{"id":3221,"date":"2012-01-31T16:00:37","date_gmt":"2012-01-31T16:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/owenstrachan.com\/?p=3221"},"modified":"2012-01-31T16:00:37","modified_gmt":"2012-01-31T16:00:37","slug":"the-salon-writer-who-fell-in-love-with-joel-osteens-megachurch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/01\/the-salon-writer-who-fell-in-love-with-joel-osteens-megachurch\/","title":{"rendered":"The Salon Writer Who Fell in Love with Joel Osteen’s Megachurch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>This is one of the more unexpected pieces I\u2019ve come across in a while.\u00a0 A woman journalist who writes for Salon<\/em> and other leading publications, secular-minded and skeptically oriented, found herself in Houston and started attending Lakewood Church<\/a>.\u00a0 For those who don\u2019t know, this is health-and-wealth preacher Joel Osteen\u2019s congregation.\u00a0 These are two constituent elements\u2013secular journalist and fluffy Protestantism\u2013that normally do not mix.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what Alexis Grant<\/a> (a Colby College grad, bitter rival of my alma mater!) said of her initial enthusiasm for Osteen\u2019s church:<\/p>\n

I could hear the music even before entering the stadium, just like during my first visit with my girlfriends. But this time I was the one alone \u2013 and on the verge of tears. Even more than being mad at my ex, I was mad at myself<\/em> for wallowing over a man when life had something exciting in store for me: I was about to leave my job to go backpacking through Africa, a trip I\u2019d dreamed about for years. Three more months and I\u2019d be on the plane, out in the world, free. Why couldn\u2019t I focus on that?<\/p>\n

But at Lakewood, emotion pulsed through the crowd. People sang loudly, with both hands outstretched, palms toward their God as if to receive whatever he offered. I put my hands out too, feeling sheepish, glancing around to see if anyone could tell I was a newbie. Soon the whole place was jumping up and down and belting the lyrics, \u201cI\u2019m Still Standing.\u201d (Think worship lyrics; not<\/em> the Elton John song.) As they waved their arms in the air, I hoped their strength would rub off on me.<\/p>\n

She found more \u201cmotivation\u201d and less religion at Lakewood:<\/p>\n

Yet Lakewood felt more motivational than religious \u2013 or maybe that was simply what I wanted it to be. Ironically, the secular spirit that drew me there was exactly why some religious folk criticized Osteen: They complained he wasn\u2019t religious enough<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When Osteen did invoke religious images or drift into Jesus talk, I\u2019d tweak his words so they worked for me. He said things were in God\u2019s hands; I heard it as fate\u2019s hands. He said God would send luck my way; I told myself to make my own luck. By performing this sort of calculus, I managed to convince myself that I wasn\u2019t becoming one of those religious nuts.<\/p>\n

Definitely read the whole thing.<\/a>\u00a0 It\u2019s nicely-written and quite interesting.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s obvious throughout the piece that Grant hears little in the way of traditional evangelical doctrine from Osteen.\u00a0 The focus, as we would expect, is on finding purpose, being happy, and getting motivated to become one\u2019s best self (driven by God-given \u201cluck\u201d!).\u00a0 That is obviously a problem of catastrophic proportions, for though this sort of talk sounds fine and even Christian, if divorced from the gospel and not handled with great exegetical care it is spiritually disastrous, mere men-pleasing talk.<\/p>\n

It is also heartbreaking to read of Grant\u2019s own search for something greater than herself.\u00a0 We\u2019re reminded through her story that there are people just like us all around us who act happy and may even think they\u2019re happy but have little means of finding happiness.\u00a0 You can be well-educated, literarily gifted, young and fresh, thinking the world is your oyster, and have nothing at all.\u00a0 There are many around us who have had no engagement with a church, have heard no news from another world, and are lost and adrift.<\/p>\n

