially after the shooting in his church, Joel Osteen has been on my heart and mind a lot lately, and I think I was just very disturbed and disappointed that someone I’ve come to respect and admire like this podcaster hounded so hard against something so biblical as having enough and even having more than enough. I couldn’t even finish the podcast today because I was so distressed by it.

Maybe I’ll need to take a hiatus (whether temporary or permanent) from this podcast… but that will be between me and the Lord…

This blog is just a reminder to you all… please be careful what you say about others. Are we told in the Bible to address those who are teaching falsely? Yes… but I think there’s a way to do it other than call someone out on the internet or on a podcast that the person will probably never hear. And talking to your friends about it will definitely not get anything accomplished, unless that talk leads to some action to make a change.

I’m all about accountability, but I’m not about putting others down. That puts me in jeopardy of being on the wrong side of God’s will, and that’s not somewhere I ever want to be.