SBC megachurch pastor Ed Young has done a lot of stupid things in his life. He invited Mormon Glenn Beck to preach at his church and then get up on stage and declare himself to be a Christian believer.
He launched the now-defunct “Pastors Fashion” website, which sought to teach pastors how to dress in the coolest clothes by hiding the muffin-top rolls with compression garments (warning that it will make you gassy) and how to pair a lavender tie with a great pair of skinny jeans. He said at the time “We should be at the forefront of fashion. I think we have the ultimate message and should dress up with the times.”
He engaged in a “sexperiment” with his wife, where he and his spouse spent 24 hours on the rooftop of their church, cuddled up in bed, after advocating for 30-day sex challenges to promote his new book.
Frankly, he’s been an all-around dreadful exegete of the scriptures, routinely mishandling the word of God in his sermons. He’s viewed as a joke in many circles: a squishy, compromised pastor that has found himself overseeing the 25,000 member Fellowship Church that was built through seeker-sensitive chicanery. Check out all the stunts he’s pulled over the years. The man has done some wild things.
It’s for these reasons that we surprised to hear Pastor Ed Young take some hard swings at ‘woke pastors’ and leaders in an interview with the Christian Post, given his proclivities for goofy, unserious theology. We’ve collected a sample of salient quotes.
Woke’ Christian leaders and pastors today are jumping on the ‘hype train’ of what culture is currently applauding,” he said. “But they don’t really look at what the hype train is connected to. For example, many of the things culture applauds are connected to relativism, abortion, transgenderism, the breakup of the nuclear family.
I wholeheartedly agree with the phrase ‘black lives matter. I believe in it and the church should champion it. We should stand up for equality and justice. I believe we need to lead out.
But I can’t support or agree with the core beliefs of the organization Black Lives Matter. It’s tied to abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, and the breakup of the nuclear family, just to name a few. So I’m not going to hashtag that phrase because whenever someone hashtags something, they need to hash it out through Scripture, and they need to understand what the people who have started the hashtag are actually living out and what solutions are they recommending.
We want to be liked, we want to seem ‘woke,’ but in reality, we’re afraid to stand for truth or engage in healthy conversation. We need to be wary of jumping on cultural hype trains. Racism is an obvious issue that must always be addressed. We must call it out and point people to the answers found in the person of Jesus Christ.
I’m all for supporting legislation that pushes the ball of equality down the field, but real change is only going to happen when we have a heart transformation. Too many leaders are fearful to stand. Where is the boldness? Both sides of the aisle have dropped the ball. We must have open conversations, face our fears, and find solutions that work.”
I think that we have more of systemic sin problem in our world than a skin problem. Most people I know aren’t racists — some are, yes, and I do believe there’s a skin problem; I just don’t believe it’s systemically the core issue. The real issue is sin, not skin. That’s the root issue, but we’re too fearful to say that because we could be misunderstood and maligned.
Check out the rest of the interview, as there is more good commentary from pastor Young, which is quite refreshing. We’re glad he’s taking other pastors to task for “jumping on the hype-train”. Now if only he could back up these good words here by “jumping on the faithful, solid, biblical exegesis train” he’d be set.
