Ed Young, pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas has posted a response on his blog to the recent story by channel 8 raising questions about whether Young is not being transparent enough with his congregation regarding his luxury lifestyle.

One thing that stands out in the response is Ed Young’s assertion that he has not viewed the channel 8 report: “We have not seen the piece that was aired, nor will we give credence to it by watching.”

Now why on earth would anyone think that a person who is the target of an investigative report lends credibility to his accusers by hearing what they had to say about him?

It is a common ploy for those who have done something wrong to avoid hearing the charges others are bringing against them. After all, you don’t have to specifically answer a charge if you can honestly say you haven’t heard the accusation. It’s the closest you’ll ever get to being able to “plead the fifth” with the media other than simply keeping silent. A clever tactic, but just a new twist on the old “that’s so preposterous it doesn’t warrant a response!” routine that miscreants have used for centuries to avoid answering uncomfortable questions.

So, Ed Young says nothing in his post about the 8 million dollar private mystery jet at Alliance Airport. Nothing about claims he has a fabulous 10,000 square foot house on Lake Grapevine, and nothing about the reported million dollar salary.

If all those accusations were totally false, Ed Young would be addressing and refuting each accusation specifically and in detail to clear his name and preserve the reputation of his ministry, for the sake of the church. Instead, there is insinuation that a story presented during sweeps week is automatically suspect.

He says in the blog post that he and his wife have no secrets. He also says “What we do know is that this report was made based on fragments of information gathered out of context and anonymously, and that it disregarded documented information that the Board of Directors for Fellowship Church is privy to and that is known by legal counsel and accounting audits.”

The use of the word “privy” sure sounds secretive to me. “Privy” indicates someone is privileged to know something, and by definition others are excluded from knowing. Maybe we’re all hung up on the definition of the word “secrets”. After all, Bill Clinton taught us that it all depends on what the definition of the word “is” is, so perhaps the term “secrets” should be translated as “insufficient transparency”.

In a terrifically bizarre sentence, Young states: “My life is lived in an aquarium, and I am not ashamed of that fact.”

No, Mr. Young, your life is lived in a beautiful mansion on Lake Grapevine.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if you have a very expensive aquarium inside it.

P.S. Well, here’s Ed Young “Setting things straight and moving on” in his own words, and I will admit that he does directly address many of the things I mentioned above. Now why didn’t he do that in the blog post? It would, of course, be hypocritical of me to go change my words above in light of the video I just discovered, so in fairness I leave you with Ed Young’s much better video rebuttal below, and you can decide for yourself if I’ve been too quick to judge: