Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Joel is Down With The Bros From Islam

Lakewood Church in Houston, Tx is the largest church in America. The pastor, Joel Osteen, was recently interviewed by Robin Young and Jeremy Hobson of NPR's "Here and Now".
In the Interview they asked Joel about the church's relationship with Muslims. He said,

“I have Muslims that attend our church and my books sell a lot in Muslim countries as well. You know, I don’t know, I don’t get too deep in those kinds of things, but our ministry is about reaching out to everybody, and so I do and I do have those conversations. I had a whole group of probably about 50 Muslims here at the service about two weeks ago, sitting right on the front row. They came, and we have good, good relations. And I think it’s again, part of our ministry is, you know, our main theme is Jesus says love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as you love yourself. And I don’t try to put people in a box – OK, they’re Jewish or they’re Catholic, they’re this or they’re that. I just say, ‘you know what, they’re somebody that God’s put in our path for us to love,’ and that’s our philosophy.”

Joel, I think that's great, but don't you worry just a bit about security? I mean, do you have metal detectors at the doors? I know that most members of Islam that live in the US are moderate, but they would not be likely to darken a church door either. I just have this picture in my head of ISIS types casing your building for a couple of weeks and then puttin it to the congregation during the altar call. You are brave. 

I guess that means that I do put people in a box. I'm sorry. I am all for getting the message out to our Islamic friends across the world, but if some of them walked into my church, I would have a concern. Perhaps I just watch too much news. 

Question. Did any convert? Just wondering. Ye shall know them by their fruit. Just sayin.