Eric Litke|USA TODAY
The claim: Megachurch pastor Joel Osteen required $25 payment for prayer requests
With a TV broadcast watched by millions and a Sunday service attendance among the largest in the country, Joel Osteen is one of the highest-profile pastors in America.
The leader of Lakewood Church in Houston — which various reports say has between 40,000 and 50,000 weekly attendees — runs an array of ministries, including an online portal through which anyone can submit prayer requests.
But one Facebook post alleges there’s a major string attached.
A screenshot posted July 13 and shared more than 1,000 times shows a woman requesting prayer for her marriage. An account labeled “Joel Osteen Ministries” alongside Osteen’s picture posts this reply:
“Unfortunately, your Joel Osteen prayer request account has not been activated. In order to activate your account, you will need to add a monthly donation of $24.99, which will give you access to 3 prayer requests per month.”
It goes on to reference a “Platinum” level with access to 10 prayer requests.
The claim may have gained traction due to Osteen’s focus on financial well-being as a leading proponent of the so-called “prosperity gospel.” Online promotions for his latest book (available in exchange for a donation) say “God loves you so much that He wants to bring you into the land of ’more than enough.’” And in an oft-cited 2005 letter to parishioners he said, “God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us.”
Critics — including the late Rev. Billy Graham — have noted this conflicts with many biblical teachings. In the biblical book of Matthew, for example, Jesus said “you cannot serve both God and money,” and the book of I Timothy calls money the “root of all kinds of evil” and the pursuit of wealth a “trap.” In Graham’s words, “Jesus wasn’t rich, nor were His first disciples — not at all. In fact, the only disciple who really cared about money was Judas."
But there’s a big difference between Osteen telling followers God wants them to be wealthy and enriching himself in exchange for prayer requests.
Turns out this claim is both wrong and outdated.
A “troll” from 2019
The screenshot in question is undated, but has actually been making the rounds online since May 2019. It was roundly debunked at the time byother fact-checkers including PolitiFact, Snopes and the Associated Press.
Because it was a prank.
Ben Palmer — a satirist who uses the moniker “Palmer Trolls” — took credit for the post in a May 2020 YouTube video. He relays how he “made a Joel Osteen lookalike page and responded to that person,” and later made a fake Snopes page after the fact-checking organization rated his post False.
Back in May 2019, Osteen and his church were quick to refute the claim as well.
“Joel Osteen Ministries never requests money for prayer,” Donald Illoff, a spokesman for the church, told The Associated Press. “The image being circulated is from an impostor account.”
Illoff said at the time the ministry receives about 225,000 prayer requests a year through its online system. It remains active.
Osteen also labeled the post as fake on his personal Twitter account, and his church’s Facebook account did the same.
If all that weren’t proof enough, there’s another giveaway in the screenshot circulating now — there is no blue checkmark on the Osteen Facebook account. The check indicates an official account that has been verified by Facebook, and Osteen’s real Facebook account has one.
Our ruling: False
We rate this claim FALSE since it is not supported by our research. This claim originated more than a year ago and was thoroughly debunked at the time. Osteen’s ministry does indeed solicit prayer requests online, but there’s no payment involved. The assertion that online prayer requests require payment came from a self-described troll who created a fake Facebook account using Osteen’s name and likeness.
Our fact-check sources:
- Facebook post, July 13, 2020
- Joel Osteen website, About, accessed July 30, 2020
- The Christian Post,Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church Ranked America's Largest Megachurch With 52,000 Weekly Attendance, Sept. 8, 2016
- CBS News,America's biggest megachurches, ranked, Nov. 26, 2018
- Ben Palmer YouTube video,The Joel Osteen Prayer Request Page, May 16, 2020
- Joel Osteen, Twitter, May 15, 2020
- Lakewood Church, Facebook post, May 15, 2020
- Snopes, Did Joel Osteen Implement ‘Prayer Request Accounts’ for Parishioners?, May 14, 2019
- PolitiFact,No, Joel Osteen Ministries doesn’t charge people money for prayer requests, July 9, 2019
- Associated Press, Joel Osteen is not charging for online prayers, May 17, 2019
- Washington Post, The prosperity gospel, undated
- Billy Graham, online post, Sept. 21, 2016
- Lead Stories,Fake News: Joel Osteen Ministries Did NOT Reject Prayer Request Until Woman Opens $24.99 A Month Account, May 15, 2019
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Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.
Contact Eric Litke at (414) 225-5061 or elitke@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ericl*tke.
