A video of a service held on Wednesday at Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church shows collection plates passed around the congregation which included victims and evacuees of Hurricane Harvey among others. This comes after the pastor was essentially forced to open the doors of his megachurch when he faced massive criticism on social media for canceling service and locking the doors, refusing to shelter evacuees.
In the video of the service, the mention of “several hundred” evacuees in the audience is made, towards the beginning, by Lisa Osteen, Joel's sister and an associate pastor at the church, pointing out that the victims have "financial needs" and that everyone should pray for them.
She also preaches about how the future of these displaced people holds wonderful things. She asks those who have been affected to stand up and the others to hold hands with them and offer support and quite a few people in the hall can be seen raising their hands or standing up.
Towards the end of the video, after Lisa finishes, people can be seen moving through the aisles, carrying a pile of collection tins and passing them around, seemingly asking for donations, as the band starts playing.
Needless to say, the video was not missed by people on social media who wasted no time in expressing outrage that the pastor was asking for money from a community that has recently suffered losses of their belongings and homes in the flood.
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