Does Joel Osteen Really Own A $325,000 Ferrari?
TV preachers have been a thing for almost as long as TV has been a thing. Indeed, the first "televangelist," according to The New York Times, was Rex Humbard, who started in radio, transitioned to TV, and was a weekly Sunday morning fixture on TV sets for the next four and a half decades.
Over the years, other TV preachers came and went. There was the fire-and-brimstone preaching of Jimmy Swaggart, the compelling sermons of Billy Graham, and of late, the health-and-prosperity preaching of the likes of Creflo Dollar.
One of the most popular TV preachers today is Joel Osteen. As the Financial Times reports, his message is one of prosperity: God wants believers to be prosperous. Osteen himself certainly lives up to that message: He's worth an estimated $60 million, and his $10 million mansion recently appeared on real estate website Zillow.
In July 2021, another purported example of Osteen's exorbitance made the rounds on the internet: photos purported to show a $325,000 Ferrari that supposedly belonged to the preacher.
Joel Osteen probably does not own a $325,000 Ferrari
As rumor-debunking site Snopes reports, the photos making the rounds of the internet in July 2021 showed a black sports car, purportedly a $325,000 Ferrari, belonging to Joel Osteen, and captioned it with a message about the need to tax churches. However, the website notes that the car is not Osteen's, but rather, it's an "unrelated vehicle." Further, there are no photos or videos showing Osteen driving his reported ride.
Of course, it's impossible to prove a negative, so while the photo that became a meme in the summer of 2021 doesn't show Osteen's car, there's no way of saying that he doesn't own a Ferrari. Or a Lamborghini. Or a Honda Accord, for that matter.
Snopes writer Dan Evon notes that it's actually quite possible that Osteen, with his vast wealth, has purchased one or more exotic cars, maybe even a Ferrari or two. But there is simply no way of knowing for certain. What we do know, however, is that the viral meme from these past few weeks isn't true.