The founder of one of WA’s biggest churches has posted on social media about meeting a millionaire US-based pastor who has been labelled a “grifter” and encourages his followers to make money via a contentious practice called the prosperity gospel.
Mark Varughese left a legal career in 2003 to pursue a job as a minister. Two years later he began Kingdomcity following a “personal encounter with God”, according to his book Ready, Fire! Aim: The Outrageous Adventure of Saying ‘Yes’ to God.
Kingdomcity soon expanded into a massive global church with multiple brands including a school and communications company.
On Tuesday, Varughese shared a post on Instagram showing his meeting with Lakewood Church pastor Joel Osteen.
In the image, Varughese and Osteen are shown with their arms around each other while smiling into the camera.
A second image shows Varughese standing in Osteen’s $10.5 million mansion with his wife Victoria.
Osteen has an estimated net worth of more than $50 million and has been accused of owning a $300,000 Ferrari.
Varughese used the post to praise Osteen and thank him for his “inspirational example” and “generous spirit”.
A Kingdomcity spokesperson said Varughese was visiting a number of places, churches and people from North and South America, and Osteen was one of them.
“It’s not for us to commentate or critique how other church leaders, from other denominations and countries conduct themselves or speculate or judge as to how they accumulated wealth — it could have been from commercial business, family inheritance or other means that are not in any way a misuse or abuse of ‘the prosperity gospel’,” they said.
“The bible does not say that ‘money’ is the root of all evil, but ‘the love of money’ is the root of all evil.”
Osteen’s dealings have been well documented in the US. In 2021 he was publicly shamed into repaying a dodgy $4.4 million pandemic loan after the church went viral for the handout.
The pastor frequently receives criticism for preaching the prosperity gospel saying that God is “forgiving” and will reward believers with “health, wealth and happiness”.
The prosperity gospel’s main belief is that all Christians will be rewarded with material gain because it is the will of God.
It’s preached by wealthy pastors like Osteen, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, and Kenneth Copeland.
The Kingdomcity spokesperson said the “extravagant and extreme excess that some call the ‘prosperity gospel’ is not something we agree with.
“Neither do we ascribe to a ‘vow of poverty’ for anybody including Christians or pastors,” they said.
However, Kingdomcity Church is prosperous and runs like a profitable business. Personally, Varughese is associated with nine different charities.
Financial records posted to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) show that between these charities they declared more than $48 million in assets last financial year and made more than $6 million in profit.
Kingdomcity Global holds more than $9 million in cash in various bank accounts.
About 0.27 per cent of Kingdomcity Australia’s expenses went to charities, while the rest went to church expenses and employee pay.
Every year, they receive donations from parishioners worth tens of millions.
Personally, Varughese owns no property in WA but recently sold a property worth $880,000. His personal net worth is not publicly available and church spokespersons were not willing to share it.
“Your interest in a picture with Joel Osteen does not validate a response to a private and personal question like that,” they said.
Vox explained the prosperity gospel and Osteen’s beliefs extensively in 2017, describing it as a uniquely American evangelical belief system.
This article came after Osteen was criticised for not opening his Texas church that holds 45,000 worshippers every Sunday to evacuees during Hurricane Harvey.
Harvey killed 100 people and is tied with 2005’s Hurricane Katrina for being the costliest on record.
The prosperity gospel is widely criticised for “hypocrisy” by both atheists and church leaders.
A 60 Minutes interview in 2007 grilled Osteen on his beliefs and extravagant lifestyle funded by parishioners.
Theology Professor Michael Horton, who is the editor of the theological magazine Modern Reformation, is one of Osteen’s critics.
Dr Horton wrote that preachers like Osteen’s message makes religion a commodity, “trivialises faith” and sounds like atheism.
In 2022, writer Rebecca Johnson wrote for Medium about Osteen that “a televangelist is a grifter whose con is religion”.
Osteen was also criticised in 2017 for his “passive remarks” following a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“When somebody doesn’t agree with us or not doing what we like, it’s easy to get in conflict with them, to argue, to try to straighten them out, to prove our point,” Osteen posted on Facebook.
“No, you have to be the bigger person. Just because they’re doing wrong doesn’t mean you have to engage.”
Meanwhile, Varughese describes his background as “diverse”. He was born in Singapore, grew up in Malaysia and is of Indian origin.
A spokesperson for Kingdomcity said that it was not the church’s perspective or understanding that Osteen was racist.
“In the one interaction we had with Joel Osteen, he was kind, hospitable and we understand he supports a lot of mission work and charitable causes among many races and cultures including India,” they said.
Varughese and his wife Jemima’s social media presences are modest compared to Osteen’s.
While the pair do often share posts highlighting their globetrotting lifestyle and lavish trips, members of WA’s church community praise the pastor for expanding his church into countries traditionally resistant to Christianity.
Kingdomcity has a presence in Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Auckland, Sri Lanka, India, Botswana, Dubai, the UK and Mexico.