Americans have once again found themselves utterly disgusted with the infamous Joel Osteen when the Texas megachurch pastor appeared to be a bit overly “jolly” when speaking to the press just moments after news broke that his church was the target of a shooting.
News broke yesterday that a woman, now identified as 36-year-old Genesse Ivonne Moreno, walked into Lakewood Church in Houston, TX, wearing a trench coat and a backpack with a 5-year-old with her, and opened fire inside the former Houston Rockets arena turned massive megachurch, while they were “in between services.”
Moreno was shot and killed by officers on the scene. The 5-year-old boy was also shot during the attack and is reported to be alive but in critical condition. One other man was left injured.
The 60-year-old televangelist is now under fire on social media due to his seemingly inappropriate reaction to the shooting inside his megachurch when talking to reporters in the aftermath of the attack, with people calling Osteen a “showman” and “con man.”
“OSTEEN IS THE POSTER BOY FOR A FAKE CHRISTIAN,” one X (formerly known as Twitter) user wrote in a caption of the news clip, before going on to call the televangelist a “showman” and stating, “He’s not a real Christian, he is a professional con artist.”
OSTEEN IS THE POSTER BOY FOR A FAKE CHRISTIAN:
Quoting scripture, conning everyone desperate for miracles.#JoelOsteen is a SHOWMAN, just like Trump. He’s not a real Christian, he is a professional con artist.#ResistanceUnited #VoteBlue 🇺🇸
👇🏼
pic.twitter.com/4d3CXQFSks— Samia Ali Salama ✍️ (@SamiaAliSalama8) February 12, 2024
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People across social media were quick to notice Osteen’s somewhat strange demeanor and had plenty of thoughts about the “prosperity” pastor as a whole in the wake of the attack:
He looks a bit too jolly doesn’t he?
— Dervish🌪️⚡ (@since1620) February 12, 2024
Thoughts and Prayers finally worked yesterday during the shooting at Joel Osteen’s Mega Church. The money was unharmed.
— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) February 12, 2024
Yesterday a woman walked into Joel Osteen’s Texas megachurch with an AR-15 that had “Free Palestine” written on it.
2 individuals were wounded (including a young child) and the woman was killed.
Joel Osteen then came out and said, “We don’t understand why these things… pic.twitter.com/aJo8sYtsRQ
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) February 12, 2024
Anybody notice that Joel Osteen was smiling while talking about his god taking care of things after a woman was shot and killed and a child was shot and is in critical condition?
— Wokey McWokeFace (@Brandenemiller) February 12, 2024
A woman walks into the church of Joel Osteen and opens fire. Two off-duty police officers working security kill her, they also managed to shoot a five year old child. Did anyone notice the smirk on Osteen’s face when he was talking to the media? Maybe it was the Botox doing that.
— KT (@sloyoroll01973) February 12, 2024
Watching @JoelOsteen on the news while he’s talking about the tragedy that happened at his church yesterday with a smirk on his face. Get your wallets ready for him. pic.twitter.com/XTcjfB0YiI
— Gary 🟧 (@gscucci) February 12, 2024
This isn’t the first time Osteen has been the subject of the internet in recent weeks, as Americans recently took him to task for his less-than-humble and tear-filled brag about paying off the $100 million loan taken out by the church to convert the 16,000 capacity former NBA stadium into his massive mega-church in only 19 years.
Featured image via screen capture