RobertMWorsham
RoertMWorsham

Pastor Joel Osteen said he hasn’t been rattled in any sex abuse scandals plaguing the Catholic Church because he’s been committed to the “Billy Graham rule,” which involves men avoiding time alone with women who aren’t their wives, according to a recent interview in the Christian Post.

Osteen, a bestselling author and pastor of Houston’s 45,000-member Lakewood Church, said he’s “always” followed the rule, adding that “it’s important to be honest before God every day and check the reasons why you are doing what you are doing.”

“To me, when I stand before God having a pure heart, I can go out and be my best.”

“I think the key for me on that is to start every day — I take the first half hour of every day to search my own heart to ask God, ‘Am I on track and doing this for the right reasons? Am I following what you want me to do?,” he said in the interview.

The Billy Graham rule, named for the famous late American evangelist, is meant to help Christian men avoid temptation and even the appearance of infidelity. Osteen isn’t the only popular conservative that follows this rule. Vice President Mike Pence has also suggested that he follows a version of the guideline. Osteen’s father, John Osteen, also followed the rule. The elder Osteen founded Lakewood in 1959.

The rule also been criticized by some women, who claim it treats women as sexual objects and also prevents them from advancing in their careers.

Rev. Angela Denker, a Lutheran pastor, thinks the Billy Graham rule is an outdated practice that keeps women powerless and silent. It has “nothing to do with Jesus and everything to do with male superiority complex,” she wrote in an article for the Christian website Sojourners.

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