Osteen just stated his belief that Mormons are Christians. He then expressed the thought that Mormonism “might not be the purest form of Christianity, like I grew up with,” but he affirmed Mormon statements that Jesus is the Son of God and that He is Savior.
Evaluating Osteen’s boyhood understanding of Christianity would be a project unto itself, given the shifting theology of his preacher father, the late John Osteen.
The main point of concern in Joel’s latest comment is the lack of any biblical standard of judgment and the total abdication of theological responsibility. He relegates doctrinal disagreements between Christians and Mormons to the status of theological debates between Protestant denominations and then includes Roman Catholicism. There are plenty of issues there, and the issues are not the same when comparing Baptists to Methodists, on the one hand, and Protestants and Roman Catholics, on the other. Comparing any form of Trinitarian orthodoxy with Mormonism is another class of question altogether.
Reminds me of a Mormon friend in college who said she had a baptist friend who thought Mormons are Christian but not saved. After she visited church with me she mentioned that she had issues with some parts of the Nicene creed. Which is exactly why, I explained, that she is not Christian. What really bothered her though, was my suggestion that Mormons are further from Christianity than Unitarians.
To answer the headline’s question, Osteen neither knows nor cares. He is a modern-day Elmer Gantry, both ignorant and self-satisfied in his ignorance.