Pastor Joel Osteen doubled down on his defense for not opening his Houston church to flood evacuees sooner.
In an interview with the Today show Wednesday morning, Osteen said that his church has worked with the city in the past, but that the city didn’t reach out to use them as a shelter before Hurricane Harvey hit.
Harvey made landfall on Friday, and left thousands displaced. But Lakewood Church wasn’t opened up until Tuesday, because of safety concerns, Osteen said.
‘If people were here, they’d realize that there were safety issues,’ Osteen said. ‘This building had flooded before, and so we were just being precautious. But the main thing is that the city didn’t ask us to become a shelter then.’
Pastor Joel Osteen doubled down on his defense for not opening his Houston church to flood evacuees sooner
He added: ‘I mean think of the story if we would have housed a whole bunch of evacuees and the building flooded. That wouldn’t have been a good story.’
During the storm, Osteen says that his own niece became stranded just across the street and that the building was just a foot away from becoming flooded itself.
He says he might have done some things differently if he had a second chance, but that he doesn’t think they would have opened any sooner.
Because the city hadn’t asked them to become a shelter, Osteen says they weren’t prepared to open the building as an official shelter because they didn’t have the volunteers or staff in place.
Osteen drew flak on social media when it was revealed that his church wasn’t opened sooner.
He wanted to set the record straight, saying that in fact they did welcome some stranded victims a few days after landfall and that they never turned anyone away. They just weren’t set up as an official shelter.
‘Our church has always been open…I think this notion that somehow we would turn people away or that we weren’t here for the city is about as false as can be,’ he said.
He said he’s not concerned about the negative attention.
‘Social media doesn’t run our life. We run our ministry, we do what we were called to do. Everybody that’s making a difference is going to have critics,’ he said.
He added: ‘We try to use the best wisdom we can and the main thing is we’ve been here for 60 years to help this city, and be a blessing to others. That’s what we’re going to continue to do long after the media and everything’s died down. We’ll be here five years from now helping these people, so we feel good about who we are and what we’re doing.’
The church is now being used as a distribution center for the Houston victims, where people can drop off supplies. The city is also setting up a command center there.
Osteen says people can help out by donating to the Red Cross and other charities.
‘I think now we need prayer and support and anyway you can make a difference,’ he said.