John Rich Blasts Joel Osteen For Seemingly Preaching Fake Gospel

Country singer John Rich is making waves after publicly trashing megachurch pastor Joel Osteen. During a wide-ranging podcast discussion, Rich took a moment to speak about religion and explain why he’s not a fan of Osteen, one of the world’s most popular televangelists. According to Rich, Osteen fails to preach a key component of the Gospels, and to him, that’s a major misstep as a Christian leader.

On the “Shawn Ryan Show,” Rich, 51, opened up about his faith before turning his attention to megachurch pastors like Osteen.

During the conversation, Rich slammed Osteen, 62, for allegedly refusing to make his congregation “uncomfortable” with what Rich believes is the truth: that the end times are coming.

Rich stated that teaching certain passages from the Bible can be “very uncomfortable for Christians to have to think about,” adding, “To say that God would never make his people go through something like that is one of the most ignorant, spiritually ignorant things a person could say.”

He continued, “That’s number one. Number two is in modern churches even today, they still don’t want there’s a few but not many. They don’t want to preach that.”

As he went on, the “Steel Bridges” singer said that preachers like Osteen would “never” share what he considers to be the truth with his audience. “Joel Osteen is never going to say anything that’s going to make anybody uncomfortable ever on any level ever,” he said.

Rich also slammed Osteen, who has over six million followers on Instagram, for seemingly overlooking a crucial part of what he believes all church services should include, specifically the altar call, where congregants can choose to publicly give their lives to Christ.

“Thousands of people coming down there to pray and give their life to Jesus. You’re not going to see Joel Osteen do that and there’s a bunch of other preachers like that,” Rich claimed.

But that’s not all Rich had to say about the Texas-based church leader. As he went on, Rich called out Osteen for teaching his church-goers that God would never make the faithful face specific challenges.

“To [those teachers], I say, really?” Rich stated. “Why don’t you go tell that to the underground Christians in communist China right now who are being killed by the thousands?”

He added, “Why don’t you go tell that to the Christians in Syria right now who are being chopped up into pieces in the streets? Do you think fat, lazy, American Christians are better than them? No. They are superior to us.”

“They are willing to worship God and be a Christian when it means they could die for doing it. And we don’t have that problem in the United States,” Rich finished.

Osteen and his wife, Victoria Osteen, are pastors of one of the largest churches in America, Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. According to GotQuestions Ministries, a Christian resource center, Osteen’s weekly television program is viewed by more than 20 million people each month in more than 100 countries—and that’s not including the church’s podcast, YouTube streams, and social media posts.

Although some basic tenets of Osteen’s message—like “the triune nature of God”—are biblical, his teachings are most famously associated with the controversial “prosperity gospel,” the idea that material wealth is a sign of God’s favor.

GotQuestions Ministries notes that another flaw with Osteen’s teachings is that they often sound like “an inspirational life-coach” rather than the true teachings of the Bible.

“He often preaches about how people can improve their lives, be prosperous, and experience happiness. Noticeably absent in Osteen’s optimistic message is any mention of sin or repentance. The atonement of Christ provides us with healing and the abundant life, according to Osteen, but apparently receiving forgiveness from a holy God is not necessary,” their website states.

“In numerous interviews and writings, Osteen has failed to proclaim that Jesus is the only way to heaven. He has repeatedly refused to agree with the teachings of the Bible that certain behaviors are sinful. This is not a new convert being interviewed; it’s the leader of a church of tens of thousands. Osteen can’t bring himself to support fundamental doctrines of the faith he claims to preach. His words communicate relativism and demonstrate a profoundly poor understanding of the Bible.”