Televangelist Joel Osteen called George Floyd’s death a “turning point” and said that the matter of racial injustice in the United States is not a “political issue” but rather a “human issue.”
Osteen, the senior pastor of Houston’s evangelical Lakewood Church, made the remarks to African American pastor John Gray of Relentless Church in South Carolina during an hourlong conversation Monday about race and religion, the Christian Post reported.
“I stay away from political issues, but this is not a political issue,” Osteen told Gray. “This is a human issue. Wrong is wrong, and we want to lend our voice — you know this — but to stand with our black brothers and sisters and stand against injustice and the things that have been wrong.”
“I know we can do better. I think this incident with George — and it’s not just him, it is what it represents — I feel like it is a turning point,” he said. “It has ignited something in me about, as I said, what can we do better.”
Osteen told Gray that people need to be “open and acknowledge the pain, seek to understand, grieve with you, and realize that you have it more difficult than us.”
“Then again, God knew you were going to be you, and He knew I was going to be me. So let’s take what we have, and let’s move forward with it,” he added.
Protests calling attention to racial injustice, police brutality, and systemic racism began across the country after Floyd’s death. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was filmed being violently pinned to the ground by a white police officer. Video of the encounter shows Floyd pleading for his life before falling unconscious and later dying in police custody.
Osteen had previously marched with protesters during a June 2 demonstration in downtown Houston, the same city where Floyd once lived.
Gray agreed with Osteen that the issues brought forward by protesters are not political but rather “human” and “spiritual.”
“For you to not just be a global pastor but the pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, where George Floyd was from — Third Ward — it was critical for you to have a moment like this so we can talk about the pain,” Gray said.
