A former president of the Southern Baptist Convention and a leader in the denomination’s “conservative resurgence” told his Houston megachurch Feb. 25 migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border are “undesirables, “garbage” and “raff.”
Roaming back and forth on a stage adorned with Texas flags and memorabilia, and wearing a Western-style vest, Ed Young of Second Baptist Houston drew a contrast between “The New Colossus,” the poem cast on the base of the Statue of Liberty, and modern-day immigrants to America. News of his sermon first was noted by the Houston Chronicle.
Echoing Donald Trump’s incendiary rhetoric, Young declared: “Central America, South America, now countries in Asia, China, India, Russia, Iran, Iraq — just pick a number — they have sent not those who are huddled masses longing to be free. They have emptied their jails and their prisons, they’ve taken their gangs and they have gone across the border and now we have 8 to 10 million of them scattered across the United States of America.”
He said his information is “absolutely factual” even though it, in fact, contradicts known data on migration.
He said his information is “absolutely factual” even though it, in fact, contradicts known data on migration.
In his sermon based on the Parable of the Lost Sheep in Luke 15, Young said sheep get lost because of foolishness.
“The United States of America right now is lost through foolishness,” he said.
“What happened?” he said to applause. “Fools were foolish. And now we really do not have a country. Unless there is a border, you do not have a country. That is where we are. And we have been led by fools.”
This has been allowed by liberal leaders, he said, who desire socialism that leads to communism and then to dictatorship.
He called out mandatory COVID vaccines for military personnel as part of a communist agenda brought to America by “godless leadership.”
In a sermon that grew more angry as he went, Young also claimed drug and cartel leaders from Mexico have infiltrated the world and America through the southern border and set up a “massive welfare state.”
He said: “I don’t know … if there’s any way to recover outside of going and taking these people back home, and I can tell you the homeland will not want to take them back because they have eliminated all the undesirables.”
He asked his affluent congregation to imagine: “What if we could take all of our local prisons, our federal prisons, all those who have addictions, and we could bring them all to Spain, … how much would that cut down on our debt? … That’s what countries are doing all around the world today by millions and millions.”
He further linked America’s blight to George Soros “electing people to high office.
He further linked America’s blight to George Soros “electing people to high office,” to gangs in New York City attacking policemen.
“We are led by fools, godless people who have afflicted America,” he said.
Young, who is 87 years old, has led the Houston church for more than 40 years. He was one of a succession of conservative pastors elected president of the SBC during the conservative takeover of the convention. One of his most famous members is Paul Pressler, who quietly left First Baptist Church of Houston after he was accused of inappropriate sexual behavior with boys and young men.
Pressler rose to prominence as co-architect of the conservative movement even as rumors swirled about his alleged dalliances with young men — rumors that could not be documented publicly until a lawsuit was filed against Pressler and Second Baptist Church seven years ago.
That lawsuit was settled out of court last December.
Pressler has said the impetus for his involvement in the conservative resurgence was a previous pastor at Second Baptist who he said was preaching liberalism.
