Just about everyone knows about the problems facing Bishop Eddie Long, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. Specifically, there are the four young men who allege that the prominent Atlanta-area pastor coerced them into a sexual relationship, and possibly more waiting in the wings. They claim that Long used his status to seduce them with money, clothes, bling, cars, foreign trips, access to celebrities and the like. The men allege that they called Long "dad" or "daddy," which sounds awfully cultish. One of the plaintiffs even claims that he was 14 when his relationship with Long started, which brings up issues of child abuse and statutory rape.
These accusations will be addressed in court, and who knows, maybe there will be a quiet out-of-court settlement. To be sure, this is not the first religious leader to face accusations of sexual and professional misconduct and abuse of authority, nor the last. Similarly, the Bishop is not the first homophobic preacher to be outed as a gay man.
But Bishop Long's sexual orientation ultimately is not the subject of this commentary, although it provides some valuable context. Now, if these accusations are true, then Bishop Long is at least guilty of hypocrisy and self-hatred. And if the charges are not true, he is still an anti-gay minister who has damaged many people. Either way, he is a prosperity preacher who preys on the black community and shames the legacy of the civil rights movement. And that's most of what we need to know.
When the Southern Poverty Law Center decides to write an intelligence report about you, you know you've done something wrong. SPLC calls Bishop Long "one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders in the religiously based anti-gay movement." In one sermon, he says to gays and lesbians, "God says you deserve death!" The message of "hate the sin and the sinner" are strong words in a religion that is supposed to teach love, healing and redemption.
Long believes that homosexuality is spiritual abortion, "a manifestation of a fallen man." He believes that if black gays and lesbians feel alienated and abandoned by the black church, the problem is not intolerance against them but their own sins. But before these people go to Hell as he contends they are, Long is trying to cure gays and lesbians (except himself, we can assume). And his church bookstore sells the works of authors such as the homophobic James Dobson of Focus on the Family -- no friend of the black community.
And Long's misappropriation of the King legacy is shameful. Coretta Scott King's funeral was held at New Birth in 2006 rather than at Ebenezer Baptist Church, the King family's church. Civil rights giants Harry Belafonte and then-NAACP-chair Julian Bond were so mortified by this fact that they boycotted the funeral. After all, Mrs. King was a supporter of gay marriage, and she called it a civil rights issue. The late Yolanda King, the oldest child, took after her mother in that regard, but Bernice King, the youngest child in the King family, called Long her "new father" and symbolically passed a torch to him.
To add to the insult, Bernice King and Long participated in a march to Dr. King's gravesite to support a national constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. In 2004, Long and others successfully pushed for a similar amendment to the Georgia state constitution. And it should be noted that Alveda King, Dr. King's niece, is herself a homophobic minister who exploited her uncle's name at Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally, an event replete with aggrieved white supremacists, Obama-haters and gun-enthusiasts. "Homosexuality cannot be elevated to the civil rights issue," Alveda King said in a 1998 speech. "The civil rights movement was born from the Bible. God hates homosexuality."
Bishop Eddie Long is a prosperity-oriented minister, adhering to a theology that essentially says God will financially hook up the believers. Some would call it a false gospel, given Jesus' targeting of the money changers, and his proclamation that it is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Others would call it pimping.
Long's New Birth megachurch has a membership of about 25,000 and sits on 240 acres in the Atlanta suburb of Lithonia, Georgia. The nonprofit religious "charity" he started in 1997 has served him well -- a $1.4-million, 20-acre home with nine bathrooms, a $350,000 Bentley, and a $3 million salary over three years, not to mention all of the expensive jewelry. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) launched an investigation into the finances and tax-exempt status of six megachurches, including New Birth, and Creflo Dollar's World Changers International Church. Due to the recession, New Birth had to cut back on its $250,000 Easter Sunday service last year, and that is not a misprint. Tithes and membership dropped 20 percent, given that it is hard to be about prosperity when you are poor and hurting, and black folks have been hit harder than most in this recession.
