Joel Osteen was back behind the podium on Sunday after belatedly opening his megachurch to the survivors of the Hurricane Harvey flooding.

His sermonette/motivational speech/Prosperity Gospel message usually lasts 30 minutes, but the unrelenting backlash that`s been heaped on him on social media must have quenched his spirit, the plastic smile was still omnipresent but he managed to deliver only a six-minute speech.

Osteen`s Sunday service at Lakewood Church, attracted only a couple of thousand true believers, down from the usual crowd of 16,000. I`m an optimist, and I believe that it`s not only the chaos caused by the flooding but also disgust at Osteen`s un-Christian spirit that depressed the turnout.

For the umpteenth time since Osteen shut the doors of his church to the desperate Harvey survivors he attempted to justify himself. He even compared himself to the Biblical David, citing Psalms 35: I am attacked by people I don`t even know. “David, I feel your pain, and you didn`t have social media, David.”

Osteen has proved by his failure to minister to the people of Houston that he`s not a Christian, and truth be told he`s no David either. Osteen can best be compared to the heathen Goliath, he is the head of an evangelical empire that rakes in millions every week by deceiving the foolish and the desperate.

We can only hope and pray that Osteen won`t survive this scandal, and that he will never again attract crowds of 16,000.

Follow Robert Paul Reyes on Twitter: http://twitter.com/robertpaulreyes