Also, I was using "lol" to defuse the warning just a little bit, since people who are already financially committed may be liable to freak out just a little bit too much and I didn't want to be sending the wrong signal... Ok, enough said.

If you want to know how I reacted to it, go through you your post and substitute every instance of "lol" with "hahaha." Ask yourself "is this an appropriate point in a speech to laugh?"

If a person giving a speech laughs after they say things that are liable to give offense, it will sound either insensitive, or awkward and inappropriate, like they're nervous and don't know a better way to diffuse the tension.

Lol isn't a punctuation mark, after all.