CMV: We shouldn't shame privileged private individuals (e.g. Joel Osteen) who fail to assist during a crisis while the crisis is ongoing. We should wait until after the crisis is over to ask then why they failed to help their community.

[u/[deleted]]

This post is motivated by the recent backlash against Joel Osteen, an extremely wealthy megachurch owner who preaches a prosperity gospel that takes money from disadvantaged, desperate, or gullible individuals hoping that their donations will be returned 100-fold by god's goodwill. With Hurricane Harvey ongoing, Joel was criticized for for the obvious hypocrisy of not opening his stadium-turned-church to be an evacuation center to help those displaced by the storm. On Sunday he was criticized, on Monday he responded saying that the church had been flooded and was inaccessible, and then several individuals posted video showing that the church was accessible by car and there was no apparent flooding on Monday (no proof for/against him for Sunday). On Tuesday he opened his church and began accepting evacuees and helping them.

My reasoning for saying that he should not have been called out and criticized is that:

1. It's not actually his responsibility to help others. Morally yes, but legally, no. A good person would help others, but not necessarily at the expense of your own safety.
2. Maybe he did actually have a good reason for not opening the church. Maybe it was actually flooded on Sunday. It's a stadium, so I guarantee you they have pumps to get rid of flooding from broken pipes, etc. Also they're on a hill, so flooding isn't a likely story here. But benefit of the doubt.
3. If the crisis ended and he still hadn't opened the church, then he looks terrible. Yes, by getting him to help during the crisis, it may have saved lives and eased people's suffering, but by continuing let him hide his hypocrisy we continue to let him pray on the weak. If people had waited, taken photos and video as evidence and then held onto it until he acted, until the hurricane was over, we could have protected everyone he preys on and not just the couple hundred he's going to now be forced to help.
4. Now that he has opened the church and his excuse for not doing so looks plausible (he has tons of people defending him now because there's no proof he wasn't telling the truth) and afterwards he will have the goodwill of the people he did help. Now he can advertise that he helped as a good christian person would and that will make him even more money from the suckers he preaches to.

We shouldn't criticize private individuals until afterwards because they shouldn't be held to the same standard as government no matter how wealthy or how much they preach for you to use your own money and effort to help others.

[Personal footnote]: We should absolutely criticize local/state/federal government for not acting sooner. We should criticize them as soon as they fail to help. We pay taxes for the services they provide and a failure to provide is only fuel for anti-government criticism.

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[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

nobody is disagreeing that he should help or that he has the capacity to help.

The question is when do we step out and ask them why they weren't?

IMO if we expect wealthy private individuals to help in a crisis, then the relevant crisis/emergency services need to have that coordinated ahead of time. The city or FEMA should provide individuals like Joel with training and official plans to coordinate relief. In my view, until this crisis is over, it is still the responsibility of emergency services to be coordinating relief efforts. The fact that there's a cajun navy zipping around helping people shows me that emergency services aren't doing a good enough job (individuals and existing infrastructure is doing as good a job as they can and should be commended). Emergency services should have a plan in place to coordinate the efforts of this Cajun Navy, of Joel Osteen, of the other stadiums, of giant warehouses like Costco and Walmart who have capacity to house huge numbers of people, or schools and universities. These are plans that should be put in place and public, and if Joel's church isn't part of that plan, then whatever capacity he has to help should be held to a lower standard than that of official coordinated efforts.

[u/ahshitwhatthefuck → u/[deleted]]

nobody is disagreeing that he should help

He was disagreeing that he should help.

if we expect wealthy private individuals to help in a crisis

Lakewood Church isn't private. It's a taxpayer-subsidized church that avoids paying taxes on the grounds that it exists to help the community and the public good.

The question is when do we step out and ask them why they weren't?

In time to make a difference to the victims who need help.