Joel Osteen of the Houston megachurch
Lakewood has said that God accepts and approves of every person.
The 50-year-old Osteen, who is
currently pitching his new book Break Out: 5 Keys to Go Beyond
Your Barriers and Live an Extraordinary Life, made his comments
during an appearance on HuffPost Live!
Host Josh Zepps read an excerpt from
Osteen's book, “It doesn't matter who likes you or doesn't like
you, all that matters is that God likes you. He accepts you, he
approves of you,” then followed up by asking if that included gays
and lesbians.
“Absolutely,” Osteen answered, “I
believe that God breathed life into every person and that every
person is made in the image of God and you have to accept them as
they are, on their journey. I'm not here to preach hate or push
people down.”
However, Osteen has previously said
that he's opposed to gay marriage.
“[W]hen I come back to the Scripture,
as much as I'm for everybody, I don't see same-sex in the Scripture,”
he recently told CNN's Jake Tapper.
(Related: Joel
Osteen: I'm “for everybody” but I don't see “same-sex” in the
Scripture.)