Joel Osteen Doesn't Eat Pork

Joel Osteen may have some facts correct when it comes to why pork and shellfish are not healthy eating choices, but I wouldn’t want him preaching about it in my church. Check out this video from You Tube:



“These are some of the things the Scripture tells us we should not eat.” Well, Mr. Osteen, if you want to get technical, these are some of the things God told the children of Israel not to eat when they were under Levitical law. As Paul wrote in Romans 14:14, “I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself.”

Osteen goes on to discuss some of the reasons that eating pork and shellfish are unhealthy, and there I agree with him totally, though his “facts” about while beef is healthier are wrong. The beef you buy in the grocery store is not fed on “fresh, clean vegetation,” they are fed processed, treated, synthetically-supplemented grain-based feeds which cows don’t digest well at all, while standing around in crowded, feces-filled feed lots.

My problem with Osteen’s teaching is not, however, that his meat facts miss the mark, but that he doesn’t seem to display a strong command of Scripture as a whole, including the New Testament in which we learn that Christ came to fulfill the law. Hey, don’t get me wrong, I would love for every Christian man, woman, and child to become a vegetarian or even just give up pork and shellfish, but the integrity of Scripture is far more important than any food choice.