That Cheshire Grin

This morning I saw Joel Osteen on the Today show or one of those other morning coffee news light shows. He as always sounded pleasant and had that painted on smile. It's hard not to like him but you know somehow I always managed to feel a little queasy when I see him. Yesterday morning on his Sunday Morning broadcast I finally understood what is that is inherently wrong with him. I don't mean theologically I have understood why is theology is crap for years. I overlook bad theology most people are morons about theology anyway. No it is much deeper. His belief system removes normal compassionate understanding and tolerance. He demonstrated it with a story he told of driving through a Houston neighborhood with what he described as “sloppy houses” one after the other of poorly kept lawns and houses in need of fresh paint. Then he came across a house with a nice lawn and good paint job. He was impressed and latter learned the owner went to his mega church. This demonstrated the superiority of his congregation everyone was terribly pleased with themselves for their neat lawns and well painted houses. Not once did the thought occur to him many of the people in those sloppy houses may have had financial or health problems. Perhaps cancer had drained their household funds. Perhaps they were elderly and could not afford a lawn service. There are hundreds of reasons people may not be able to avoid a “sloppy house” Unlike people like Osteen and his daddy before him these people are not given large amounts of donations from total strangers for doing nothing but smiling and saying pleasantries on TV. The very thought of organizing neighborhood volunteers to help improve the neighborhood did not occur to him; he merely judged all the sloppy house people and praised the neat house. All theology aside and there is plenty in the Bible to condemn him; just from a basic sense of common decency he fails to be as human as he could be. He equates success and leisure with faith and devotion. He invents a world where goodness and worldly success go hand in hand and by implication poverty and disease are associated with a lack of faith and being in an ungodly state. The basic truth that everyone gets old weak and dies is ignored in his worldview. It is incredibly childish. I now know clearly why I have that uneasy feeling when I see that Cheshire grin.