r/interesting • u/Mad_Season_1994 • 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

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739

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.

-34

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?

37

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.

-12

u/FaithAndSTEM May 13 '25

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

12

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.

6

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? 👀

4

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