Posted on 12/23/2005 4:39:24 AM PST by truthandlife
Victoria Osteen, the wife of Lakewood Church pastor Joel Osteen, said an incident that delayed a Continental Airlines flight for two hours earlier this week was "a minor misunderstanding."
Osteen posted a "Letter from Victoria" on the church's official Web site Wednesday, saying the Monday incident resulted from her choice "to remove myself from the situation."
Osteen left the plane, Continental Flight 1602, with her husband and their two children. The family took another flight to Vail, Colo., where they are taking a ski vacation.
A church spokesman said the family left the plane voluntarily.
However, FBI Special Agent Luz Garcia has said that the Osteens were asked to leave the jetliner after "an altercation."
Garcia also said that Victoria Osteen "failed to comply" with instructions from a flight attendant.
The FBI said the airline contacted the agency about the incident. The agency decided not to investigate.
Continental Airlines spokeswoman Julie King declined any further comment about the incident Thursday.
"There have been various accounts of an incident that occurred on one of our flights, and I have issued earlier statements about that," King said. "We can confirm that there are no remaining issues between Continental and those passengers. ... Both parties feel no further comment is necessary."
King declined to comment on Victoria Osteen's explanation of the incident.
In her letter, which can be read at at www.lakewood.cc, Osteen stated:
"Regardless of how some have portrayed the situation, please know that it was truly a minor misunderstanding and did not escalate into what you saw or read in the news. Contrary to those reports, it was my choice to remove myself from the situation. Nonetheless, it was a most unfortunate event and I truly regret that it happened."
Osteen's letter continued, "The last thing I would ever want to do is let any of you down. And I promise you that I did not act in any way that would cast a bad light on you, my family, Lakewood Church or our Lord Jesus Christ. I value the position that God has placed me in and I can assure you that I will always walk in love and integrity. While I am not perfect, I will always seek to be a peacemaker and seek the high road."
The incident apparently stemmed from a spilled liquid on Osteen's seat in the first class section of the airplane. A church spokesman said the spill was not cleaned up to Osteen's satisfaction, and the family left the plane voluntarily.
Joel Osteen is a nationally known author of self-help books, including the best-selling Your Best Life Now. He became pastor of Lakewood Church in 1999. The church, in the former Compaq Center, is one of the nation's largest with more than 30,000 weekly participants in church services.
And how do you know that??? Joel has written numerous books including a current best seller. He may only draw little or salary from donations. He is a millionare from his books.
If he was doing it off of tithe money, I would agree. If he is doing it off his book sales, that is another issue, IMHO.
Well, if I had shucked out that kind of money I'd certainly demand a dry seat too!
btw, I lived in TX for 11 years and never even heard of these people!
What career did you chose?
I sat in a broken seat from Dallas to Hawaii. WHen we landed they gave me a bottle of champagne!
All things being equal, I would not like to sit in a wet seat if I were traveling coach, much less first class. I also don't remember the Reverend taking a poverty oath. What he does with his money is his business, even if his business is salvation.
For what it's worth, I don't belong to his chuch, I am Roman Catholic. And I can't believe the PC communistic crap about somebody else's money from supposedly Conservative fellow Freepers.
I can't conceive of any circumstances under which I would get off a given flight and endure the hassle of taking another, later, flight just because a "liquid" was spilled on my {first class} seat.
As has been reported many times, Joel Osteen receives no salary from his church. His income does not come from his church.
I don't know what really happened but I see some clowns here bitching that the Osteens were flying first class and living on donations. That is a job. Many more hours than I want to work each week. Also remember the news **always** gives the Christian the worst possible view and also remember most of the time most of the airlines treat everybody like cattle in cattle drive. Once on a flight from London we were not allowed to get up to go to the restroom. After 4 hours, yeah four hours, I got up and went with 2 of the flight nazis right in my ear telling me to sit down, sit down!!! I was gonna pee somewhere and figured the toilet was as good as any place. When I came out there were 20+ people lined up down the isle. The flight nazis never served another thing for what was left during the rest of the 9 hour flight. If I'm on the jury here I give the Osteens the benefit of the doubt.
It says that Continental and the FBI are discreet.
They don't have to say much. The average flier has NEVER been on a flight from which a passenger has been ejected. Osteen made an ass of herself and the captain of a 757 made a decision that he didn't want her on a 2 hour flight.
She should be apologizing, apologizing, apologizing. Nothing else.
And please. No letters of justification. They don't help.
Are you referring to thr Lord's Word, as you term it here in post #25, "written transcription of the oral traditions, prejudices and garbled fables of semiliterate Bronze Age goatherds"?
I read that he stopped taking a salary from the church. The sale of his books is what he lives on.
They are professional entertainers, and as such are entitled to make money in accordance with the degree to which they are skilled at telling the public what the public wants to hear. ;)
It seems like Jesus was making the point about people ripping others off by overcharging for changing their currency into the proper type or charing high dollar for animals suitable for sacrafices. I am not sure how that applies to books Joel sells in bookstores.
That letter says it all. ...and nothing at all. She acted up.
>>>"I give the Osteens the benefit of the doubt">>>
Good for you, so do I. I'll even give the stewardess the benefit of the doubt. I'll say one woman had a migraine headache and the other one PMS, and we will have to guess which had which. The news media that blew this non story up and people with opinions, who weren't even there, have my undying contempt.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.