Osteen says his aversion to wading into politics is likely due to his upbringing.
Too frequently the 2008 presidential hopefuls, regardless of their party persuasion, appear too eager to commandeer a pulpit on any given Sunday to shill for votes.
Indeed, the Religion Clause blog reports that candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee all made speeches at Sunday services yesterday in states with approaching primaries.
And too often these visits create an unseemly spectacle, because some of these politicians appear bent on trying to out-religion the other candidates.
So it is refreshing to hear of Pastor Joel Osteen’s policy of keeping partisan politics out of his pulpit. Osteen leads Lakewood Church in Houston, a megachurch that according to Newsweek, is the nation’s largest congregation with 47,000 weekly visitors. (Lakewood was once the Compaq Center, home of the NBA basketball team, the Houston Rockets.) Osteen’s sermons are televised and reach millions of people worldwide. He’s also a best-selling author of a string of self-encouragement books.
Osteen told Newsweek that he understands the allure of his church for politicians, saying “who wouldn’t want to come to speak to 40,000 people here?” But he says he doesn’t want his church’s enormous platform to be used for partisan politics. He acknowledged to Newsweek that while he may recognize office holders who attend his services, he won’t allow them to address the congregation.
“The way our services are structured here at the church, we have to keep it, if we can, 100 percent worship,” Osteen said.
He’s also unlikely to support any of the current presidential hopefuls. Osteen’s father, John founded the church 1959. Osteen says his aversion to wading into politics is likely due to his upbringing.
“My father … kept it out of the pulpit,” he told the periodical. “I think that part of our goal is to reach as many people as we can. Our reach is very broad. Even in the church we are diverse. There are Republicans, Democrats, independents – everything … I don’t want somebody saying, ‘He’s for this party or that party, and that turns me off.’”
Newsweek noted, “America’s evangelical heavyweights have a long history of using their power to make or break GOP candidates,” and asked Osteen what he thought of the more political evangelical factions.
“I do think, at times, the evangelical gets a label that becomes more political,” he said. “That’s what I don’t like. When it’s so politicized.”
Osteen has stirred some criticism among evangelicals for offering a rather breezy take on scriptures. But James B. Twitchell, a professor of English and advertising at the University of Florida, told The New York Times, “[I]n truth, what he’s producing is a wild and alluring community.”
Regardless of what one thinks of Osteen’s style, his policy of keeping his pulpit free of politics is praiseworthy.
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