My hypothesis: Youth pastors are supposed to counsel teens in order to woo them into the fold. They’re there to help, but not for sake of the teen but for selling the teen Jesus. It’s dishonest work for an allegedly good cause.

But someone who can sustain that kind of dissonant duality in their relationships can do so for other causes. If they can be equivocal for Jesus, they can be equivocal for their own libido as well.

Hence the nickname given to YPs by the kids The freak of the week.