Sunday, July 17, 2005
NEW MEGA CHURCH IN HOUSTON
Two elements of the article stand out:
An article this week in the liberal Protestant magazine The Christian Century calls Osteen an “easy theological target” who turns the language of the Scriptures “into a vague religiosity, or into more digestible categories of self-help and self-improvement.”
Self-salvation. In other words, we can save ourselves by improving our human nature. The same message peddled by the Masonic Lodge. The same message peddled by the Theosophists. And look how easily it catches on!
The facility has the same TV screens that can be found at Matthew Fox's rave masses. This is an "entertainment" church. Is the visual image used as a substitute for preaching because "a picture is worth a thoudand words" and is much more difficult to refute? Have some of our large cathedrals been remodeled to accommodate this sort of church? Edward Sovik, the inspiration of Fr. Joseph Vosko, was very much in favor of "meeting spaces" to replace churches, places where activities other than religious services can be held.
Absent, however, is a cross, an image of God or Jesus Christ or any other traditional religious symbols. Osteen said his father never displayed such symbols and he simply continued the tradition. Instead, the new location will feature a larger version of the church’s trademark globe, rotating slowly behind Osteen as he preaches.
The church of the world. The church of the anti-Christ? Who, after all, is the prince of this world?
There is this comment which sounds all too familiar: "In response to critics of Osteen’s motivational, easygoing approach, his mother, Dodie Osteen said: 'We don’t preach the gospel sad, we preach it glad.'" So does the Catholic Church in recent years, though She had not always done so.
