Opine on Joel Osteen
- Thread starter AC_Exotic
- Start date
Con-man. Prosperity gospel misleads and ultimately leads people away from Christ when things don't come to fruition.
Decent motivational speaker selling prosperity gospel.
think he spreads more good than bad...and you tulsa guys know he went to oru, right? He's a highly commercialized preacher who went all in and hit it. Not sure if he owns a aircraft or not...yet. Went and saw him in tulsa a few years ago...was disappointed but that's just me. I think he's harmless.
Like a lot of televangelist (Graham, Farwell, Roberts) he seems to have just taken up the family business. I guess its easier then getting a job. Positives he does have an actual church he's responsible for and he's not political. I'm personally not a fan of either the mega church nor the prosperity gospel but a lot of people seem drawn to his church so he must provide them some benefit.
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I have a little insight into this church and pastor. How they produce the TV show or what is on TV is not exactly what is 100% of the sermon in person. They do show more or the prosperity gospel for TV. My personal opinion is if he is getting people saved then why should we care. God can use different people or even bad people to get people saved. Jesus saves not preachers or churches. It is through Christ that you are saved it doesn't matter who leads you to Him. I personally think Christians do way to much worrying about each other and not enough of leading people to Christ.
I agree, Vito.
I worked for Jim Rohn for a few years and I tend to like the bible driven personal development aspect. I like Osteen's message, but dont know that much more about him. I would not send him any cash, but would probably go to see him speak.
Actually, like the rest of us, he pays taxes. Self-employment taxes at that, which is double the rate most of us pay.
What's non taxable is the "non profit" church income and all its properties including the "parsonage" in which he lives.
Not sure why he would be self employed but even if he is the net SS and Medicare tax burden is the same as the other half is paid by the employer. As a ministry he also has the option to opt out of social security entirely.
What he does pay is income tax on whatever his salary is.
You're not sure why he is self-employed? Because that's what the idiots that make the tax code for the IRS say he is supposed to do. According to the tax code, a pastor doesn't have an employer and his church isn't responsible for paying net SS and Medicare tax, the pastor is (as is the case with all self-employed individuals).
Every single bit of his income is taxable. There is no such thing as "non profit" income for a preacher.
Church property isn't taxed and it shouldn't be, as is the case with any non-profit organization in the United States.
Start taxing non profit organizations' properties and 95% of them get shut down. Most people wouldn't like what our country would start to look like without non profit organizations in play.
I've served on church finance committees. The vast majority of ministers are treated as employees.
We will have to disagree on whether church property should be tax exempt. Its one thing for you local church building to be non- taxable its another for millions in real estate that have little or nothing to do with their ministry to be so.
America will be just fine.
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I don't believe you.
If your claim is true, I sincerely hope the irs doesn't go digging into your committee's work.
A pastors tax liability goes up with a parsonage. It is an tax advantage for them to own their own home.
Why is everything so personnel with you?
Trust me the pastors I dealt with were highly honest men who made less then 30K a year in most cases. The IRS isn't going to find anything on them or the church. That describes 90% of the people I have ever known in the ministry who mostly lived pay check to pay check. No one got rich.
You two are forgetting the reason a pastor pays his/her double up taxes, the housing allowance. The housing allowance is the best thing the IRS has done for pastors. In my net pay it comes out to around a 30% increase, that is huge. Some pastors in California and New York pay $0 in federal taxes because of their housing allowance.
What does piss me off is when Joel Olsteen and Ed Young (Grapevine) buy a $4 million house and totally exploit the housing allowance. I wish the IRS would set a limit, much like banks do with mortgages.
I would not lump Billy Graham into "Televangelist". Although, from time to time, his revivals were televised, this was not his MO. He toured the world bringing his message to the people. He didn't have a huge church/studio that people regularly attended.
More harmless than most of his ilk, but not a fan of any of them.
Mega money hunters and Scam more often than not.
