My Favourite Preacher

Televised Bible-thumping does not make you a mouthpiece of God. I know that so many will furiously disagree, holding dear in their hearts the image of Paul Barnes, Earl Paulk or Lonnie Latham frothing at the mouth while projection-tripping on reproving, rebuking and exhorting sin in others and giving their holier-than-thou audiences quiet but powerful self-righteous orgasms.

My only, in fact, favourite televangelist (can't believe I am actually saying that!) Joel Osteen is often accused of not focussing enough on sin. In fact, you will never hear a single condemnation of anything in his sermons. It is as if his world entirely consists of Love and everything that is not is banished from it. His message basically is that you can do the same and have a life to the full (John 10:10) as God promised.

I remember some time ago an Algerian female writer (unfortunately, cannot remember her name) was subjected to a widely publicised questioning with a view to make her slip into saying something not quite Islamic. In Algeria that kind of mistake is as close as can be to signing your own death sentence. So, they asked her what she thought about Satan. She answered that her heart is so full of God that there is no place for Satan.

I think that could pretty much summarize Joel Austeen's creed. God is Love, and if you cultivate Love inside you, your life will be full of His blessings. On the other hand, if you spend too much time on contemplating and condemning Evil, you will end up painted its colours. A long string of televangelist scandals is a living proof of that. In Nietzsche's words: "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."

His reluctance to admit that Jesus Christ is THE only way to salvation is very often used against him. This may sound a very valid argument to a Fox-News-watching Southern Baptist who has never travelled farther than Florida. Parochial red-neck ignorance is instrumental in staying convinced that everyone outside your faith is fated for damnation. However, a little exposure - Austeen lived with his missionary father in India - can give you glimpse of the fact that there are actually billions people out there who do not even suspect your little church exists. Saying that they all are wrong says more about you than about them.



In my eyes, Joel Osteen (popularly misspelt as Austeen) is a mouthpiece of God, not of the American Southern Baptist God or the Dutch Reformed God or the Greek Orthodox God, but of God who reveals Himself to all people in various ways. Joel Osteen preaches the spirit, not the letter of Christianity - just what Christ pointed out to the Pharisees. Christian faith, when not hijacked by self-serving Bible-thumpers, is a great path of spiritual quest for God. Joel Osteen is, perhaps, its best ambassador to the world where so many people of so many creeds and nations have spent millennia in their own spiritual quests.

If you feel better thinking you are the chosen one in the self-righteous coop of your little provincial parish, then just stay there. Kingdom of Heaven could be in your heart right now, but sanctimonious trips from the likes of hatred-spouting Jimmy Swaggart, Pat Robertson or Douglas Goodman are probably an easier fix. But please, keep your spiteful convictions to yourself: scavenging the Bible for quotes to confirm your lowliest drives and emotions is like masturbation - better kept out of public eye!