Y’all may remember the huge kerfuffle surrounding Joel Osteen when he failed to effectively respond to the tragic results of Hurricane Harvey. Social media put him on blast after he simply sent out a tweet of “thoughts and prayers” instead of opening up his Lakewood Church in Houston to the area’s flood victims.

Initially, Osteen claimed that he was concerned about the logistics of opening up the church to evacuees in a safe manner and dropped a link for those willing to donate Hurricane Harvey relief funds to his church. In what appeared to be Osteen succumbing under the pressure, he finally sent an official statement confirming that the church’s doors were open.

As many know, Lakewood Church is considered a megachurch, equipped with its share of celebrity patrons. One of those is Tyler Perry, who recently defended Osteen against the backlash and has donated $250,000 to the church's relief fund, per Uproxx. This donation is actually just a quarter of the whopping $1 million he has pledged to donate to other charities, including Beyoncé's BEYGOOD Foundation relief fund set up for Harvey. According to Page Six, Perry and Osteen are also friends. 

Perry took to Facebook to release a video statement in response to the controversy surrounding Osteen.

“I know that there’s been some controversy about Joel Osteen and him not opening doors of the church. Let me tell you something: Joel and Victoria are amazing people. There is no way they would lock people out of the church and not let people in for shelter. There were some safety concerns," said the writer, producer, director, and actor. "I spoke to them on the phone, and it all made perfect sense to me so before you just run and judge somebody really quick, you need to know the whole circumstances…"

Perry went on to explain exactly how he would be distributing his million dollar pledge. "This million dollars, I’m breaking it up into quarters. I’m sending $250,000 to Lakewood to make sure that they can get all the supplies that people need. I know that they will, I know for sure that they will because that’s the kind of person he is.”

Osteen responded to Perry's words and generosity via his Twitter account:

Of course, this doesn't eliminate the controversies surrounding them — many critics are in fact, giving this gesture the side-eye — but ultimately, we hope that the money does go toward relieving the flood victims as much as possible. 

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