Texas Mega-church ‘Minister’ Asks Members for Bank Account Routing Numbers

When the recession was but a rumor and possibility on the horizon, I and others maintained that a recession might just be what the doctor ordered for some forms of American Christianity. The kind that confused living in a certain culture, in a specific country, during one of the most affluent epochs in human history as “Christianity.” The kind that came up with truncated formulas and terribly tendentious readings of the Bible to support their self-centered message and justify their opulent lifestyles.

But when too many congregants lose their houses and jobs, when 401k and investment portfolios are decimated and giving goes down at a church that may have been spending every single penny coming in during the seven years of plenty… what does a wolf in sheep clothing do when people are leaving your church and giving is severely down?

You try to gain direct access to the bank accounts! Forget about all of this monkeying around with offering plates and ushers, just raid the bank account.

Seriously, this is brutal. Ed Young, a SBC pastor (Jim?) tries to coerce and manipulate his congregation into giving him their account and routing numbers so they can automatically withdraw their tithes. How long before he gets the idea from Schuller for the double tithe? Triple tithe anyone?

Young has been the focus of a media investigation this past year for his lavish lifestyle. He has a million dollar condo in Florida, a 10 thousand square foot mansion in Dallas, a private plane he leases for ‘ministry trips’, a parsonage payment of over a 1/4 million dollars a year. Some of his assets are listed at The Museum of Idolatry. Young is a health and wealth teacher. Attendence (sic) at his Fellowship Church has dropped off about 50% since WFAA aired it’s report.

This is a level of insanity I’ve never seen before in a denominational church and tops any of the greedy behavior we’ve come to expect from prosperity teachers. To their credit, many members walked out when Young demanded access to their accounts. This kind of guilt/tithe coercing is bad for a church and bad for it’s people.

video and above quote via

I hope this is a superfluous comment: please, don’t give your banking information to people like this. It probably won’t go well.

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