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Country music superstar John Rich has criticized megachurch pastor Joel Osteen in a recent podcast appearance.<\/p>\n
Rich appeared as a guest on Tuesday\u2019s episode<\/a> of \u201cThe Shawn Ryan Show\u201d \u2014 a podcast \u201cdedicated to preserving history through the unfiltered stories of heroic events and current world issues by honoring the real experiences of the men and women who lived them,\u201d its website reads<\/a> \u2014 during which Rich vocalized his disdain for Osteen\u2019s preaching.<\/p>\n The 51-year-old country musician said he believes the \u201cend times\u201d are near and that Osteen would not preach this because he doesn\u2019t want to make his audience uncomfortable.<\/p>\n \u201cJoel Osteen is never going to say anything that\u2019s going to make anybody uncomfortable ever on any level ever,\u201d Rich said. \u201cHe\u2019s never gonna say anything that would prick the heart or conscience of his congregation.\u201d<\/p>\n Rich elaborated that he thinks the idea that \u201cGod would never make his people go through something like that\u201d is one of the most \u201cspiritually ignorant things a person could say.\u201d<\/p>\n Osteen preaches an ideology known as propserity theology<\/a>, which teaches that those who commit to Christian faith will be rewarded through material gain. Osteen himself is a multimillionaire, with a net worth of about $100 million this year, according to theStreet<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rich said he recognizes that most Christians in the United States live comfortably, but that Christians around the world are being persecuted.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy don\u2019t you go tell that to the underground Christians in communist China right now who are being killed by the thousands?\u201d he said. \u201cThey are willing to worship God and be a Christian when it means they could die for doing it. And we don\u2019t have that problem in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n Osteen had not responded to Rich\u2019s comments as of Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n Rich rose to fame as a member of the band \u201cLonestar\u201d from 1992 to 1998, serving as the band\u2019s bassist and co-lead vocalist.<\/p>\nThe latest from MassLive<\/h2>\n