Posted on 12/31/2014 9:18:09 PM PST by Olog-hai
America’s most popular supermarket tabloid claims famous televangelist Joel Osteen “is caught up in a financial scandal,” using his Houston megachurch to sell his books.
The National Enquirer alleges that New York attorney Richard Garbarini—who previously helped two musicians in a lawsuit against Osteen and his Lakewood Church accusing the church of unauthorized use of a song—is charging that Osteen uses his Houston-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit to hawk his bestsellers. …
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
Big Surprise
Only a matter of when.
here we go again.
Happy New Year! :p
Anyone who gives their money to TV preachers are... Let me try to put it nicely not very wise...
I’m no Joel Osteen fan, but unless he tells people that the profits from the book go to the Church, I don’t see the legal problem. Maybe a moral one.
Agree. I’m missing the “scandal” in selling his books at his church. And I’m not so sure it was a megachurch before he preached there. Osteens are not my cup of tea, but it doesn’t sound scandalous or criminal.
People who give time or money to “mega-churches” and TV preachers are suckers and pretty sad.
First rule of a breaking news.....It’ll change in 48 hours.
It was only a matter of time.
no scandal IF the profits go to the church.
Oh Noes, not Joel! :-)
Wealth and fame and Christianity - bad combination. You can’t serve God and money. It was never meant to be that way. At some point, people playing that game are gonna get in trouble. Just a matter of time. It happens over and over again.
Is the end of those stupid Osteen “DEVOTIONALS” on FR finally at hand?
In before the people jumping into a hole graphic.
It was only a few months ago that I read he and his wife uses book money to live on. That is what he bought that multi-million dollars house with or so I read. I do not trust him on anything.
This isn’t even a lawsuit, it is an allegation.
How should this work? If the church advertises his books then there ought to be (and likely is) a quid pro quo back to it out of the book revenue for the value of the advertising, or else some kind of imputed income to the Osteens. And that’s the size of it. This may be a tempest in a thimble.
And that’s if it wants 401(c)(3) status. It can always go indy if it has the conviction to do so.
They are stupid only if you want them to be.
Can we marvel, along with St. Paul, that “whether or not for profit, the gospel is preached.” You really have to beg the question to play the grinch here. I have personally seen scripture mean things to me that the person who quoted it may have never caught on to. The name of the game is to praise the Lord not to traduce the Osteens. Nobody is asking you to be an Osteen. They will get their reward or lack thereof in the fullness of time.
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