Speaking of \u201cmotivation,\u201d that should be all we need to strategize ways to introduce people like Alexis Grant, talented <\/em>journalist, to a God who does something so much greater than \u201csend luck our way,\u201d but who in Christ becomes sin for us in order that we might pass through this earthly fire and join God himself in the life to come, world without end, amen.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is one of the more unexpected pieces I\u2019ve come across in a while.\u00a0 A woman journalist who writes for Salon and other leading publications, secular-minded and skeptically oriented, found herself in Houston and started attending Lakewood Church.\u00a0 For those who don\u2019t know, this is health-and-wealth preacher Joel Osteen\u2019s congregation.\u00a0 These are two constituent elements\u2013secular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,131],"tags":[451,1508,13176,1703,1826,2403,2552],"class_list":["post-3221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-life","category-evangelism","tag-alexis-grant","tag-health-and-wealth","tag-jesus-christ","tag-joel-osteen","tag-lakewood-church","tag-prosperity-gospel","tag-salon"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Salon Writer Who Fell in Love with Joel Osteen's Megachurch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is one of the more unexpected pieces I've come across in a while.\u00a0 A woman journalist who writes for Salon and other leading publications,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/01\/the-salon-writer-who-fell-in-love-with-joel-osteens-megachurch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Salon Writer Who Fell in Love with Joel Osteen's Megachurch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is one of the more unexpected pieces I've come across in a while.\u00a0 A woman journalist who writes for Salon and other leading publications,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/01\/the-salon-writer-who-fell-in-love-with-joel-osteens-megachurch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thought Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-31T16:00:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/files\/2012\/01\/lakewoodchurch.jpg?w=300\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Owen Strachan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Owen Strachan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/01\/the-salon-writer-who-fell-in-love-with-joel-osteens-megachurch\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/01\/the-salon-writer-who-fell-in-love-with-joel-osteens-megachurch\/\",\"name\":\"The Salon Writer Who Fell in Love with Joel Osteen's Megachurch\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-01-31T16:00:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-01-31T16:00:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/75c661f536302cda0daa8b7615fd8e53\"},\"description\":\"This is one of the more unexpected pieces I've come across in a while.\u00a0 A woman journalist who writes for Salon and other leading publications,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/01\/the-salon-writer-who-fell-in-love-with-joel-osteens-megachurch\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/01\/the-salon-writer-who-fell-in-love-with-joel-osteens-megachurch\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/01\/the-salon-writer-who-fell-in-love-with-joel-osteens-megachurch\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Salon Writer Who Fell in Love with Joel Osteen’s Megachurch\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/\",\"name\":\"Thought Life\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/75c661f536302cda0daa8b7615fd8e53\",\"name\":\"Owen Strachan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2dbab262f37be4cfe0660ee979173e8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2dbab262f37be4cfe0660ee979173e8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Owen Strachan\"},\"sameAs\":[\"brandygrenier\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/author\/ostrachan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Salon Writer Who Fell in Love with Joel Osteen's Megachurch","description":"This is one of the more unexpected pieces I've come across in a while.\u00a0 A woman journalist who writes for Salon and other leading publications,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/01\/the-salon-writer-who-fell-in-love-with-joel-osteens-megachurch\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Salon Writer Who Fell in Love with Joel Osteen's Megachurch","og_description":"This is one of the more unexpected pieces I've come across in a while.\u00a0 A woman journalist who writes for Salon and other leading publications,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/01\/the-salon-writer-who-fell-in-love-with-joel-osteens-megachurch\/","og_site_name":"Thought Life","article_published_time":"2012-01-31T16:00:37+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/files\/2012\/01\/lakewoodchurch.jpg?w=300"}],"author":"Owen Strachan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Owen Strachan","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/01\/the-salon-writer-who-fell-in-love-with-joel-osteens-megachurch\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/01\/the-salon-writer-who-fell-in-love-with-joel-osteens-megachurch\/","name":"The Salon Writer Who Fell in Love with Joel Osteen's Megachurch","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-01-31T16:00:37+00:00","dateModified":"2012-01-31T16:00:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/75c661f536302cda0daa8b7615fd8e53"},"description":"This is one of the more unexpected pieces I've come across in a while.\u00a0 A woman journalist who writes for Salon and other leading publications,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/01\/the-salon-writer-who-fell-in-love-with-joel-osteens-megachurch\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/01\/the-salon-writer-who-fell-in-love-with-joel-osteens-megachurch\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/01\/the-salon-writer-who-fell-in-love-with-joel-osteens-megachurch\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Salon Writer Who Fell in Love with Joel Osteen’s Megachurch"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/","name":"Thought Life","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/75c661f536302cda0daa8b7615fd8e53","name":"Owen Strachan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2dbab262f37be4cfe0660ee979173e8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2dbab262f37be4cfe0660ee979173e8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Owen Strachan"},"sameAs":["brandygrenier"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/author\/ostrachan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}