One has to be very careful what one accepts as true in these days of social media news.  While the term “fake news” is often misapplied due to the tweets of one particular man, there is a lot of real “fake news” out there.  Sometimes, a satirical piece can be confused with a real news story as is the case with this item: “Joel Osteen Sails Luxury Yacht Through Flooded Houston To Pass Out Copies Of ‘Your Best Life Now‘”. (Not to be confused with a different slogan: “The Best Life Ever”.)

This story is fake; a piece of satire from a web site that likes to lampoon the Houston pastor with the mega-watt smile.  While the man has acquired great wealth in the name of Christ, he is not a stupid man, and only a stupid man would do something so insensitive as to deny people the physical help they need while handing out his own personal message of spiritual comfort.  Imagine how people would feel were he to show up with them sitting on the roof of their flooded home, with all their belongings destroyed, wondering where they were going to sleep that night, and where their next meal would come from, while the only thing he had to offer was spiritual comfort in the form of his own literature.  The absurdity of such a scenario is enough to tell any person chancing on this article that it had to be fake.  Only someone with no ability to feel the suffering of others would act in such a self-serving and uncaring manner.  But even then, who would be dumb enough to do it publicly?

Now on a completely unrelated matter, allow me to share a real news story from JW.org.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are assisting victims of a catastrophic fire that engulfed the Grenfell Tower, a 24-story apartment building in the North Kensington area of London, in the early morning hours of June 14, 2017. Authorities are reporting that at least 79 people were killed.

Four Witnesses were evacuated from the apartment building, two of whom were residents of Grenfell Tower. Fortunately, none of them were injured, although the Witnesses’ apartments were among those completely destroyed in the blaze. Witnesses that live near the now fire-gutted apartment building provided food, clothing, and monetary aid to their fellow members and their families that were affected. The Witnesses are also offering spiritual comfort to the grieving members of the North Kensington community.

Meleti Vivlon

Articles by Meleti Vivlon.
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