Story highlights Jill Filipovic: Joel Osteen criticized for not opening his church this week; situation spotlights "prosperity gospel" problems

Promise of wealth means too many self-identified Christians are happy to leave the poor out in the cold, she writes

Jill Filipovic is a journalist based in New York and Nairobi, Kenya, and the author of the book "The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness." Follow her on Twitter. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) As of Tuesday, Pastor Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church is opening its doors to flood victims in Houston, but only after a spate of public shaming on social media created a big PR problem. Welcome to the compassionate Christianity of this mega-rich megachurch and its prosperity gospel.

Lakewood maintained on Monday that it was inaccessible, but after receiving fierce criticism from those who pointed to other examples of locals -- from smaller churches to furniture stores -- opening their doors to those who need shelter in Houston, the church changed course. Osteen tweeted Tuesday that he and his wife "care deeply about our fellow Houstonians" and that Lakewood's doors were open to those in need.

Jill Filipovic

The hypocritical irony here seems obvious, because Osteen is one of America's leading proponents of prosperity theology , the so-called theory that God blesses good Christians with material wealth. He makes the case that the Lord has blessed him because of his piousness, and his bank account is proof. Osteen is worth some $50 million, lives in a $10.5 million home, and says "it's God's will for you to live in prosperity instead of poverty."

The problem isn't just that megachurch pastors like Osteen are getting filthy rich off parishioners, who are told to tithe as much as 10% of their monthly income to these already fabulously wealthy institutions, with the promise that they might strike it rich, too. It's also that prosperity gospel megachurches feed into income inequality with their specious claims that affluence is a reflection of God's approval (and on the flip side, that poverty must come from some absence of faith). That impacts both politics and policy. The promise of material wealth for the faithful means that too many self-identified Christians are happy to leave the poor and marginalized out in the cold; it's no coincidence that the most religious states in America also have some of the worst social services, spending little on welfare, health care and education, and as a result, letting high proportions of their populations languish in poverty and ill health.

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