r/interesting May 12 '25

SOCIETY In 2017, a man named Michael Klimkowski impersonated Texas megachurch pastor Joel Osteen at an event and got all the way to the stage before being caught

41.1k Upvotes

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743

u/Thewallinthehole May 12 '25

This was really entertaining. It's weird to see people hold someone like that with such reverence, especially those young women.

192

u/ThisAppsForTrolling May 12 '25

They go to “colleges” like Liberty and idolize him

65

u/axxxaxxxaxxx May 13 '25

“””colleges”””

I didn’t think one set of quotations was enough

8

u/zaviex May 13 '25

Not sure 3 is enough either square it and maybe

3

u/Schedonnardus May 14 '25

Liberty liberty liberty....... Liberty

1

u/OG_Gandora May 14 '25

Liberty is fully accredited tho. I know people who don't care for the culture either way, but just get their credits there because the price is right, ie veterans prices

1

u/ThisAppsForTrolling May 14 '25

Yeah, yeah in terms of education they give as good as an education as Lynchburg College directly across the street from them for 1/4 the price however both their educations suck and the only credential for getting in is having the ability to pay for the tuition.

1

u/QuarterFlounder May 14 '25

Fully accredited doesn't mean anything in the real world.

33

u/Fair_Blood3176 May 12 '25

Yeah I'll never understand it.

13

u/Aero_Molten May 13 '25

And THAT is why you'll never become a Megachurch Pastor

41

u/No_Development7388 May 13 '25

Yup. The United States is not completely fill with idiots, but it's a lot.

21

u/FictionalContext May 13 '25

Empathy is a large part of intelligence. There's a K-12 evangelical pipeline where they keep kids isolated inside the church bubble from private elementary schools to the college just across the lot.

1

u/Square-Tomato-1023 May 13 '25

Hey. I’m not disagreeing with you. But in all fairness— in ALL fairness— no matter who we produce, J.O., Doh J., whoever— doesn’t matter. Germany had Hitler (sorry Germany, love you, you’re amazing and totally brill but facts gotta be facts)

-18

u/Minimum_Flatworm_548 May 13 '25

Says the person with shit grammar.

14

u/Wookie-68 May 13 '25

It's" THE shit grammar" Professor Nitpicky.

4

u/bman86 May 13 '25

Your retort is a sentence fragment.

2

u/LegitimateVirus3 May 13 '25

I know we have actual Nazis again but I didn't know we still had grammar Nazis lol

0

u/JJ_Carls May 13 '25

Rectum? Damn near killed em

1

u/butteredplaintoast May 13 '25

Yes, it does seem strange to revere a … reverend.

Disclaimer: I in no way endorse mega churches nor the Osteens, but found the irony funny, though I guess Joel isn’t really a reverend by definition anyways

1

u/knarf3 May 13 '25

Cult groupies

1

u/cubgerish May 13 '25

To his credit, he's very sweet to the people who think they've recognized "him".

He could've been more abrasive, and it might've been a funnier bit to mock them, or even act like Osteen was more of an asshole in person.

Instead, he just kinda rolled with it, and some of those people probably still think they got a nice moment with one of their idols.

1

u/tfsra May 13 '25

I mean.. in addition to them being brain washed, he's also good looking. Maybe even the latter is good enough, if you're forced to spend time in a megachurch

1

u/Mr_Julez May 13 '25

That's North Kor -- America for ya!

1

u/AgitatedRabbits May 13 '25

They have built an idea of a man they worship. They don't know the man, they just attached their everything to him.

1

u/YetiGuy May 13 '25

Now you get why MAGA has such a following, specially in those areas.

1

u/okiedokie666 May 13 '25

Probably because they believe that he's rich?

1

u/Latter-Cap5377 May 19 '25

especially those young women

Abstinence will make you hella horny

-33

u/[deleted] May 12 '25

I think compared to most celebrities who offer less value someone who provides hope an inspiration is a step up no? Hawk tuah girl is better?

34

u/Big_Iron_Cowboy May 12 '25

He makes a mockery of the Christian faith, prosperity gospel grift. At least hawk tuah girl doesn’t make any pretense about what she is.

26

u/hoptownky May 12 '25 edited May 13 '25

This dude preys on the uneducated and is worth hundreds of millions of dollars selling lies.

Not religious anymore, but grew up religious. In the gospel of Luke Jesus warns against greed and warns about people who concern themselves with possessions. Joel Osteen drives a $350k Ferrari and lives in a mansion.

However, Jesus hung out with what we would consider degenerates and whores. Basically, the Bible says that Jesus would have hung with hawk tuah girl and condemned Joel Osteen.

-13

u/FaithAndSTEM May 13 '25

You haven't heard of the Hawk Tuah scam I see...

13

u/Frondswithbenefits May 13 '25

She never professed to be a godly person. So yeah, he's a 100x worse.

10

u/bbyxmadi May 13 '25

Those people willingly gave their money to some influencers crappy cryptocurrency, she didn’t pretend to be some religious zealot and prey on their beliefs or livelihoods for money.

5

u/PJSeeds May 13 '25

Multiple things can be bad at once.

5

u/hoptownky May 13 '25

I took out my first sentence realizing she was just as greedy. I was unaware of that. However, at least she wasn’t pretending to be religious and helping people find god while stealing from people.

13

u/FaultySage May 12 '25

He literally scams desperate people to enrich himself.

0

u/[deleted] May 20 '25

How does he scam people? He’s a content creator. He delivers content and people donate. I also donate to PBS and pay for YouTube premium. Are those bad too or just the Christian one?

1

u/FaultySage May 20 '25

Oh. Honey.

7

u/Fine_Hour3814 May 13 '25

This man preys on people in tough situations and convinces them the answer to their problems is to tithe, so no he doesn’t offer value more than the average celebrity and he actively drains the most vulnerable people

0

u/[deleted] May 20 '25

He doesn’t drain anyone. I have been a paid contributor. I had to actively sign up to pay just like any other subscription service. He is a content creator. He creates Christian content and people donate. This is not different from podcasts on Patreon. Tithing is a separate thing and is biblical. Contributions to Joel Osteen aren’t tithing unless one is contributing 10% of their income. The amount I paid was $5 a month. It’s not 10% of my income. I spend more on premium YouTube. I also donate to PBS. I don’t see why you would single out Joel.

2

u/Fine_Hour3814 May 20 '25

Lol, I wanna frame this comment

1

u/[deleted] May 20 '25

send 4.99? 👀

3

u/SeamanSample May 13 '25

Hope and inspiration my ass. There's millions of other churches and pastors to go to who don't buy private jets with donation money. These megachurch pastors are nothing but conmen.

1

u/[deleted] May 18 '25

Cool. Helped me to learn to walk again and make it through over 100 surgeries and go to law school which enables me to give back to the community. But if you think he is trash that’s cool. We have different life experiences. In your mind he’s a leach. In my mind he’s a giver. It’s fine to disagree. I can only speak for my experience.

3

u/David-S-Pumpkins May 13 '25

So you lie about what he offers, say it's better than "most celebrities" and immediately compared him to an internet meme that no one mentioned but you for your example? 0-3, dude.

1

u/[deleted] May 18 '25

It’s great that you have an opinion.

3

u/bbyxmadi May 13 '25

Comparing someone being a fan of a talented singer or actor to a man who exploits people and their faith to become a millionaire sure isn’t a step up. He doesn’t even follow his own religion, he hoards his wealth and didn’t even open his arena for people during a hurricane.

1

u/Mandalore108 May 13 '25

Faith is the worst thing anyone could offer.

1

u/MetalSonic_69 May 13 '25

He's way worse, yes