So Did Pastor Ed Kang Lie to His Members?

Aug 19, 2009 10:14 PM
So Did Pastor Ed Kang Lie to His Members?
by makestraight

[Updated 8/20/09, 9:50am]

Nyoron has clarified in the comments that Pastor Ed didn’t specifically say that the bloggers “refused” to contact him. However, the question still stands:

Why did he say he tried to contact us “bloggers” when he did not?

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I could not get this thought out of my mind recently. According to a current Gracepoint member, there was a recent meeting to talk about “these blogs” which Pastor Ed Kang called “poisonous”.

In this comment, the member stated that Pastor Ed told the GFC members that “he has tried to contact the writers of these blogs and discuss their issues with them, but all have refused contact with him”.

I and the other bloggers hamcycle, 1vois, and oldernwiser truthfully answered that there was no such attempt on Pastor Ed’s part.


Initially, I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I realized that the facts just betray the more obvious truth.

First of all, I know we’re assuming the following:

The member [aka nyoron] is telling the truth
nyoron has a truthful recollection of what Pastor Ed stated.
We “bloggers” are telling the truth in stating that we were not contacted by Pastor Ed.
I don’t think this member, nyoron, has any reason to lie. Especially based upon his logical posts, I can only imagine that he’s wanting to seek truth instead.

Also, I can only speak for myself, but I am not lying. I am bound by my own identity as a Christian who answers to God. I can give the benefit of the doubt that the other bloggers are also telling the truth in stating none of them were contacted by Pastor Ed.

Assuming that the above assumptions are true [I believe them to be highly likely], I can only logically deduce that Pastor Ed has lied to his GFC members.

What he stated was a description of an active “reaching out” on his part, and our deliberate refusal. That bothers me. I hope that would bother all of you current Gracepoint members. I can understand if perhaps he sent it to the wrong email addresses for ALL of us [but wouldn't they have bounced back to him?]. But to add that we REFUSED to talk with him? That’s a deliberate act. It paints the picture as though we replied and said “no,” which did not happen.

Isn’t that a lie? Who is more trustworthy now? We “bloggers,” or Pastor Ed Kang himself, who essentially told something deliberately false? How can he make a mistake that he thought he tried to contact us, and that he thought that we replied and refused? [I do want to point out that if he does try to reach out to me, I wouldn't like to discuss them in person, but I would be open to discussing them here in the comments of any of the blog posts. Or even in a more private forum, but not one controlled by Gracepoint. But in either case, I would admit he tried to contact me, and not lie about it.]

Do any of you current Gracepoint members or midlevel staff have the courage to ask Pastor Ed HOW he tried to reach out to us? Ask him more about the details. If you honestly believe he’s telling the truth, you should have nothing to fear, and he should welcome such a question.

After all, he did recently give a message on “Truth Haters” and I didn’t finish listening to it, but one line does stand out. Pastor Ed stated, “We should cultivate a hunger for truth”.

I ask you Gracepoint members and staff to do what Pastor Ed preached.