My wife and I are rushing down Highway 59 to make the early service at Lakewood Church. This will be our fourth time to listen to Joel Osteen preach in person. Close to the church, we see police officers directing traffic to available parking. We park and make the long walk to the church. Once inside, we are again in awe of how large the facility is. 
 
Lakewood Church is home to the largest Christian congregation in America. It includes child care services, a café with wireless internet, video game kiosks and a first class book store that features Joel's best-selling books. 

After the worship service, Joel provides a nice, uplifting message about trusting in the Lord and He will provide what is lacking in your life – such as a stable job, adequate transportation and even that nice raise you deserve. He stresses that life can be a lot better with God. I feel inspired and refreshed by listening to Joel. 

Toward the end of the service, an announcement is made that Joel will be signing copies of his new book titled Break Out!: 5 Keys to Go Beyond Your Barriers and Live an Extraordinary Life. In his book, Joel encourages his readers by saying, "When you break though in your mind, believing you can rise higher and overcome obstacles, then God will unleash the power within that will enable you to go beyond the ordinary into the extraordinary life you were designed to live." 
 
We rush upstairs and buy two copies of Joel’s new book then head to the line for the book signing - forcing our way through a mob of admirers, hell-bent on getting that signature. While waiting in line, we are instructed to have our books open, ready for Joel’s signature. We are also encouraged to have our bibles signed if we wish. As I reach Joel, I have him sign his book for me. He is upbeat and smiling. I feel like I am meeting a superstar – a rock star for Christianity as Glenn Beck, a conservative talk show host calls him. 

I offer my bible to Joel and he signs that as well. He looks at me, eye to eye and says, “I am very glad you are here today. Very glad!” My wife and I walk away, winding through the crowded church toward the exit. Slowly, my feeling of awe and stardom turns into melancholic regret. I just had my bible autographed as if I were a desperate groupie at a rock concert. This is the Word of God. How could I do this?

Joel Osteen is a spiritual man who has brought many to the Lord. He effectively inspires his congregation to attend church and provide charity in the community. Joel has been very successful in selling his books which offer hope and encouragement to many. 

The Lakewood Church website describes his core message being, “That our God is a good God who desires to bless those who are obedient and faithful to Him through Jesus Christ.” It is true that God is pleased with the obedient and faithful. But is that the core message of Christianity?

There are those who believe Joel is a part of a controversial movement called the Prosperity Gospel. This teaching uses faith and doing good works to gain material blessings from God – to use God to get things from Him. Preacher and author Rick Henderson says, “Joel teaches that we open ourselves to God to get more from God.  He teaches that we use our words to speak into existence a better reality.  This is straight from the Word of Faith Movement.  This is not the focus throughout the New
Testament.” 

The Word of Faith movement teaches financial prosperity and physical - spiritual healing for any who choose to verbally declare what is desired. This involves an act of
faith that it coincides with God's purpose. This movement references Mark 11:22-23, when Jesus said believers shall have whatsoever they speak and pray with faith. 

Jesus did not die on the cross so we can ask God to provide for us. He died for us as a payment for all the past, present and future sins of the world. And by making a choice to accept this gift from God, we are to develop a warm and personal relationship with Him. We are saved from ourselves and will spend eternity with Him. Just knowing the facts is not enough. Having a feel good Sunday service is not enough.

It involves a willingness to submit, as Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (NRSV). This means to deny your own wishes and worldly desires - take up your “cross” and be willing to “die” to follow Christ. He expects an absolute surrender to Him. 
 
The Christian faith is based on Salvation, not on personal accomplishments or things that make you feel warm and fuzzy. As stated in Luke 9:24-25, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (NIV).

True happiness does not come from material things or success. It comes from knowing God on an intimate level - having a personal relationship with God. This means to deny yourself of worldly desires, take up your cross of struggles and sorrow daily and follow Him through his examples and teachings. 

Although the message of Joel Osteen is uplifting and inspiring, I believe it misses the mark. Many of his congregation may be lost in the spectacle and missing out on the true meaning of the Gospel - Salvation. There is nothing wrong with being successful or striving for personal excellence but those actions are not priority in life. It is the choice to love and walk with God, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ – not expecting favors in return. The rest will come naturally, according to His will. 

This year marks the 50th anniversary of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act provided legislation that outlawed specific forms of ethnic, racial and
religious discrimination against minorities and women. 

The year before this landmark legislation was passed, an event called the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” occurred. The event was organized by various religious and civil rights groups. It was designed to reveal political and social obstacles faced by African Americans in our country. 

