Photo : Kevin Mazur ( Getty Images )

Jesus once said “it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God,” but, let’s be honest, back when the New Testament was written, there was hardly anything good to spend money on. Now that we have private jets, smart homes, and limited edition sneakers, many pastors, as evidenced in a blood-boiling Instagram account chronicling their lavish fashion, are banking on their lord and savior having changed his opinion on being rich as hell over the last two millennia.


As featured in a Fashionista profile by Whitney Bauck, the PreachersNSneakers account seems tailor-made to offend the sensibilities of believers and non-believers alike through a constant feed of church leaders in expensive clothes. A few choice examples include pastors like Judah Smith, rocking $1,000 Gucci track pants in celebration of that James verse about the rich “[weeping] and [howling] for the miseries that are coming upon you,” and John Gray, representing a guy who once said “sell what you own and give your money to the poor,” in a pair of $5,600 Air Yeezy 2 Red Octobers.


These kind of pastors are hardly anything new, having been well publicized in relation to flashy churches with famous congregation members like Chris Pratt and Justin Bieber, but PreachersNSneakers cuts through a lot of the noise to offer an intravenous hit of megachurch hypocrisy.




Its creator, who spoke to Fashionista anonymously, is an evangelical Christian and sneakerhead himself who started the account after noticing the trend and “deep diving these mega-churches.”

“I realized there’s a lot of people out here wearing like the hypest outfits, the highest resell kicks in the game,” he says.




Although he says he doesn’t “fault any of [the pastors] for making a lot of money,” the account’s creator does say “you’re held to a different standard if you are leading a church that people are contributing money to and investing some amount of their trust in you to lead them spiritually.” He adds that he thinks “you at least need to be aware of the optics of the things that you’re wearing.”


Sure, the Bible may say that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,” but the people who wrote that probably weren’t thinking of how sweet it is to sell out stadiums, bouncing around a gleaming stage in a lavalier mic and shoes that cost enough to feed and shelter a family in need for a few months.




No, as we all know, these pastors have received the blessings they’re owed as the most virtuous of our species. Follow their teachings and you, too, may get to have a rippin’ bod, successful career, killer shoes, and, uh, reprehensible views on sex and gender.



Read the entire Fashionista interview for more.



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