You may or may not know about what has happened with Joel Osteen recently. Just to catch up, here’s the official CNN transcript of the whole interview. After this interview, Joel published this apology on his website.

What strikes me is that this apology letter shares some similarites with other apologies I have heard before.

From Joel:

God has given me a platform to present the Gospel to a very diverse audience. In my desire not to alienate the people that Jesus came to save, I did not clearly communicate the convictions that I hold so precious.

Statements of fact communicated by Bob Gempel in Dallas on Oct 3, 2003:

• Donations from ICoC congregations go 100% to support overhead so that corporate donors can give 100% of the money directly to projects.
• An apology was offered for the miscommunication about Hope contributions.
• Congregations can now opt to give unrestricted donations for overhead, or program specific donations. Unrestricted donations are desperately needed or HOPE will run out of money in three months.

A minister is paid to preach the gospel. He gets a national audience on CNN only to drop the ball at the most crucial moment. What is he being paid for? (In case you’re wondering, I do know what I would say in his shoes, I have been in tougher circumstances and still spoken the truth as I understand it.) This apology sounds hollow in that these dearly held convictions melt away when questioned. At least Brian McLaren sidestepped the whole question by giving an English Major answer.

A man in charge of a charity can be held liable for things said by that charity. To allow churches to take contributions with the public declaration that the money is going to a specific project, only to have it diverted to overhead is irresponsible and thoughtless. Why would he wait until churches stopped sending money to clear up this ‘miscommunication’? Simple really, ICoC administrative policy charge a HOPE tax to each church that they were required to pay. When the ICoC corportaion went away, some churches like mine stopped sending it because it appears to be unethical (even if it is perfectly legal). Without the enforcement agency and a ‘buffer’, churches called directly and wanted answers.

However, there are also some differences between this apology and other apologies I have heard.

Again from Joel:

I will use this as a learning experience and believe that God will ultimately use it for my good and His glory.

I believe him when he says this. I may not like his theology (or lack thereof) or his message, but I do believe that he will learn his lesson from this. On the other hand, what I witnessed in Dallas was a red-faced CEO angrily denouncing churches that stopped giving unrestricted monies. We had five Adivsory Group members in the audience and two financial board members from our church. It didn’t take long to make our final decision (up to that point, we had paid last year’s tax). Based on this and subsequent actions I don’t believe that Bob has learned his lesson. Enough churches paid their fees to keep them afloat and they now appear to be doing quite well.

I wish him and HOPE well.

It just strikes me that there is a way to apologize and make up for big mistakes. I remember hearing all the apologies around the ICoC and wanting to believe them. However, I have discovered that most are based, like Bob’s, on getting caught and not on contrition. This makes me very sad, indeed.