Joel Osteen: God ‘Absolutely’ Accepts Gay People [Video]

Joel Osteen stopped by HuffPost Live Wednesday to discuss his new book, Break Out: 5 Keys to Go Beyond Your Barriers and Live an Extraordinary Life. Host Josh Zepps read a passage in which Osteen writes, “It doesn’t matter who likes you or doesn’t like you, all that matters is that God likes you. He accepts you, he approves of you.”

Zepps followed up the passage by asking if Osteen believed God’s acceptance and approval extended to homosexuals.

“Absolutely,” Osteen said. “I believe that God’s breathed his life into every single person, we’re all on this journey, nobody’s perfect. The Bible says that a sin is pride, a sin is selfish ambitious. We tend to pick out these certain things, but I believe every person is made in the image of God. You gotta accept them as they are, as they’re on their journey.”

The 50-year-old also praised Pope Francis who, just six months into his papacy, is proving to be more liberal than his predecessors.

“I think the pope is fantastic,” he said. Osteen said he liked Pope Francis’ message of acceptance and inclusiveness.

“I like his tone, not pushing people away,” he said. “But I feel like God is big, and his mercy is very wide.”

Last month, Pope Francis called out the Catholic Church for being “obsessed” with homosexuality, abortion, and birth control.

“It is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time,” he said. “The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.” Pope Francis also said he envisioned the church as being “a home for all.”

The 76-year-old, who was elected pope on March 13, also said that even atheists can be forgiven, and that “God’s mercy has no limits.” He added, “There is sin, also for those who have no faith, in going against one’s conscience. Listening to it and abiding by it means making up one’s mind about what is good and evil.”

Joel Osteen held a similar view, saying that he is not one to judge non-Christians. As far as whether they can go to heaven or not, Osteen said what he has seen in the scriptures indicates that you must have a relationship with Jesus.