Megachurch Pastor: Have An Affair ... With Your Spouse
"Life is short. Have an affair ... with your spouse," exclaimed megachurch pastor Ed Young after emerging from a taped debate with AshleyMadison.com founder Noel Biderman.
Young and Biderman, whose website caters to people who are "attached" and looking for an affair, met up Thursday night with two other panelists for the debate at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas – part of ABC Nightline's latest "Face-Off" series, which is tackling the Ten Commandments and how they apply to modern life.
The news program decided to kick off the series with the seventh commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery."
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"I agree with Noel," Young said during the debate, referring to Ashley Madison's tagline, "Life is short. Have an affair."
"[But] I would add three words: with, your, spouse," continued Young.
According to reports, adultery is the second leading cause of divorce. And Biderman's notorious website, which claims over 2.5 million subscribers, is a way of "cannibalizing an existing human behavior and condition," as the Ashley Madison founder previously explained.
Although Biderman, who is happily married, believes adultery is wrong, he argued that extramarital affairs could be a marriage saver.
"[P]eople don't have affairs because of my website," he said, according to the local Pegasus News. "Infidelity can save your marriage."
It's better to have an affair than to get divorced, he maintained.
Young, meanwhile, argued that married couples having more sex with each other is the answer. By doing so, he said, communication opens.
The Texas pastor had thousands of supporters behind him as Thursday's taping of the debate took place at his church. His congregants were not likely surprised to find their pastor talking about sex especially after Young made headlines last year for issuing a seven-day sex challenge to married couples.
"God is for sex," he said last year. "It was His idea. The Church has allowed the culture to hijack sex from the Church and it's time that we move the bed back in Church and put God back in the bed.
"We are the real sexperts. After all, we're made in God's image and He's the one who wants us to do it His way."
Young made similar statements during Thursday's Nightline debate.
But Biderman and fellow pro-infidelity debater Jenny Block, who is married with kids and in an open relationship with a woman, believe the Ten Commandments and the institution of the heterosexual, monogamous marriage may be archaic.
It's not a part of human nature to be monogamous, Biderman argued.
Panelist Jonathan Daughtery, a recovered sex addict, has been on both sides of the equation. And in the end, he says, "Faithfulness and fidelity to one spouse wins."
Young, meanwhile, added: "Adultery has its kicks but it has wicked, Chuck Norris-like kickbacks."
Thursday's debate is scheduled to air on ABC Nightline next week, on Sept. 24.
