The Scapegoat

It appears that the public has found its scapegoat for the hurricane and flooding in Houston.  You may recall that the person blamed for all failures during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in FEMA Director Michael Brown--especially after President Bush told the world "Brownie's doin' a great job" while news video continued to show people hoping to be rescued from their roofs.  President Bush was blamed as well--because he didn't come to New Orleans soon enough (because he was a racist that didn't care about the predominantly black victims of the flooding)--as opposed to President Trump, who is being criticized for coming to Houston too soon because resources used to protect him and coordinate the visit should be used in search and rescue efforts.

Amazingly, the scapegoat for Hurricane Harvey is not a Republican politician or a political appointee.  Instead, public scorn has turned against Pastor Joel Osteen.  If the name sounds familiar, you have likely seen Osteen's televised sermons--or seen him interviewed on talk shows--usually about coping with disaster or loss.  Osteen is the pastor at Lakewood Church--a mega-church that purchased the former Summit Arena where the Houston Rockets used to play in order to seat more than 16-thousand people for their services. 

Lakewood Church is coming under fire because it closed its doors this week--and is not taking in evacuees from flooded parts of the city.  "Church officials"--not Osteen himself--issued a press release stating that the area around the church is inaccessible--which led hundreds of people to drive down to the church site and post pictures on-line of non-flooded streets and a building with the lights still on.  Many of those posts are then followed by pictures of Osteen's multi-million dollar estate--from where he is believed to be tweeting generic bromides about grace and faith.  Lakewood is adding to the public outrage by launching a hurricane relief donation page that does not promise to share the money with the Red Cross or other disaster relief groups--but rather will go to Lakewood itself and its "efforts to rebuild the community".

Contrast that to former Wisconsin Badger and current Houston Texans defensive lineman JJ Watt, who is becoming even more of a hero in Houston by donating $100,000 to hurricane relief efforts and challenging his fans to contribute even more.  That fund is quickly approaching a million bucks. 

Is Joel Osteen to blame for a hurricane hitting Houston--stalling along its path and dumping prodigious amounts of rain upon the area?  Obviously not--despite his claims to have "connections" with the power his followers believe controls such phenomenon.  But failing to follow through on the promise of service and aid to those in need certainly makes you an easy target.