Bishop Eddie Long Scandal: Parishioners Back Bishop (VIDEO)

Members of Bishop Eddie Long's 30,000-strong congregation spoke out today in favor of Long amidst a sex scandal, calling the allegations false, CBS News reports.

"We don't believe it," says one parishioner Tonia Sawyer.

The New Birth Missionary Baptist Church pastor has spoken out against gays in the past but has been accused of coercing two young men into a sexual relationship -- Anthony Flagg and Maurice Robinson, now 21 and 20 respectively.

Long joins a growing list of Christian Evangelical ministers in the United States who have been accused of sex abuse in recent years.

One of the richest and most powerful leaders of the African-American megachurch movement, the Long case has many implications for the black church.

Long's attorney Craig Gillen says that the pastor "categorically denies the allegations."

WATCH to learn more about the case:

Comments

[afrodesia]

08:11 PM on 09/29/2010

I love how fate has a way to put a 'search light' on the dirty deeds done in secret.
"God don't like ugly.' African American Proverb. The Christ warned about bringing harm to his 'little ones'..Those young men are so deeply wounded and damaged and all this pimp can think of is saving his financial kingdom & his own neck.

I am deeply ashamed for this religious leader and his congregation members hanging on every false word uttered from his mouth.
Beware of religious zealots preaching hate and intolerance the loudest..Thank God for the light..the search light because a spot light doesn't shine bright enough.

[afrodesia]

07:57 PM on 09/29/2010

Dear US Constitutional Law Makers: It is long overdue that prospective and active clergy be 'live scanned' before given a license to preach and head up a church. Can you imagine what the FBI may turn up if preachers were forced by law to get live scanned? How many with sexual criminal backgrounds or how many convicted larcenist might be revealed? The oldest pimp game on the books--forget about prostitution--the preachers have been raking it in far too easily for too long.

[Dorssey]

04:00 PM on 09/29/2010

Here's the truly sad part: if the men now coming forward are telling the truth, I suspect it will take a long time and much counseling before they are able to have healthy, guilt-free sexual relations. Messing with a teenagers sexuality, a period when kids are most vulnerable, is about one of the most callous and impermissable activities an adult can engage in.

[Dorssey]

03:12 PM on 09/29/2010

Perhaps Assistant Att. General Andrew Shirvell and Bishop Long should get together and pray (or prey?) on their obvious sexual identity issues.

[thewaskwy1]

12:14 PM on 09/28/2010

i think it ironic that his church has responded JUST LIKE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH did to accusations of sexual impropriety. this man is no poor urban preacher, he's the very wealthy leader of a powerful Atlanta industry. imagine how much money is pouring into his defense fund. the system will do what it tends to do - exonerate the wealthy.

it's perverse that people think G-d is so petty as to give material reward to the faithful. G-d's grace is for all people, all the time.

[DerekWilliams]

11:40 AM on 09/27/2010

Speechless. Yet another case of an anti-homosexual zealot doing it with blokes himself, like Roy Burns (US anti-gay senator who eventually outed himself as gay) and George Rekers (anti-gay religious campaigner caught holidaying with a male sex worker). No smoke without fire.

These preachers send young gays to self inflicted deaths with the self hatred they invoke, and sometimes to death or grievous bodily harm at the hands of others doing "God's work".

Of course these allegations against Long are just that, and have yet to be tested legally, moreover there is no pedophile component involved. It could be that Long is a victim of opportunistic accusation by down and out youths with an eye on the victim's compensation money, or a cash settlement such as happened in the Michael Jackson scandal. However with all this accumulating evidence, I am coming to the view that practically all homophobia connotes closet homosexuality in some way. Truly straight men are too busy chasing girls to worry about gays.

Long's sermons promoting personal wealth definitely conflict with Christ's unmistakable statement, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven." Maybe Long keeps a small camel and a large needle as workarounds.

Whether or not he is homosexual, now is the time to repudiate every homophobic sentence he ever wrote or uttered, for the good of all humanity, gay and straight.

[Randy Mellentine]

01:29 AM on 09/27/2010

It's unbelievable that the conned-gregation is sticking by this guy. They turned out in masses on Sunday to hear his reply to the allegations. What did they expect to hear?

Once again it's the sheppard tending his flock of "sheeple", haven't we heard this story before?

Will we hear it again? Most likely, stay tuned.