The “March on Washington” became a defining moment for civil rights in our country. The pinnacle of this event was the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech "I Have a Dream" which stressed the need for racial equality and justice. 

King believed in non-violent activism and was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's teachings. In King’s speech, he said, “We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of
dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protests to degenerate into physical violence … militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their
presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny…we cannot walk alone.”

Unfortunately, King’s dream has turned into a nightmare.

Today, the torch of tolerance and acceptance has been snuffed by various minority groups – one being the New Black Panther Party, the so called leadership of the black community. The New Black Panther Party (NBPP) is a black political organization created in 1989. They identify themselves with the original Black Panther Party. The NBPP claims it fights the oppression of minorities, in particular black and brown people, recognizing the current issues facing black communities. It is obvious that the NBPP does not share in King’s vision peace and harmony between races. 

Khalid Abdul Muhammad, the NBPP’s late former party chairman said, "There are no good crackers, and if you find one, kill him before he changes.” It has been reported that the party’s leadership promotes the idea that blacks are God's actual "chosen people" and that the Jews are not. Revealing its Anti-Semitic nature, the NBPP leadership has also blamed the Jews for the terrorist attacks on September 11th and for the organized slave trade earlier in our country’s history. 

 In 2012, former NBPP Chief of Staff Michelle Williams said that blacks in Tampa, Florida are "under siege". She promised that “…as long as whites keep characterizing blacks as 'niggers,' her feet [will be] on your motherfucking necks!”

In the same year, the NBPP offered a $10,000 bounty for the "legal citizen's arrest" of George Zimmerman, the accused shooter of Trayvon Martin. In response to Martin’s death, the party believed in "a life for a life". The NBPP is a militant group that uses its power to promote racism and intolerance. 

The actions of the New Black Panther Party are misleading to the black community it represents. Their violent and racist behavior is detrimental to the advancement of its constituents. Equality and success will only come from non-violent action and earnest cooperation. 

Another influential minority organization is the National Council of La Raza. “La Raza” is a powerful political force which receives millions a year in federal grants for various political reasons, such as get-out-the-vote efforts supporting "La Raza" political positions and housing reform. These non-profit projects are commendable. In addition to these respectable efforts by “La Raza”, there is a less know suspected agenda that drives the organization from the top down. 

There are claims that the National Council of La Raza is linked to secondary organizations such as the radical racist group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) and the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan. These are racist, anti-American groups which developed on American college campuses in the 1960s.  Their desire is to create a new nation out of the American West. According to 2003 tax records, “La Raza” was actively funding MEChA. 

The position of MEChA is clear. In a statement on the University of Oregon MEChA website, this organization claims, “Chicano is our identity; it defines who we are as people. It rejects the notion that we…should assimilate into the Anglo-American melting pot…Aztlan was the legendary homeland of the Aztecas … It became synonymous with the vast territories of the Southwest, brutally stolen from a Mexican people marginalized and betrayed by the hostile custodians of the Manifest Destiny.” This idea is leads to the position to “Reconquista” or re-conquest of the Western states.

Their founding principles are described in “El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan”: “…We are a
bronze people with a bronze culture. Before the world, before all of North America, before all our brothers in the bronze continent, we are a nation, we are a union of free pueblos, we are Aztlan. For La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada” which means “For The Race everything. Outside The Race, nothing.” 

These viewpoints come from the official MEChA sites at UCLA, the University of Oregon, Georgetown University, the University of Texas and the University of Colorado, as well as other institutions across the country.

 Miguel Perez, a member of Cal State-Northridge’s MEChA chapter was quoted as saying: “The ultimate ideology is the liberation of Aztlan… once Aztlan is established, ethnic cleansing would commence: Non-Chicanos would have to be expelled - opposition groups would be quashed because you have to keep power.” 

We do not need racial segregation in this country. However, it is important for us to connect with our heritage – it is a part of who we are. The United States is a melting pot of diverse cultures. She is full of beautiful, hardworking Americans, composed of every race on the planet. Since her beginning, America has welcomed those wishing to assimilate as Americans while remembering their culture. This makes the United States a unique and wonderful place to live. We are all Americans – brothers under her flag of freedom and equality.

Today, there are minority groups that claim to be for their people and interests but mislead their followers with racism and intolerance. Minorities deserve better from their leadership – we all deserve better. We must all share in Dr. King’s dream to effectively eliminate racism and discrimination – through understanding and peaceful, non-violent behavior.