Joel Osteen & Barbara Walters

I just watched Barbara Walters interview Joel Osteen on her 10 Most Fascinating People of 2006 (scroll to the bottom of the page). I've blogged about Osteen's gospel-less message before. After watching tonight's interview I've only grown in my assessment that Joel Osteen is a false teacher who doesn't preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.Barbara Walters did an incredible job with this interview, pressing Joel on his "prosperity" teaching and quirky theology. Some highlights (lowlights) from Barbara's interview of the man she refers to as the "Christianity lite" pastor:

• When asked by Barbara for a summary of the main message he promotes at Lakewood, Osteen replied: "My message is that God is a good God, and if we all have the right attitude, he'll take us places that we've never dreamed of." (Note: God is good, but the rest of that sentence is the opposite of the gospel)
• Osteen confessed that he avoids addressing controversial issues such as abortion, gay marriage, and politics.
• When asked about his prosperity teaching Osteen replied: "I think the word rich is all relative, I think down and deep in our hearts, we believe that God does want us to live the abundant life that we can. To me, prosperity is health, good relationships … and money, of course, is part of it." (Note: that's ridiculous)

And, to shift gears from Osteen's content and talk about the man himself, I just gotta say that Osteen came off as too simley, and even a bit creepy in this interview. Anyone else catch the interview?