Jeol Osteen gets $4.4 mil in Paycheck Protection Program

[Dancefortwo]

Poor Osteen.  He's so needy and could really use that $4.4 million.   

His rag-tag little cottage could sure could use some upkeep.   

[Minimalist]

LOL.  The phony motherfucker never worked a day in his life.

What a country.

[Thumpalumpacus]

All this time I've clearly been doing it wrong.

[Deesse23]

Poor Osteen.  He's so needy and could really use that $4.4 million.   

His rag-tag little cottage could sure could use some upkeep.   

That swimming pool really is a bit undersized. I am also missing a (artificial) lake. No spires on the roofs?
Sorry, but i have standards.

[no one]

Thumps:
All this time I've clearly been doing it wrong.

Indeed. Snake oil sales is an extremely lucrative business. Perhaps Jacob Marley could be petitioned to loan out those "Mankind should have been my business" ghosts for poor old Joel.

[SYZ]

Poor Osteen.  He's so needy and could really use that $4.4 million...   

His mega-church Lakewood was amongst at least 60 religious organisations in Texas
that each received more than $1 million in loans through the stimulus package, according
to new data released by the Small Business Administration.

At $4.4 million, Lakewood's loan was just ahead of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston,
which received about $4 million. The Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese also received
about $4.5 million.

The Paycheck Protection Program was unprecedented because it marked the first time the
federal government extended a direct lifeline to untaxed religious institutions and houses
of worship.  If these churches are not paying payroll tax, then why should the government
be subsidising them—considering the massive tax savings they're already enjoyed?

Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State called for stronger
oversight for both houses of worship and the many private, religious schools that also
received loans. "We’re moving into this area of taxpayer-funded religion at a time when
that’s not what people want", he said.

—Excerpted from the Houston Chronicle, 15 December 2020.

[mordant]

Poor Osteen.  He's so needy and could really use that $4.4 million...   

His mega-church Lakewood was amongst at least 60 religious organisations in Texas
that each received more than $1 million in loans through the stimulus package, according
to new data released by the Small Business Administration.

At $4.4 million, Lakewood's loan was just ahead of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston,
which received about $4 million. The Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese also received
about $4.5 million.

The Paycheck Protection Program was unprecedented because it marked the first time the
federal government extended a direct lifeline to untaxed religious institutions and houses
of worship.  If these churches are not paying payroll tax, then why should the government
be subsidising them—considering the massive tax savings they're already enjoyed?

Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State called for stronger
oversight for both houses of worship and the many private, religious schools that also
received loans. "We’re moving into this area of taxpayer-funded religion at a time when
that’s not what people want", he said.

—Excerpted from the Houston Chronicle, 15 December 2020.

Much as I don't like the Catholic Church, given that in most areas Catholic Charities gets at most a few percentage points of its budget from the Church, raises most of it on its own and does actual social good in its communities, I am not opposed to the loans going to Catholic Charities unless it has unusually close ties of the Galveston-Houstion archdiocese, or the latter is somehow siphoning off some of those funds for itself. I actually contribute to CC in my community because they are the only org providing certain concrete help to the poor and homeless here, e.g., warm winter clothing, apartment deposits, homeless shelters, shelters for abused women. In cases where county or city government provides the same services, they tend to putatively refuse them to people with addiction issues, whereas CC will not.

Loans for the archdiocese itself, or for other churches like Osteen's, is another matter altogether. Osteen's church famously denied shelter to people made homeless by the hurricane floods, for example. They exist only for their own self-enrichment and mostly don't even make a show of doing anything of no-strings community benefit.

[Dancefortwo]

Thumps:
All this time I've clearly been doing it wrong.

Indeed. Snake oil sales is an extremely lucrative business. Perhaps Jacob Marley could be petitioned to loan out those "Mankind should have been my business" ghosts for poor old Joel.

So true.  Here I am doing theatre work when I could take those talents and start a church.  Honestly,  there is very little difference between church and theatre.   The both have an audience which is focused on a stage where dramatic storytelling takes place.  In many  churches the main "actor" wears a dramatic costume based on ancient Greek tunics.  Most churches have something similar to the Greek theatre chorus.   

When I was a student I took several theatre history classes.  There is a long tradition of Christianity attempting to shut down theatres because actors were morally reprehensible.   It was suspected  that actors were evil because, like Satan, they change forms and turn into different characters.   The only good theatre for Christianity was the old fashioned "passion plays" and re-enactments of Jesus' life.  But these days Evangelical churches put on what is essentially  an overbloated, over hyped theatrical event.  It's all smoke and mirrors . 


I remember an interview with British actor, Laurence Olivier, whose father was a rector or a clergyman or something like that in the English church and he spoke often of how much he was influenced by the theatricality of his fathers church service.