Twitter Floods Millionaire-Megachurch Owner's Inbox Over Harvey Victims

When you’re worth $40 million, you know a thing or two about wants and needs. On top of that, throw a little dose of Jesus, have a megachurch that used to hold a basketball team, and you’re uniquely equipped to assist the desperate people of Houston, Texas during Hurricane Harvey. Joel Osteen, the millionaire owner of Houston's Lakewood Church and pastor of one of the largest congregations in the world, is one of those people.

But that's not exactly what happened.

On Saturday, August 26th, as Hurricane Harvey made its landfall in Texas, Osteen -- again, the insanely rich owner of a church that used to house the Houston Rockets NBA team and regularly draws about 52,000 attendees a week, -- tweeted his thoughts and prayers to everyone affected by the storm. It seems as though people will just float to safety on his good intentions.

Victoria & I are praying for everyone affected by Hurricane Harvey. Please join us as we pray for the safety of our Texas friends & family.

— Joel Osteen (@JoelOsteen) August 26, 2017

It didn't take long for people online to start taking Osteen to church over this, asking him to do the Christian thing and open the doors to his massive sanctuary. Message after message, people just wanted to know why the millionaire-owner of a house of God that holds more than 16,800 people wasn't offering shelter to the displaced people of Hurricane Harvey.

You and Victoria need to helping by opening your church and providing that money that gets donated to you for those in need .🙄

— Monica.dlsm (@Mbabyyyy) August 28, 2017

@JoelOsteen if you were a real Christian, you'd be opening your doors to your displaced neighbors.

— FAB24 (@Francesabolton) August 28, 2017

According to the New York Daily News, Houston officials spent this time attempting to find a space for the 30,000 displaced Texans, which could probably occupy a former-professional basketball stadium.

You’d think that after getting called out for being a pastor that doesn’t help people in need, you’d make some sort of statement about why you weren’t opening your gigantic space to them. Add to that the obviously good press a pastor would receive by showing the type of charity and care that Christianity is known for. But that’s not what happened either.

Later that day, he seemingly tried to address the whole incident in a subtweet, asking his six million followers not to judge people on one season, one mistake. Like, imagine if we judged Jamie Lannister based on one season of Game of Thrones. But the next day, he tweeted again -- though, not about hurricane -- before passing the buck over to the big guy in the sky, God.

Give people the grace to change. Don’t judge their whole life on one season, one mistake.

— Joel Osteen (@JoelOsteen) August 27, 2017

God is still on the throne. He brought you through in the past; He’ll bring you through again.

— Joel Osteen (@JoelOsteen) August 28, 2017

Jesus promises us peace that passes understanding. That’s peace when it doesn’t make sense.

— Joel Osteen (@JoelOsteen) August 28, 2017

Finally, after a surge of criticism that attracted the national media, the Lakewood Church announced it would close its doors because of flooding. “Inaccessible,” the church called it in a Facebook post.

Of course, the announcement was promptly followed by video clips of the megachurch still standing well above the water line. This leaves one to ask: why wouldn't Joel Osteen open his 17,000-capacity arena to the people he has dedicated his life to helping?

There's no flooding outside Joel Osteen Lakewood Church. pic.twitter.com/MW6xxFAOcN

— IShitzuNot (@llgwat) August 29, 2017

@cmclymer Looking pretty passable to me from this side, stay tuned for further exploration pic.twitter.com/dlrYGeLgBj

— Allie (@AlleyCat_Allie) August 28, 2017

@cmclymer Worth noting that some of their parking is underground (note flood gates) but they could still drop ppl off at the door easily pic.twitter.com/Mso4GTLuF2

— Allie (@AlleyCat_Allie) August 28, 2017

Finally, Osteen and the Church released an official statement on the situation. Two days after this controversy began, Osteen said:

"We have never closed our doors. We will continue to be a distribution center to those in need. We are prepared to house people once shelters reach capacity. Lakewood will be a value to the community in the aftermath of this storm."

Additionally, Lakewood Church spokesman Donald Iloff made a statement, asserting that parts of their massive space were flooded, releasing pictures of flooded areas, explaining why the church didn't open its doors. However, they did say that several hundred people could be housed on the 2nd floor.

It was also around this time that Osteen, his millions of dollars and his ridiculously huge church decided to open its doors to people in need, providing sanctuary to thousands of Houstonians. As it turns out, if Jesus can't talk a pastor into doing the right thing, the Internet can.

Lakewood Church apparently bought countless air mattresses and are prepping to open their doors. Took a while but good news.#JoelOsteen pic.twitter.com/MYXf1HqAbF

— Charles Clymer🏳️‍🌈 (@cmclymer) August 29, 2017