Towers of diaper boxes were stacked so high and so densely that it looked like someone was trying to build a scale model of Manhattan. Pillows were piled up against a wall, a supermarket aisle’s worth of toiletries were on offer and a medical team waited for the wounded and the sick at a triage desk. Outside, the needy lined up by the dozen to enter.
But what took so long? For his church’s slow reaction to tropical storm Harvey, Joel Osteen, the celebrity pastor of America’s biggest megachurch, has found himself the target of a barrage of online criticism.
Osteen is one of America’s richest pastors. When congregations for multiple services are combined, 35,000 to 50,000 people attend services at Lakewood Church weekly, and Osteen’s sermons are seen by more than 7 million people on TV and online. His 2004 book Your Best Life Now was on the New York Times bestseller list for over 200 weeks.
Lakewood Church pastor Joel Osteen was calculated to be worth US$55 million in 2012, and his chuch now draws revenues of US$70million a year. Photo: AP
