Joel Osteen (and absurdly rich televangelists)

[Rumpelwilskin]

If you don't know who Joel Osteen is, take your average televangelist and multiply him X fold.
In the States we get a channel called TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network), famous for well known televangelists all of which are most memorable as part of Frank Zappa song titles. This evening I was flipping through channels and a program caught my attention. Evening with Joel.

Joel Osteen seems to be something of an anti-Bill Hicks. He delivers sermons at a mega-church in Texas.
This is it:



Midway into his sermon, which I was unable to stop watching, he said something about having to renovate this multi-million dollar church praying to god and actually using the exact figures in the millions. Most of the sermon revolved around repeating the theme of not worrying, as there is the obvious mind/body/spirit connection, and letting god into your heart and rationalizing that everything happens according to god.

Olsteen has a unique delivery, quite captivating. He ends each sentence with a certain umph, like a punchline in a joke.
Some interesting results when I typed his name into youtube, many spoofs, including a "Joel Osteen" teeth whitening kit. His teeth were so white I thought my TV was harboring a radioactive chemical.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=joel+olsteen

There's actually about four channels of this nature i.e. televangelist drive here. I have to admit, after watching him, it was evident he had a lot of charisma and his audience were hanging onto his every word, spellbound. The funniest part of it was at the end they were interviewing people coming out of the sermon, like they do after a movie premiere, and this one fellow said without irony "he was just so...transparent."

[Catalogue Trousers]

Joel Osteen seems to be something of an anti-Bill Hicks

Yeah, 'cos Hicks was such a shining hero. I'm hearing something about "false gods" in my head. Quite appropriate given the subject matter of this thread.

That said, I do have a healthy contempt for the likes of Osteen. Who was that real slimeball who literally rolled around in money on his broadcasts like a pig in shit, while speaking in tongues?

And let's not forget Pat Robertson's "If you want me to live, then give me millions of dollars" tack. What a great Christian he is.

[Labian Quest]

Peter Buck once said 'The God I believe in isn't short of money'

[hundred]

I see quite a bit of this guy as my parents watch him quite a lot. He comes across as a really nice guy, and I must say I've never heard him asking for money, but I often only catch him in 20-30 minute bursts. I like how he start all of his lessons with a (christian) joke.

My parents are evangelicals, but they have a problem with begging preachers, in fact, while on holiday in Florida, they visited one of those huge churches, and they had what amounted to bouncers on the door. When the pastor started giving it some 'give us your money' talk, they got up to leave, and were told by the bouncers that no-one could leave while pastor was speaking. At which point they muttereed something about kidnap, and walked out anyway.

This guy seems nice, but has a reserved manner while speaking. If you want some entertainment and showmanship, check out some TD Jakes or Eddie Long, they know how to rock a crowd. They too are ridiculously rich.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I was watching Michael Keaton doing his evangelist bit on Frasier this morning and it reminded me just how good that guy is at comedy. Very good.

[spraticus]

I once went with a mate (both of us atheists) to view the Maurice Cerullo extravaganza at Earl's Court - he spouted the usual evangelistic rhetoric "the devil hates it when you give money to god" "god worshipping people can have whatever they want be it a new house, sports car" etc. etc. but the most absurd point in the show was when he said...

"I would like to bless each & everyone of you but there are too many of you" (Earl's Court was packed) - "so i am going to blow the power of the holy spirit through my microphone to you"

and that's exactly what he did... he made a blowing/rumbling noise through his mic - me & my mate looked round and everyone (thousands of people!) had fallen over and were writhing about "speaking in tongues"

really horrifying to see what the power of suggestion is capable of... at that moment we thought it was a good time to leave