On Saturday night Ed Young and two members of Fellowship Church's Doard of Directors took the stage to 'set things straight and move on'. There's just one really big problem. The things that they admitted to are more damning than the original news story and only the most blind and unquestioningly loyal followers of Ed Young won't see through the spin that was fed to them at Saturday's dog and pony show.
According to Ed Young and Fellowship Church's Board:
Admission 1. Ed Young doesn't own a 10,000 square foot home. His home is ONLY 7,800 square feet.
A. Considering the fact that an average home in America is only 1,400 square feet that would mean that a 7,800 square foot home is equal to 5 average homes. In other words, 7,800 square feet is not small or meager. Instead, it is off the chain HUGE.
B. How much do you think a 7,800 square foot lake front home is worth in and around Ed Young's neighborhood? Answer: under the current depressed real estate market conditions, homes of that size are currently running at the bargain price of $2 million to $3 million dollars, depending on lot size, location, features and view. Since Young had his custom built LAKE FRONT home constructed during the peak of the last real estate market it is highly likely that the original market value was upwards of $4 million dollars, however the assessed value of the home is listed at ONLY $1.5 million. But all this only us leads to the next question.
c. What about the $240,000 per year "parsonage" allowance? Young and his board did not address that issue at all. How can one make sense of that figure? If Young's home only has a $1.5 million mortgage then his monthly payments would "ONLY" be $7,000 per month or $84,000 per year. (think about that figure for a minute...at a MINIMUM Ed Young pays nearly $84,000 per year for his mortgage). This then leads to the obvious question "what is Young doing with the other $156,000 of his "parsonage" allowance? Is he pocketing that? OR.....
Does Young have a higher mortgage than $1.5 million? A $240,000 parsonage allowance hints at a much higher mortgage, which would have been very likely during the time when the house was built. How high? Answer: $4 million. The monthly mortgage payments on a $4 million home are $20,000.
So Ed either has a much higher mortgage than he is letting on OR he's set up some kind of shell and pea business deal and is pocketing more than half of his $240,000 per year "parsonage" allowance.
No matter how you slice it, by Ed Young's own admission he lives in a HUGE, luxurious, custom built, lake front home. Those homes are never cheap.
Admission 2. Fellowship Church doesn't own a private jet they're only LEASING it.
Does leasing the private jet mean that Fellowship Church is paying next to nothing for Ed Young to fly to conferences and speak to other pastors? Not on your life!
Here are some pictures of the private jet that Fellowship Church is leasing as well as the standard interior of this model of aircraft. How much do you think it costs PER MONTH to lease an $8.4 million private jet? I'll give the answer below.
So...how much do you think it costs per month to LEASE an $8.4 million private jet? Answer: standard lease rates on a private jet per month are 1% of the cost of the jet. That means, IF Fellowship Church leased the jet with a market value of $8.4 million at the signing of the lease, then they would be paying $84,000 PER MONTH to lease that Dessault Falcon 50 Private Jet. That would equal $1,008,000 per year. Keep in mind that the lease payments DO NOT INCLUDE hangar fees, fuel costs, pilot fees or maintenance costs.
Maybe, just maybe Fellowship Church was able to negotiate a better lease rate. Maybe, just maybe they're ONLY paying $60,000 per month or maybe, just maybe they really got a good price and are ONLY paying $50,000 per month to lease the private jet. But even if they were able to save a few thousand a month does it really make things better for Ed Young? $50,000 is still a lot more than most Americans make in a year!
So, Ed Young's admissions rather than making his case have instead proven what the News 8 reporter set out to demonstrate, namely that Ed Young's luxury spending is out of control and not in keeping with a pastor's salary.
