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So if someone is preaching a heresy like the prosperity gospel, we should just let them? Osteen is leading many people to the gates of hell with the idea that since God loves all he will forgive all. When has he preached repent from your sin and turn from your wicked ways and nail those sins to the cross?

Pretty much, yep. No one is forcing the people to attend or watch him on TV. The same way you don’t run into Jewish temples or muslim mosques and disrupt a service. This stunt didn’t win anyone over to their side and even if it happened every Sunday wouldn’t stop Osteen from preaching what he preaches.

Re: “So if someone is preaching a heresy like the prosperity gospel, we should just let them?”

If someone is preaching doctrine that is heretical to Biblical teaching in your church or my church or on the street corner or in a public forum, then yes, absolutely it must be confronted. That is not what happened here. This was in a church (what kind I do not know) that apparantly invited Mr Olsteen to speak during their worship service - that is not the appropriate time to or place to confront him - unless you are the pastor or member of that particular church.

There are religious groups that meet all the time whose doctrine is heretical according to Biblical teaching (Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science, Unitarian, etc.) - but it is on their property and I have no business or legal right to trespass on their turf and disrupt their services. And, again, what goes around, comes around.

There is a time and a place for vigorous debate but not during someone else’s worship service. Religious freedom is not a one-way street. If you want the freedom to worship God as you see fit, you must allow even those you disagree with the same freedom - especially on their own property.

Dude reminds me of the old “Reverand Ike” whose radio show used to tout his motto— “You can’t lose with the stuff I use”. Meaning money... but had double and triple entendre.

On July 2 this year, Catherine, 26, left her apartment in Arkansas in the middle of the night and took a bus to Lufkin, about 20 miles from Wells. Andy and Patty Grove received a call from Catherine’s roommate letting them know that their daughter, and all her belongings, had gone missing. Catherine left no clue as to her destination.

Catherine had been at somewhat of an impasse, having left behind nursing school and a job at LifeWay Christian store in Little Rock and briefly moved back home with her parents, both full-time missionaries. It wasn’t until July 7, at 11:30 p.m., that the Groves received a call from Catherine saying she was in Wells. According to Patty, Catherine said, “Don’t worry, I’m here with a group that’s taking good care of me.” Patty thought to herself, “Maybe this is a good place for her.” But that assessment would change dramatically after she and Andy arrived in Wells, where they encountered a wall of opposition to their attempts to contact Catherine. Church members said they feared the Groves would “kidnap” Catherine.

The church maintained that Catherine was “seeking the Lord” and did not want to see family or friends; her cell phone, now unreachable, had been deemed a source of “evil communication” by the church. The Groves were baffled as to why they had to ask anyone’s permission to see their daughter. They were issued a criminal trespass warning against visiting the R&R Mercantile. Patty and Andy hunkered down in a brown and cream-colored RV owned by a Wells resident, parked in the lot of another local church. Each day the couple is in Wells they learn a little more about the church their daughter joined.

The Church of Wells is mostly—though not exclusively—young and white. There are 56 adult members, dozens of whom are pictured on the church website looking like chipper undergrads—a parent’s dream image of wholesomeness. The church’s three “elders”—Sean Morris, Jake Gardner and Ryan Ringnald—all white men in their 20s, are dressed in button-down shirts, grinning widely for the camera. (A news commenter on HLN’s Dr. Drew On Call show labeled them “the church of the hot boys.”) The trio formed the Church of Wells, originally called the Church of Arlington, in 2010 while street preaching across the United States.

Videos of the charismatic trio’s preachings are full of confrontations: with drunken revelers on Halloween, Catholics after Mass, and Staten Island Ferry passengers at 2 a.m. In a video of the latter, Ringnald preaches to a tired and captive audience. “Excuse me, sir, nobody wants to hear your voice,” one passenger responds. Another pushes Ringnald, who continues to preach, unfazed by his audience’s alternating indifference and anger.

These young church elders appear to thrive on conflict; their self-described first-century lifestyles wouldn’t be complete without “Pharisees” persecuting them. They’ve branded Wells pastors like David Goodwin, of Falvey Memorial Methodist Church, “false prophets.” Competing churches are dismissed as “seeker-friendly” and easy on sinners, when sinners should be chastised.

“If they had come in here and had crazy beliefs, I’d [accept them], but they attacked, telling people they’re not saved,” says Goodwin, who joined eight other local pastors in signing a media statement questioning the new church’s aims in Wells. “It took everything I’ve ever learned and every experience I’ve ever learned from my father, a Hells Angel, to keep my cool.”