EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis): Take courage you Greek Orthodox faithful – you are not alone!! Other church “leaders” are leading the way in corruption and it seems that they are stuck in their old ways – cash! They haven’t discovered cryptocurrencies yet!! But I think the “Green” Patriarch Bartholomew still holds the record in cash accumulation: over 10 million annually with the diplomatic luggage from the Greek Foreign Ministry, untold millions every time the “Throne Hierarchs” visit Istanbul, a new source of cash from Ukraine (filling the luggage of Met. Emmanuel and destined for Swiss Bank accounts) and God only knows what else…
But Joel Olsteen? Yes, corruption is omnipotent… The private jet his megachurch provides for him is not nearly enough to satisfy his “lust for God”…
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SOURCE: BIZPACREVIEW.COM
Hordes of cash discovered in bathroom wall of Joel Osteen’s megachurch sparks flurry of speculation
Televangelist and “prosperity gospel” hawker Joel Osteen may find it easier to put a camel through the eye of a needle than to recover his image after a plumber discovered a stolen horde of material wealth in the walls of his megachurch.
Years ago, back in 2014, someone stole $600,000 in cash and checks from a safe at Osteen’s Lakewood Church. Now, the missing cash seems to have re-surfaced, thanks to the unwitting efforts of a plumber called in to do a bathroom repair at the megachurch, who discovered the reported “bags and bags” of cash in the wall.
One of the plumbers, a subcontractor identified only as Justin, called into radio morning show Morning Bullpen at 100.3 The Bull, saying that his superior contractor got a call about a loose toilet at Lakewood, and Justin’s crew arrived to do the job, which he had no reason to believe wouldn’t be like any other, until the shocking discovery, according to Click 2 Houston, which broke the story to the world at large (audio of the phone call from Justin is available on their site).
“There was a loose toilet in the wall, and we removed the tile. We went to go remove the toilet, and I moved some insulation away and about 500 envelopes fell out of the wall, and I was like ‘Oh wow!’”
Justin then went on to call his supervisor, who called the Houston police. The incident ended up requiring him to stay for 7 hours while police questioned him and examined the scene.
The incident has brought in a flurry of commentary and speculation, the most common theme being that Osteen himself is responsible, and that this is his personal stash that has been uncovered.
Others noted the extravagant, wealthy lifestyle the pastor leads:
Still, others took the moment to draw attention to the time he declined to open up his Lakewood church to Hurricane Harvey victims in 2017:
While $25,000 in reward money was offered for finding out who was behind the 2014 grab, Justin allegedly hasn’t seen a penny of it, despite numerous attempts to contact Osteen and Crime Stoppers of Houston. For their part, Crime Stoppers says that the reward money is for information leading to the arrest of the culprit, not simply discovering the lost cash, and that the statute of limitations has expired anyway, therefore no reward money will be paid out.
Truth be told uber materialists like televangelist Osteen are not much different from greedy GOA leaders and greedy Istanbul Fanar.
Religion has become a collective joke.
Joel needs to let GO hierarchs introduce him to offshore Russian banks in Cyprus and also Swiss banks favored by Bart and his boys in the band. Much better than walls. Wasn’t this money stolen by an employee?
Nevertheless, I often flip away from Byzantine services that GRIND on in a foreign language to Joel’s uplifting messages.
Oh well, will I go to hell? If I do, I am sure to see lots of our guys.
Difficult to throw stones with many skeletons in our own closet. That being said, Olstein is a great motivational speaker but not a preacher of the Gospel. Having read one of his books and listened to him a few times, he has never mentioned sin or repentance. Positive thinking is central to his messages which I don’t find in the scripture. He is a polished communicator with an empty message.
Joel can draw 40,000 attendees to one service. The latest religious census concludes that no more than 89,000 Greek Orthodox adherents attend church in the WHOLE USA. Joel’s single service draws half of our national attendance. Our joke GOA leaders should chew on that for a while !
Get rid of 5013c church corporations
Starting with The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, a 501c3 grift.
You are right, jk! Osteen is a polished, Christian entertainer, nothing more….he doesn’t get to the meat and potatoes of any Christian faith; sin, repentance, reverence, holy sacraments, forgiveness…. only fluff.
For all those who have ears to hear; shut down your television and open your Greek Orthodox Bible and read….😇
Think on the significance of this…
The Holy Spirit brings the darkness of evil into the light by something as simple as a toilet repair.
As a long time believer, I trust God to bring something wrong into the light. Amen!
Osteen is an absolute embarrassment for believers. He is nothing but a ‘tickler’ of words and dry bones.
A certain person recently wanted a funeral for his beloved dog. He went to a Greek Orthodox priest and asked him if he’d do it. The Priest very sternly said: ” We don’t perform sacraments for animals.”
The distraught person said he was Greek himself and was going to make a 5,000 dollar donation to the priest’s parish…
The priest then said with glee: Well -why didn’t you tell me the dog was Greek!”
Wonder if they found any gold cufflinks with those envelopes?! 😉
I’m not taking any side, but why is everyone so easily accusing Joel Osteen of doing this with the money? Is there any proof it was him that took the money and put it in the walls of the bathroom? I didn’t see anything mentioning that in the article or anywhere else. It’s very possible that someone within his organization stole the money and put it there for himself probably to take at a later time. If Joel Osteen wanted to steal do you think he would be that stupid to stuff money into a wall in the men’s bathroom? LOL come one, just the thought of that is ridiculous. I mean, it’s his own church for goodness sake, he doesn’t need to stuff walls with cash if he wanted to take extra money for himself LOL. Whoever says that you made me laugh a lot today!
John-
I don’t think anyone was accusing Osteen himself of steeling or hiding the checks and cash inside the bathroom wall himself.
Obviously though, the theft which was reported and insurance money received as a result of the theft was done by an insider who belongs to the church.
Furthermore, Osteen has a $10,000,000 some odd mansion, a Rolls Royce and a private plane in which he happily travels around in order to spread the gospel of his ‘carbon footprint’.
The man is a joke and an imposter! Remember, in the end days(and we are in the end times) most people will be deceived. So don’t be deceived.