O’Reilly, last night, with minister and motivational author Joel Osteen:
O’Reilly: I want you to counsel me, pastor…I’m sitting here, I’m fighting this ferocious battle against people at this juncture who want to change America, all right? They want to change it to de-emphasize religion, they want a country like Sweden where less than ten percent of the population goes to church. Now I believe the Founding Fathers wanted religion in the public marketplace as a behavior deterrent because they knew they couldn’t control the population, and they felt that a faith-based population would be more likely to behave. Very practical.
So I’m fighting against these secularists and they’re sliming me, they’re smearing me. Okay? So I can’t go around like you with a happy face all the time, I gotta hit these people right between the eyes. I gotta have negative thoughts because they’re bad people and I’m fighting. It’s like a war. So I’m not really doing what you advise, am I?
Osteen: Well I don’t know if that’s true, Bill. You’re doing what God’s called you to do, and I’m doing what God’s called me to do, but I mean, there’s going to be negative things in life. The Bible says to do good to your enemies, but then there’s other times when you gotta stand strong and fight the good fight and I think that’s what you’re doing out there every week. My calling is to encourage people and give them hope, but I think we all have different callings.
O’Reilly: Okay, so I’m not doing anything wrong in your estimation? Because I have to dwell on the negative an awful lot here, pastor. You know, I’m not skipping in to the Factor every day. I’m reading this stuff, and I know it’s harmful, and I know it’s bad, and I’m going, oh, I’m gonna get this S.O.B. I don’t know if that stacks up.
Osteen: Well I don’t know, I wouldn’t say you’re doing anything wrong, you know what you’re doing, if it’s what God’s calling —
O’Reilly: I don’t know if God’s calling me. I’m taking a lot of punishment here. Sometimes I’d like to say, Michael the archangel, get down here and kick a little butt with me, you know? It’d be helpful, because I’m taking a lot of punishment, so is my family. I mean we are taking a lot — of — guff. And it’s garbage.
So what I’m trying to get across to you is, you are putting out a message of hope, and I respect that. And you are putting out a message, think postive, and I respect that. But those messages, hope and positive thinking, don’t win wars. They don’t.
— snip —
Osteen: …you can’t change it, I mean, can you change people, not saying stuff bad about you? I don’t know.
O’Reilly (smiling): No, I can’t, unless I execute them, which would be against everything we both stand for. Pastor, I want to wish you merry Christmas…