The prosperity doctrine

Two big events have happened while in Houston -- one was for Jimmy; the other for me. Last night, we went to an MLS game to see the Houston Dynamos play against Toronto FC. The game was net-net really fun, though I am not exceedingly interested in soccer. 10,000+ orange colored fans surrounded the team in the stadium, which was a site to behold.

This morning, we suited up early to head over to Lakewood Church, the largest church in America. Lakewood was quite a site: the whole thing is a well oiled machine that at times felt like a corporation. A Southern belle, John's Mom charmed our way to front row seats, where we were only 6 rows away from the man, the myth, the legend, Joel Osteen and his intense and somewhat scary wife Victoria. I have to say, my first experience with a United States mega-church in the south was quite overwhelming. The service was more like a denominational rock concert than that one other church service I went to years earlier. All around us people were pulsating, throwing both hands in the air, muttering, shaking, eyes closed, crying as Pastor Joel and Pastor Victoria delivered their prosperity doctrine. Mind you there were about 35,000 people in this converted professional basketball stadium. This church is a money-making machine. Followers blindly threw 20s into the donation buckets, and the visiting Pastor shamelessly advertised his own book, "for the low price of 10 dollars at the book store," during his sermon. As for firsts, I took communion, and the guy next to me was "saved." John agrees, this has been the highlight of the trip so far.