Your Best Stewardess Now!

Lots of discussion about Victoria Osteen (wife of Joel Osteen of USA’s largest church) getting kicked off yesterday’s plane to Vail, Colorado. – an incident called “minor” although although it involved Continental Airlines, FBI agents, and the Associated Press.

OsteenYahoo News gives no reasons but Houston Clear Thinkers and Houston Chronicle say it was the spill on her tray that was not cleaned to her satisfaction and she asked for another stewardess who might be able to clean it up. . . better! I guess her tone was a little too sharp . . but hey . . . everyone is human. Joel’s book “Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential” is a best seller. I feel another coming up: “Your Best Stewardess Now: 7 Steps to Flying at your First-Class Potential ”

Andrew

Andrew Jones launched his first internet space in 1997 and has been teaching on related issues for the past 20 years. He travels all the time but lives between Wellington, San Francisco and a hobbit home in Prague.

13 Comments

  • LOL! Nicely said!
    Peace,
    Jamie

  • Paul says:

    Gotta love it! Actually, as big as that church is I’m surprised they don’t have their own private jet! (Sorry that was a low blow)

  • Andrew,
    I took my post down about this, mostly because I just wanted to get some conversation about how to deal with this — my own take is that some priorities are massively out of shape — and my readers wanted me not to be light-hearted about it.
    Frankly, it’s sad but beyond that. Here we have a prominent pastor, who has mega-people and now mega-bucks from a book, traveling with his family to Vail during Christmas for skiing, flying first class, and she gets bent out of shape from a spill not being cleaned up that they are removed from the flight. Is it judgment to say such behavior is unChristian, esp for someone who lives his and her life in a fishbowl and therefore becomes accountable to the media for behavior?

  • andrew says:

    thanks scot
    i am leaving my post up, not because i am trying to bring attention to it, but because i see the conversation taking place on anti-megachurch sites and i would rather those people talk to me here in a context of less judgment.
    have a good Christmas!

  • Ted Gossard says:

    Yes, I was commenting on Scot’s post to defend his posting of that. I thought it worthwhile to think it through since Osteen is very high profile now.

  • Ted Gossard says:

    …then the posting was gone. He had taken it off!

  • John says:

    Might I suggest that it’s also possible the flight attendant provoked the confrontation. Or blew it out of proportion. Or…well, lots of things. We just don’t know, and there are not exactly a pile of evidence. Nobody is talking except one woman.
    I admit that, on the surface, this looks very (for lack a better term) icky. But why don’t we let the facts shake out before lambasting anyone.

  • Guitanguran says:

    Well, it certainly doesn’t smell right.
    You don’t get ‘asked’ off a plane after the door’s closed unless you’re being a total whack-job.
    What I don’t get is the plane was made to stay at the gate until the Osteens’s luggage was retrieved. So, all those people had to wait? Hey, if I’m being such a jerk, I get pulled off the plane, they’re making me pick my luggage up in Vail.

  • Ann says:

    I agree with John. We just don’t know what the situation was. And even the Osteens’ are fallible and we all need Jesus. I’m sure this is extremely embarrassing and a learning experience for them. I agree that they are accountable for their behavior, being the public figure that he is, but where’s the grace? I’m glad they’re not perfect.

  • Rose says:

    I just think it seems like everytime a religious leader does something that people think is negative the media is always quick to bring it right out in peoples face have you noticed?

  • John Loppnow says:

    I’d love to have a dialogue with any one interested.
    I’m a pastor and personally feel uncomfortable with Joel’s teaching + , but don’t always have a clear reason why. Could be that I have a gift of discernment or I’m off and its a personal preference.
    The reason I’m interested in getting wisdom (through love) how to respond to people in our congregation when they ask me my thoughts about Joel. sometimes regarding his tv show or books.
    Any thoughts out there?
    Sincerely wanting to respond in love and truth. Both “my truth” and the truth – all in love.
    Looking for wisdom,
    John Loppnow

  • Sally says:

    I think God’s talking a lot about judgement at the moment. I’m hearing a warning that if I see something wrong, I’m to ask God where it’s hiding in MY heart -then I can repent that and then stand in the gap for my bro/sis’s sin, and God surely hears those prayers. Whether it’s online or stays in my heart doesn’t make a lot of difference -God’s saying judging is not a safe place for me -and it’s cropping up ALL the time!
    Is it just me He’s getting tough with now?
    Another angle is the incredible attack high or low profile Christian leaders come under. Unless we’ve been there, I don’t think we can have any idea. They are standing for Jesus on a massive scale and all sorts is being thrown at them -just humbling that they’re still standing.

  • Marsha Marks says:

    OK, I’m slow with the news I guess…and I’m a Flight Attendant so you’d think I would have heard this story sooner. But, I’ve heard it now, and since I am a Flight Attendant, I would like to correct a ‘myth’ which is floating around the web, on this “Osteen’ story. Here is the myth ‘you don’t get thrown off an airplane unless you are doing something really horrible’. That is not true. If the Flight Attendant is acting like a complete witch, or word that rhymes with it – she can make a federal case out of a small altercation. Like, if Mrs. Olsteen stood up during the safety demo and said, ‘this spill is getting all over everything’ – the Flight Attendant could fly (pun intended) into a rage, and call the FBI which she did, and insist that a report be file. (The FBI refused to file on this case, I mean come on – even they could see it was a case of Flight Attendant Freak out power trip.) So, the true fact may be that Mrs. Olsteen simply wanted the liquid that had spilled to be cleaned off her seat before it ran everywhere, and the Flight Attendant in Charge could have been a Natzi Soup Flight Attendant (for my German friends, simply a reference to Sienfed)
    So there you have the actual Flight Attendant’s report.
    Thank you and bye bye. Marsha Marks http://www.flyingbytheseatofmypants.net
    http://www.theflightattendantreport.com
    http://www.marshamarks.com

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