[kadene]

09:03 AM on 09/28/2010

He will continue to deny the allegations until the mountaing evidence forces him to break down and weep. Then he will be accompanied by a phalanx of associate pastors and personal assistants to the podium at his chrch where he will tearfully admit his role, and ask his congregation to forgive him. They will join in mass weeping and prayer and speaking in tongues until the Lord sends a message that the bishop should be forgiven. He will take a hiatus from the pulpit (just for appearances), but continue to draw on his inflated salary. His church will try to keep him out of court.
Then he will return after all is forgotten, little humbler, and just go back to being righteous all over again.

[Tykster]

09:53 AM on 09/28/2010

In a nutshell....

[afrodesia]

08:02 PM on 09/29/2010

Tell the truth and shame the devil clothed in holy writ. Now I will search out to see how many housing units this church has built for it's poorer congregation members..What kind of mass feeding programs, what kind of clothing drives...The way these pimps in preachers robes enrich themselves while the vast majority of their congregation members live near or at the poverty level..The Mexican Spanish have a saying "disgrace without shame'.

[fsw68]

09:50 PM on 09/26/2010

So...one of the young men, at the age of 20 or 21, goes to the Bishop for counseling because of the death of a friend. The Bishop makes an advance. The 20something gets mad. He breaks into the church office and steals valuables. He is procecuted. NOW he and a few friends go public with allogations of sexual coercion. Has anybody asked why this young man maintained a relationship with this Bishop over the past 3 to 4 years? How complicite has he been lately? Perhaps these young men have consented to sex with Long well past the age of innocense. Now they are on a shakedown mission. This does not excuse the Bishop if he is guilty. But something about this just does not seem right.

[papapj]

02:20 PM on 09/26/2010

Ya see? You follow the man and not the Word and stuff like this happens...every time....

[From the Raft]

06:18 PM on 09/25/2010

The bishop should get out of town and open a New Birth CHRISTIAN church near Ground Zero.

[littlebrowngirl]

05:22 PM on 09/25/2010

This is what I think occured. Long took advantage of the fact that the age of consent is 15 and started relationships with these boys. Everyone looked the other way because Long had means and did a good job of providing for these guys. When Long lost interest, he went to the next young thing he could find.

There are many people here that should take some blame Long and the people at the church that covered up these events and the parents of these boys who allowed Long to have inappropriate access to these boys. I also think if Long had continued to provide for these men they would never have accussed him. These boys were concubines and did not know it.

[jamienobber]

05:17 PM on 09/25/2010

Ew his photos are nasty, he is guilty as charged.. he was caught and the pictures say everything http://maturevideocontent.com/Bishop-Eddie-Long-Pictures.html

[Tennys Daughter]

11:40 PM on 09/25/2010

You are silly. The pictures do not say anything!

[mamapower]

04:39 AM on 09/26/2010

LOL poor naive thing.

[Rundy Tatum]

08:19 AM on 09/25/2010

NEWS FLASH... ALL MEN ARE FLAWED...It was bound to happen, but those boys new what they were doing . They were having sex for money and Im quite sure that Eddie probably cut them off and they got mad. Cmon Son.

The church on the other hand... I have to agree with Chaapai , People looking for salvation in a church from a man are looking in the wrong places. Salvation is found within. I know they all feel dupped.

[Thetruth63]

10:12 PM on 09/25/2010

Eddie knew what he was doing. Why put it on the boys. Eddie messed up and now the sky is full of black chickens coming home to roost.

[stfjonz]

08:14 PM on 09/26/2010

That's right. Eddie was the adult in the situation so if the young men "knew what they were doing", the Bishop should have stopped them.

[Quasi-Stellar Object]

08:14 AM on 09/25/2010

Bishop Eddie "Down Low" Long Duk Dong

[orwell2112]

01:02 AM on 09/25/2010

Wall Street bullish on church-abuse scandals after Georgia Megachurch hit with multiple lawsuits

ATLANTA – Futures soared in the derivatives trading of church abuse allegations (CAAs) on Wall Street today as investors took in the implications of three lawsuits being leveled against Megachurch pastor Bishop Eddie Long.

Long is accused of plying at least three angst-ridden urban youth, who had come to him for religious counsel, with gifts and then duping them into accepting his sexual advances as a milestone on their road to spiritual growth during his unfortunately named youth retreat, “LongFellows.”

[continues]

http://wineandexcrement.com/wall-street-bullish-on-church-abuse-scandals-after-georgia-megachurch-hit-with-multiple-lawsuits/2748/