Following the heavy criticism the senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, Joel Osteen has had to endure the past days, he has opened his church for victims of the Harvey flood but that’s not all the story.
Don Iloff, a spokesperson for Lakewood Church, told Faithwire late on Monday night that the house of worship has been in touch with city and county officials in recent days and has been planning outreach efforts.
Lakewood had chosen to focus its energies on the ways in which the church could serve as a food and resource distribution center, among other outreach efforts due to the fact that the church which is housed in the former Compaq Centre is prone to flooding. It didn’t want to endanger the lives of citizens. Also, having considered that Houston officials had set up shelters throughout the city — including a massive location at the George R. Brown Convention Center just five miles from Lakewood — Iloff said that the church had planned to host people in the event that those locations were full or at capacity.
The controversy initially broke out after a photo was shared on Twitter that appeared to show that the church wasn’t extensively flooded, though it is unclear when that image was taken. On Sunday, Lakewood took to its Facebook page to explain that the church wouldn’t be open for services and offered up a list of available shelters.
“Dear Houstonians! Lakewood Church is inaccessible due to severe flooding!” the message read. “We want to help make sure you are safe. Please see the list below for safe shelters around our city, and please share this with those in need!”
Iloff said that the one detail being overlooked in the current narrative is that Lakewood has a “history of sheltering people,” pointing back to Tropical Storm Allison, which devastated the region back in 2001. The church, which was still in its former location and hadn’t yet moved to the arena, housed 3,000 people and became the largest shelter in the city.
It should be noted that, at the time, the Compaq Center (where Lakewood now resides) did cancel sports events in the wake of the tropical storm, with extensive flooding being reported by the Lawrence Journal-World.
So, flooding fears on the part of Osteen’s team weren’t exactly unfounded.
Source: Faithwire
