*After Houston televangelist Joel Osteen came under fire for keeping the doors to his 16,800-seat Lakewood megachurch closed to flood evacuees displaced by Hurricane Harvey, the pastor has had a sudden change of heart.
Twitter user Charles Clymer posted a photo Monday evening that showed air mattresses being prepared for people inside the church.
Lakewood Church apparently bought countless air mattresses and are prepping to open their doors. Took a while but good news.#JoelOsteen pic.twitter.com/MYXf1HqAbF
— Charles Clymer?️? (@cmclymer) August 29, 2017
“We have never closed our doors,” Osteen now claims in a statement reported by ABC and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We will continue to be a distribution center to those in need. We are prepared to house people once shelters reach capacity. Lakewood will be a value to the community in the aftermath of this storm.”
As previously reported, Osteen had come under fire on social media for allowing his huge worship facility, the former home of the Houston Rockets, to remain empty as thousands of displaced citizens are being forced into shelters that have already reached capacity.
Lakewood said in a Facebook post on Sunday morning that it’s “inaccessible due to flooding” and directed folks to a number of other shelters.
But as pressure mounted for Osteen and Lakewood to do something more helpful than tweet “thoughts and prayers” to those affected and links to other locations, Twitter sleuths came up with receipts proving that his church, in fact, was not the least bit “inaccessible due to flooding.”
Houston’s @indivisible_usa is acquainted with @JoelOsteen‘s Lakewood Church. They took these pics about an hour ago w/ commentary. pic.twitter.com/YTWrD9UG1z
— Charles Clymer?️? (@cmclymer) August 28, 2017
@cmclymer Looking pretty passable to me from this side, stay tuned for further exploration pic.twitter.com/dlrYGeLgBj
— Allie (@AlleyCat_Allie) August 28, 2017
@cmclymer Worth noting that some of their parking is underground (note flood gates) but they could still drop ppl off at the door easily pic.twitter.com/Mso4GTLuF2
— Allie (@AlleyCat_Allie) August 28, 2017
@cmclymer Last one before I packed it in (too wet/windy): the back is blocked off even though it’s bone dry pic.twitter.com/TJ8GQJMTGC
— Allie (@AlleyCat_Allie) August 28, 2017
. It doesn’t make sense why you’re not opening up your mega church to house Houston citizens, help me understand that. Jesus. pic.twitter.com/CzCiEtbkgY
— Emily Timbol (@EmilyTimbol) August 28, 2017
Lakewood members
Lakewood members took offense.
Houston blogger Lynne Gabriel, @heyitslynneg, tweeted photos of the church’s flooded interior and wrote, “Seriously quite sickening when people spread negative news without knowing the situation.”
Seriously quite sickening when people spread negative news without knowing the situation. This is the situation of our church @lakewoodch pic.twitter.com/0KKBmu6hW8
— Lynne Gabriel (@heyitslynneg) August 28, 2017
Despite the flooding depicted in the above tweet, the church is reportedly preparing to provide temporary housing for evacuees
Mashable reporter Patrick Kulp details the timeline of Lakewood’s slow response to the crisis, below:
Aside from that initial post this weekend, the church was silent on the matter. Emails were not returned, and an automated phone message said no one could answer because of “inclement weather conditions in our area.”
A statement from the church issued later on Monday afternoon said it had volunteers working in shelters around the city, but made no mention of the status of its building or its prospects as a similar relief zone.
“We are working diligently with the city of Houston to mobilize our many volunteers at shelters around the city as well as various other points of need in and around the Houston area,” the statement posted to Facebook read. “In addition, we are working with Samaritan’s Purse on major relief efforts.”
A church spokesperson told a Slate reporter that the church is open, but its social media channels made no mention of that change.
I spoke with a Lakewood Church spokesman today who said no one from the city, county, etc. has requested Lakewood open as a shelter.
— Ruth Graham (@publicroad) August 28, 2017
New statement from @JoelOsteen and Lakewood Church in regards to Hurricane Harvey backlash pic.twitter.com/KLMNYysc6s
— Anastasia (@AnastasiaElyseW) August 29, 2017
As for Osteen himself, the superstar pastor has punctuated his usual stream of religious aphorisms on Twitter with a few calls to pray for Harvey victims, but he’s stayed mum on the church controversy. Making the optics worse, he’s also reportedly blocked users who’ve asked him about it.
Asked Joel Osteen why he won’t open his megachurch to Harvey victims he blocked me. Church reaps $77M tax free annually #HoustonStrong pic.twitter.com/WhdY1KEKNV
— Facial Merkin (@facialmerkin) August 28, 2017
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