If you can stomach the fawning over this multi-millionaire preacher, watch how smitten Elisabeth Hasselbeck is while she praises the 'Preacher of Positivity:'



Best smile out there.

No kidding Elisabeth. Money buys great teeth, in case you didn't know, look at the Kochs. Most oily hair too, along with his palms. The Fox News faithful love the god of money, and who better to represent this demographic than a man fleecing the lowly Christians who just need a message of hope to overcome the inherent financial disadvantages cemented in the system by god-loving Republicans? It's not the rigged system, it's your goddamned attitude that needs an adjustment, so who better than Joel Osteen? Joel Osteen is the Senior Pastor of the Lakewood Church in Houston, TX. America’s largest church, it boasts over 50,000 members.

This man gets richer than shit off his own obscenely large megachurch congregation, but hey, that's not enough cash for Joel. He takes his show on the road, selling out Yankee and Giants Stadiums in N.Y. and San Francisco with his brand of televangelist gobbledygook. Senator McCain's pretend-liberalish daughter, Meghan was the 'lucky girl' who got to hang with Joel and his partner in crime wife Victoria.

The man is an author who claims that you just have to be right with the lord and your fortunes will change. What other measure of godliness is there, on this 'news' network? If you are poor, Jesus probably doesn't love you, and you probably don't have the right attitude. Maybe you think that there should be a minimum wage? Maybe you think unions are a good idea? Nope. Joel will show you none of that matters. The man upstairs is a Conservative and if you copy him, you will be just like Joel, Victoria and their picture perfect children.

It's the new brand of hip Christianity: Prosperity Preaching.



In the fragmented landscape of American religion, Osteen comes as close to Billy Graham’s level of popularity and influence as any contemporary evangelist — and his cultural empire is arguably larger than Graham’s ever was. Your Best Life Now sold more than 4 million copies in the five years following its 2004 release, and it spawned a host of spin-offs — from Daily Readings from Your Best Life Now to a Your Best Life Now 2006 Journal and Daily Calendar. Its 2007 sequel, Become a Better You, followed a similar trajectory, in sales and spin-offs alike. Osteen’s weekly television show runs constantly on Daystar and the Trinity Broadcasting Network, both Christian channels — but also on network affiliates in all of the top thirty markets. (On a typical Sunday in Washington, D.C., in the mid-2000s, you could catch ten different showings of an Osteen service, on eight different channels.)

Gee, how hard is it to be mega-happy and positive, when all you have to do is spout bullshit and millions adore you? It's easier than being a rockstar, hell at least a rock star has some talent. This man's skill is lying for the lord, reminds me a lot of the cult(ure) of Willard Romney.

Meghan McCain was so impressed with what a 'wonderful man he is.' He really preaches non-judgement, which is pretty ironic. His brand of prosperity preaching does favor the judgement of the poor, much like the GOP.



In the 1980s, this marriage was associated with hucksters and charlatans — preachers who robbed their followers, slept with prostitutes, and sobbed on camera. But in twenty-first-century America, the gospel of wealth has come of age. By linking the spread of the gospel to the habits and mores of entrepreneurial capitalism, and by explicitly baptizing the pursuit of worldly gain, prosperity theology has helped millions of believers reconcile their religious faith with their nation’s seemingly unbiblical wealth and un-Christian consumer culture.

So much for Jesus' famous quote: "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!" Not sayeth Joel Osteen. Rich, happy, thanking the materialistic god. What a way to live!