Evan & Joel (The Sequel)

Texas Monthly had a nice cover story on Joel Osteen as the Lakewood folks moved their church a little closer for me to make it out to (for which I'm grateful). Looks like there's going to be a followup of sorts, with Evan Smith doing some Q&A with Joel in the November issue. Evan posted a preview of it on his blog due to the timeliness of his brother-in-law's church in Arlington being in the news over the cancellation of a funeral for a gay veteran. Here's the excerpt, for now. More to scribble down when the mag hits the stands.

Is there any sort of person who might have sinned to whom you would say, "We don’t agree with you or support you or support your lifestyle. We don’t welcome you into this church?"

No, there wouldn’t be anybody. It’s open to anybody of any faith. That’s what the church should be.

In any circumstance?

In any circumstance. I mean, unless it was a legal situation.

I want to ask you about your sister’s church [High Point Church, in Arlington], which had planned to host a memorial service for a soldier, a veteran of the first Gulf War, but reversed course when the soldier turned out to have been gay. A lot of people have asked if Joel Osteen, in a similar situation, would have allowed the service to go on at his church.

We have buried and honored anybody from any walk of life, and, in defense of them, they have too. [The family] wanted their own officiants to come in there, their own pastors to come in there, and [my sister and her husband] didn’t feel comfortable with turning their church over to somebody they didn’t know. That’s the difference. Gary, my brother-in-law, and my sister would do anybody’s funeral in the world.

Have they previously done memorial services or funerals for homosexuals in the church?

I have not asked, but I would almost guarantee you that they have.

Have you done services for gay people in your church?

Yes.

So in a similar situation, if the family had come to you and had asked for its own officiants at your church, your policy also may have been to turn that down? It has to be your officiants?

It does.

It's a management issue more than a moral issue.

Right.

If the family had not asked for its own officiants and said, "We would like to have the service here…"?

We would do it. I’d take anybody.

The events surrounding both High Point Church and Cecil Sinclair don't contain convenient villains or easy heroes despite the best efforts of reporters to shoehorn this into just some church that hates gays. The church's statement can be found here and underscores some of the ways in which the church did act positively. That said, the family got late notice - and via email at that - about the cancellation. By no means does that sound like the best solution for the situation.