Osteen Defends Stance on Hot Button Issues: 'This Is Just Who I Am'
Pastor Joel Osteen—whose "A Night of Hope" event on Saturday drew 50,000 people to Yankee Stadium in New York City—recently spoke about how he deals with controversial issues, meeting Pope Francis, and his views on Christian unity.
The pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston recently said gay marriage is "against the rules," but that he doesn't want his ministry defined by how he views the issue.
"I think the challenge for me that you have to overcome is they want to go to the hot button issues and for some people, that's not what my ministry's about or what I'm about," Osteen told The Blaze. "It's just not my focus, so for me it's easy for me to walk away from an interview and for people to think, 'That's just the guy who's against gays or against some other hot button issue.'...