The fact that the people of Houston keep lining the pockets of this cult is the saddest part of the whole thing.
back when joel first moved in to the summit, i almost went with this girl whom i was trying to smash. she kept asking me to go, like church and a bang. still glad i didn't go tho.
Sura explained this already but all it takes is a little research. Petty Bowers and Aimee didnt bother with that and went for the sensationalism. (1) If he used the money on a luxury car(which I can guarantee he didn't because dude already makes millions from his books(which is another topic entirely but smart and slick) and can afford the car just off the books he publishes each year. (2) Osteen claimed he took no PPP during the first round of loans and he told no lie about that when asked THEN. They then apparently applied and received a loan during the second round of PPP loans. But it's more fun to go with the preacher told a lie. Payroll. Like plenty of other businesses big and small, owned by regular folk, multi millionaires and also billionaires. Why the F does Kanye need PPP money? I don't recall the outrage online/social media being close to this much.
They do pay taxes- payroll taxes. Now they should pay all the other taxes that regular businesses have to pay but that's an issue to take up with the congressfolk and force a change. Doubt that happens. Also, are you pushing the suggestion that other wealthy business owners(since the church, especially mega churches, are a business) should have applied for regular bank loans not the govt PPP loans? The Tilmans of the world, etc. I mean...if he does that then i'm quite sure the govt will be on his azz, as it seems after all the fraudulent recipients of PPP loans the first go round, they are more scrutinizing and more apt to request money paid back if it's found out the funds weren't used for payroll and were used for...say, a private jet, like the case of the Daystar preacher in Dallas. Plus, there's more scrutiny on mega churches and their pastors in this day and age so if they did use it on other things, it would come to light.
Its not even just people in Houston. Its people all over the country. I had some cousins come visit from California and they wanted to go to one of his "sermons" on a Sunday. Needless to say, I planned other things.
This is the guy we should be pissed at: https://www.insideedition.com/marcu...inside-edition-investigates-churchs-jet-63725 If a similar investigation leads to proving Joel bought himself a sick whip with the PPP money, then lets all burn him at the stake. If the funds were used to pay Lakewood salaries, I see no harm.
So it's smart to spend money as preacher on a supercar instead of paying your people? If he has all of this money from books why did he need a loan in the 1st place? We are talking about a church and supposedly a man of god here. How does this line up with the teachings of the bible?
There's a lot more to the story than reported. Daystar took the loan as insurance in case it needed to pay workers (like most other businesses) and set that money aside. The jet deal was in the works before this happened. A person came to Daystar wanting to sell their used 23-year old jet at half the market value. Daystar jumped at the deal and sold their older jet to pay for the newer one. Since then, Daystar realized they would not need the loan and paid it back in full with interest. As far as vacations, the Lambs regularly fly commercial for vacations, but in this case they were asked to give sermons at several church services in the Florida and decided to schedule more meetings and while there and yes, they brought their kids with them and took some time for themselves. The are regularly asked to speak at churches all over the world and when they do they actually shoot the sermons and turn them into hour-long specials so they actually create content for the network at the same time. The Florida trip is no different - they used the sermon as an hour-long special. Daystar brings in outside accounting firms each year for independent audits of its business and accounting departments. Any Donated money is kept in separate accounts from business income. The business income is what pays salaries ect. The donated money is used to do things like put roofs on orphanages in the Philippines, purchase land for a nursing school in India for former child prostitutes, build wells in Africa, etc. They've also given thousands of dollars to the families of people like Alton Sterling, given tens of thousands to organizations like Feed The Children, etc.
Joel Osteen does not own the church, he has to answer to others. He is essentially a volunteer with no salary. The church still needs to pay its employees and without holding services, their cashflow is significantly lower. It was the church that took the loan, not Osteen. He hasn't taken any money/salary from Lakewood since around 2008 after his book sales took off. He makes millions from book sales.
Who does he have to answer to? God? If the law allows Lakewood to take funds, then critics should STFU. But lets not pretend to be naive; Osteen is Lakewood. All bickering and trolling aside, I would be interested in seeing the real impact of Lakewoods 'ministries'. If they truly performing and have a significant impact on the community, then I have no problem with them taking PPP.
