Web Letters: When Pastors Go Postal

In fairness to Victoria Osteen, the outcome of the trial needs to be noted. The jury found that she did not commit the alleged assault. Jury deliberations took less than three hours. "If we could have figured out a way to return court costs to the Osteens, we would have done it," said jury foreman Gilles Labbe shortly after the jury announced its verdict.

John E Morton

Arlington, VA

Osteen looks like he would be equally at home selling used cars or aluminum siding to the gullible. He and his fellow travelers preach a brand of Christianity that seeks to serve their base needs and make them wealthy with the riches of this world.

Whatever happened to preaching from a hillside or going into a leper's colony to tend the sick? Or isn't there enough money in those enterprises?

Whether it's Osteen's gospel of prosperity or the fire-breathing Hagee exhorting his deluded flock to worship Israel, these con artists have managed to get followers to worship objects and not their God.

It's been a long while since I set foot in a church, but if memory serves me well, worshiping an object and not the Christian God is a big NO-NO.

Greg Bacon

Ava, MO

Once again Barbara Erenreich knocks one out of the park by allowing the comedy inherent in a situation to make serious points.

That "religions" of Osteen's ilk make a mockery of themselves, and religion in general in the process, is sad but not surprising.

Many Christian sects are hypocritical in that they spend more time and effort on insisting that others believe as they do, gaining wealth, trying to have their beliefs "legalized" and alienating their fellow men than they do praying in a closet, giving charity anonymously, having compassion and being good Samaritans. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what Jesus taught?

Ellen Brown

San Diego, CA

Ehrenreich convicted that woman for assault before a jury ruled, which for me makes her as reckless and unaccountable as she's accusing others of being.

David Moore

Santa Barbara, CA

Probably nobody, least of all the holy hucksters themselves, ever checks the supposed original sources for all these sideshows. I read it in an unbroken series of parables and clear statements about the camel and the eye of the needle and the rich Samaritan as: when you have your reward on earth, then them as don't shall have it hereafter. I know of absolutely no scripture which contends otherwise than this: the weak and the meek shall flourish hereafter, and the posh and the plutocrat fortunes shall end with their days.

Christianity is a strange game in which the losers during the regular season go into the playoffs. A lot of them who relish immediate gratification are not ready for that message, and in the bloated megachurches, they shall not hear it neither.

Clovis Bowden

Santa Cruz, CA

Pastor Victoria Osteen definitely needs anger management classes. What would happen to someone who stepped on her toe by accident?

Mary McWade

New Port Richey, FL

I believe that the Osteens with all their money bought a jet airplane. One of the televanglists, and I won't mention his name or organization, boasts of owning a $20 million airplane. These televangelists could never cut the mustard like Mother Teresa.

Thomas O'Brien

Casper, WY