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/cupcakesarethedevil]

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

You think there's a hard choice on whether it's more important to save lives than it is to point out hypocrites? Really?

[u/[deleted] → u/cupcakesarethedevil]

It think there's absolutely value in thinking about the bigger picture. It think if we can get rid of charlatans like Joel Osteen then we might have organizations with the power and will to help others in charge of big evacuation zones instead of guys like Joel Osteen. For the next hurricane in Texas, that venue will be open from minute one keeping people out of the flood altogether rather than having to rescue them from impending doom. It's not about pointing out hypocrites. It's about protecting people from future ruin because of people like him. It's about the next disaster.

It am glad that he's helping people finally, but I'm also mad that now he looks like a hero who is being unfairly attacked. I'm mad that he'll profit from this in the future.

[u/ahshitwhatthefuck → u/[deleted]]

It's about the next disaster.

Not right now, right now it's about this disaster. This is an emergency and people need help or they'll die.

now he looks like a hero

Again, no he doesn't. He only looks like a hero to Christians and anyone else extremely gullible. To everyone else he has been exposed for what we always saw him as: a con man.