Victoria Osteen
Victoria Osteen
Victoria Osteen is the wife of Joel Osteen and co-pastor with him of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. In December 2005, Mrs. Osteen made headlines when she was removed from a Continental Airlines flight and subsequently fined $3,000 by the FAA. A lawsuit filed by flight attendant Sharon Brown was scheduled to go before a jury in August 2008.
The lawsuit stems from an incident that took place two years ago aboard a Continental flight fromHouston to Vail, Colorado. Witnesses say that Victoria Osteen askedthe flight attendants to clean up a spill in her seat. When they did not respond quickly enough, Osteen became violent and “shoved, grabbed and pushed” the attendants. Court documents say Osteen elbowed Sandra Brown while trying to enter the airplane’s cockpit. Osteen and her family were removed from the flight and fined $3,000 by the FAA for interfering with a flight crew member.
Her activities include a regular feature on 89.3 KSBJ-Houston’s afternoon drive show with Chuck Pryor and Amanda Carroll. She calls in every Wednesday to encourage and pray for children. She also supports the organizations Feed the Children and The Bridge, a shelter for battered women. Victoria and Joel were the featured cover story of the May/June 2006 issue of Texas Family magazine. She was also on the cover of Houston Pet Talk magazine, October 2006.
In the lawsuit, Continental Airlines flight attendant Sharon Brown accuses Victoria Osteen of assaulting her before the start of a 2005 flight from Houston to Vail, Colo. Brown alleges Victoria Osteen, co-pastor of Houston’s popular Lakewood Church, threw her against a bathroom door and elbowed her in the left breast during an angry outburst over a stain on her first-class seat.
Victoria will release her first book in Fall of 2008 which focuses on the influence of women. According to the church’s website: “[t]his new series promises to be a resource for parents who are seeking to raise children in the knowledge of God’s Word.”
Sharon Brown, the flight attendant suing Victoria Osteen, is seeking punitive damages amounting to 10 percent of her net worth. Joel Osteen is pastor of Lakewood Church in Texas, the largest evangelical church in America with an estimated 30,000 weekly attendants and millions of television viewers.
What exactly did Victoria refuse to do? Did the attendant have the authroity to make the decision to remove Victoria? Did Victoria ask to get off of the plane? Did Victoria run for the cockpit and bang on the door? Where was Joel & the children while all of this was going on? Tell all or shut up!
The misunderstanding occurred when the Osteens boarded the first-class cabin and Victoria Osteen noticed a liquid spill on her seat. She asked one flight attendant to clean it, but the attendant was unable to do so at the time because passengers were boarding. Osteen then asked another flight attendant. That attendant was also busy and instead gave Osteen napkins to clean it herself.
