Joel Osteen is mighty wealthy for a man who supposedly makes no money from his church. The 60-year-old megachurch pastor and televangelist is absolutely swimming in cash, some of which he’ll hopefully use to aid his congregation through a horrific time.
Osteen’s megachurch, Lakewood Church, was recently the target of a violent attack from a mentally ill woman. Genesse Ivonne Moreno unloaded an AR-15 in between services and wounded one person in the process. She was taken down by two off-duty Houston police officers serving as security, who killed Moreno while returning fire, but her 5-year-old son, who accompanied her to the church, was also critically injured. Only one other injury was sustained, according to reports, but Lakewood Church members will still walk away from the experience with scars.
Osteen wasn’t injured in the exchange of gunfire, but over on X, formerly Twitter, he did say that his “community is devastated” in the wake of the attack. He urged his followers to find solace in God, and asked for prayers as they recover. The attack has prompted renewed scrutiny of Osteen, who serves as a smiling, amicable example of a damaging trend in Christianity. A trend that sees pastors — people propped up as the approachable, kind representatives of the religious community — gain immeasurable wealth by carefully manipulating the word of God to enrich themselves.
Joel Osteen’s private jet
Private jet owners make up less than one percent of the global population, in total, due to the impossibly high price of owning your own personal plane. Add to that the sky-high emissions put out by these personal aircraft, and its increasingly a bad look to maintain a private jet rather than slumming it on public planes like the rest of us.
Joel Osteen numbers among those rare private jet owners’ ranks, after buying up a pricey $68 million Airbus A319, one of the more expensive jets out there. So much for a humble man of God. The environment-ruining jet is just one lavish element of Osteen’s life, mixed in with a luxurious $10.5 million Houston mansion, a costly car collection, and opulent clothing. The man is worth a reported $100 million all on his own, and — while he has chipped away at the eye-popping number for the rare charity effort — he seems perfectly content to keep all that wealth to himself.