Joel Osteen is the senior pastor of Lakewood Church, a megachurch in Houston, Texas. It is the largest congregation in the United States, averaging more than 43,500 in attendance per week. Osteen is often thought of within the Christian world as almost more of a motivational speaker than a pastor in the traditional sense; so, it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise when his wife and ministry partner Victoria said something in a sermon that brought the heresy hunters running with teeth bared.

“I just want to encourage everyone of us to realize when we obey God, we’re not doing it for God – I mean, that’s one way to look at it – we’re doing it for ourselves, because God takes pleasure when we’re happy. So I want you to know this morning: Just do good for your own self. Do good because God wants you to be happy. When you come to church, when you worship Him, you’re not doing it for God really. You’re doing it for yourself, because that’s what makes God happy.”

In other words, God doesn’t want your obedience for its own sake, he wants you to obey him because it’s good for you, it helps make your life better and that is what pleases him. The gist of what she said, even from a Christian perspective – a progressively liberal one anyway – wasn’t all that shocking. The problem is that it’s difficult to convince people to be religious if you don’t also compel them to sacrifice their own self-interests.

Which is why after finding out what Victoria said, there were reactions like this from Steve Camp, Pastor at Cross Church in Palm City:

“It’s the age-old sin of idolatry – that it’s not about God, it’s about us. True worship for the humanist is about how we feel at the end of the day and what gives us meaning, as opposed to what gives God glory…”

This is representative of most of the negative reactions to Victoria’s statement. Another common response is along the lines of what Mini Carlsson posted in response to our story, “...hmmm, didn't jesus say one is to hate their own life in order to be a disciple? may be she skipped that part”

Anthony Toohey replied, “Thank you for reminding us why Christianity is a cesspool of self-hatred and degradation.”

Winston Gainey also made an astute comment to the story which was very popular, “Love how the snake oil salesman are criticizing her for improperly selling snake oil :)”

It is definitely difficult to comprehend why Victoria’s comments could possibly be construed as bad, but, in Christian orthodoxy, those who say the types of things that Victoria said are seen as idolaters because they are putting the self before God. Religious people are fundamentally motivated to “do good” out of an often very sincere desire to please God. Some “good things” make good common humanist sense. Others are a bit more difficult to understand. So the believer turns to their Holy Book(s) and Clergy for guidance. But at the end of the day, the believer isn’t supposed to be living for him/herself but rather at the pleasure of God.

In the mind of the atheist, doing what works for me and also caring about others makes good common sense. But in the mind of the religious, this is blasphemy. The religious person must be thinking about what pleases God and what God is commanding. All behavior must start from there.

So, when a pastor’s wife tells the congregation to obey God for their own benefit – because it is good for them and makes them happy – well, you can see where that might lead. If I am doing good for my own benefit, why would I need God? If I can figure out what is in the best interests of myself and my fellow human beings without a holy book or clergy then the book become obsolete and the clergy are out of jobs.

As commenter Holly Staggs pointed out, “Christianity has such a large following because people want to believe in something more, but they want to be able to live how they want....and with the bible you have that flexibility. IMO, it pretty much says whatever you want it to say. Guess it doesn't hurt that if you are a really good speaker/people person there can be large sums of money it too!”

What about you? What motivates you in your life without god and religion? Reply with your thoughts to this email and we might publish them on our site. Please let us know if you wish to remain anonymous