The biggest charlatans need all the credibility enhancers they can get...
Posted on 08/06/2008 12:49:28 PM PDT by Gamecock
Can a crankiness land you in court? The case of Sandra Brown v. Victoria Osteen is the story of a chance encounter on an airplane that turned into a nasty legal battle.
Osteen is the wife of popular self-help author and television minister Joel Osteen, who heads the Lakewood Church, Houston's largest congregation. Brown is a flight attendant for Continental Airlines.
The lawsuit, filed in Harris County Civil Court in Houston, alleges that Victoria Osteen "shoved, grabbed and pulled the flight attendants." The suit goes on to claim that Osteen elbowed Brown, who was the flight manager, while allegedly trying to get into the cockpit of the airplane.
Brown's attorney, Reginald McKamie, contends that Osteen has a dark side that the trial will expose.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I did manage to find a small non dom church about a half hour away from my home that made me feel at home the moment I stepped through the door....on my way to that church I pass a mega church that is the sized of a football stadium and I think they have shuttle buses in the parking lot with a back up on the freeway of cars waiting to get into the church...no thanks
Exactly. I have no problem with people getting rich. I do have a problem with people getting rich from selling Jesus. Salvation is not a product to be marketed like soap or deodorant. The Osteens should sell all that they have and give it to the poor.
The priest in our little parish will never be mistaken for a rich man. His opinion is that no congregation should be larger than five hundred members, because that number is around the maximum that a pastor can know personally.
Evangelical megachurches and cults-of-personality are a fad that won’t last, thank God.
Exactly. They got rich off of the business of the church and tax free I might add. How would you like to be rich enough to live in a literal mansion, private jets, numerous cars and not have to pay income tax? Sweet deal.
They pay income tax, as does every citizen with an income above a certain level.
The 501c(3) Religious tax exemption deals with the Church Corporation assets, not any of it's paid staff.
That's not to say that the Osteens don't have a bunch of accountants arranging for them to write off a large part of their income, but Mega-Church ministers are hardly unique in that behaviour.
The jet-in church’s name.
The cars- in church’s name.
Etc...
Tax exempt.
As they should be if the Church owns them. Not unique to ministers.
Funny, why weren't they using the Church Jet that day?
I was talking about mega churches in general.
Not if they structure things right. The salary would be taxable at normal rates, but not the housing allowance, the car allowance, the library allowance. I'm not sure how the cell phone allowance is treated.
For many pastors, half to 2/3 of the compensation is not taxable as income. And they can opt out of Social Security taxes.
In other words they pay taxes. They are not exempt. That was the point, and i am happy that you conceded it in that statement.
i am certainly no fan of mega churches. In the small city that i live in which is about 30 miles North of Pittsburgh, there are several churches. None could be classified as mega churches, but until the mid 1970's many of those churches had memberships of 1,200-1,500. Many of the larger denominational churches (and to this day many Catholic parishes in the Diocese of Pittsburgh) had memberships that would classify them as Mega churches by today's standards.
i think that it is more of an attitude that congregations such as Saddleback, or Willow Creek project than it is their raw numbers. Frankly, we don't need the pastor of some "successful" congregation telling me how i can increase my membership, and that i should increase the membership for (fill in the blank) reason. They need to remember that it is God who gives the increase, and some gardens are bigger than others.
The minister's job is to plant, weed, and water.
Incidentally, just to be honest, i am also opposed to the 501c(3) tax exemption for churches. It is something that should be abolished. Every election, we can see why that is probably a good idea. Let Caesar keep his favours, and the snares hidden in them, we’ll just pay our taxes, and Caesar can STHU about what is spoken in our pulpits.
Now that I agree with.
I went to a church with my family back in the 80’s. You could tell (or I could, my mother was slightly blinded by this man) the biggest thing this preacher was looking for were the “rewards” of being a servant of God. I certainly believe God gives us enough and there is nothing wrong with comfort. My uncle is a Bishop and has retired to a small mountain church and I am happy the church is helping to take care of them in their retirement. My aunt and uncle have done alot over the years, of good for communities and such. But the ones who are preaching prosperity, and seemingly only preaching prosperity, are the ones justifying their incomes.
I do think God rewards His people. But when you preach prosperity as if God is a pyramid scheme, I get skeptical.
Amen, in God's economy the faithful church with 30 members is just as precious as the faithful church with 5000.
Ain’t that the truth. We used to have a priest who would say “I’d like to welcome back our twice a year friends”.
A friend gave this book to about 10 people for Christmas the year it came out. Yes, I was and only 15 or 20 pages.
You read the first chapter?
Got it from the horses mouth, bro JJ.
Ooops, wrong thread. I listened to that name it and clam it stuff from Kenneth Hagan back in the 70’s.
The biggest charlatans need all the credibility enhancers they can get...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.