And as Wall Street bankers, megachurch preachers and other prosperity pimps live like lottery winners, people in America are suffering. The Census Bureau recently reported that poverty is higher than it was 10 years ago, with nearly 15 percent of Americans in poverty. The gap between rich and poor has tripled in three decades, and is the highest it has been since the 1920s. Meanwhile, unemployment is entrenched and not going anywhere anytime soon.
Surely, Bishop Long and his supporters would maintain that his reputation is being dragged through the mud. But his reputation was already muddied via his homophobia and corrupt bling theology. Rather, Long should worry far more about what Dr. King would say about him.
Although King fought against and even disobeyed unjust laws, Long supports them. Dr. King decried the triple evils of racism, materialism and militarism, and called for a radical revolution of values, from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. Figures such as King and Malcolm X walked the talk by fighting for the people -- and for causes greater than their personal bank account -- through great personal sacrifice and a modest existence. Remember that Dr. King donated all of his $54,000 Nobel Peace Prize money to the civil rights movement. I dare say it would be hard to find many leaders today -- black or otherwise -- who would follow in the footsteps of this great man. How many of them would lift a finger to help the downtrodden?
Meanwhile, Bishop Eddie Long just wants to get paid and beat the case.
David A. Love is the Executive Editor of BlackCommentator.com, and a contributor to The Progressive Media Project and theGrio. He is based in Philadelphia and is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. His blog is davidalove.com.
Follow David A. Love on Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidalove
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He needs also refer to other parts of scripture which points out how awful it is to judge others.
If the Bishop was a gay man, then why did he always have to speak against being homosexual, bisexual, etc.? This leads us back to the fact that if he knew he was gay, and I am sure he did, then he should have stayed out of the pulpit of the church, ruining the lives of so many people who apparently believed in him.
False prophets and cheats will always try to divide people and cultures for their own benefit
This white guy born in 61 had his mother read him the dream speech and explained that the civil rights movement was for all of us because if one part of society is allowed to subjugate another we all suffer for it
In 71 we moved into a new housing division and fair housing was in place so we had kids from all walks and races in the neighborhood my best friend was black
OK stop laughing yeah yeah I know ~lol~
I was not allowed in his house because his father hated whites but while I was overseas with the Navy my friend brought his fiance over to meet my mom thats how welcome he was in our house
I never really held it against his dad for his feelings because I figured he probably had good reason to be mad considering the indignities suffered by his generation but later on after years of hearing it I could see it spill into my friends thinking and that was what was truly shameful
We have as long way to go with this but we're all in it together aren't we
Just for the record those fat old bald white guys don't like me either
Fanned and Faved my brother
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homo
http://www.biology-online.org/10/15_homo.htm
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/homo
http://www.yourdictionary.com/homo
At a minimum, these types of accusations--whether true or untrue--will have a chilling affect on mentoring. Who in their right mind wants to get caught up in this kind of mess. Oftentimes, no good deed goes unpunished! I for one will take a pass on unsupervised mentoring of other folk children. And if my teenager is accepting expense gifts from a mentor, then the mentor will be subjected to some serious questioning and perhaps a beat down by me, the mom.
Many may disagree with me on this example but I think this is what happened in the Michael Jackson case. The father of the little boy Jackson mentored saw $$$$ and went for it. However, the accusations were found to be untrue yet the smear on Jackson's reputation lingered on.
But unlike the Jackson case, there is no accusation that a law was broken. The Long case at a minimum is a morality issue. If true, these young men already received payment by the lavish gifts that they say they received . . . unclean hands.
How many evangelicals have we all seen that are closet gays, while they bash the hell out of American`s who`s only crime was being born gay.
The time has come to stop the gay bashing religious fools like this guy,NOW. It`s only a matter of time before another shoe drops on this bigot with someone who has a recording of his form of sexual intimidation.
--Bishop Eddie Long, New Birth Missionary Church, August 2005.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XFYKjhUX64&feature=related
the immediate was response was to Blame The BLACKS. Why single out the BLACKS,
not the Mormons, Jews, Whites, Latinos, Asians, or gays that were opposed to legalizing
marriage. Only the BLACKS. Strange when you consider Black Americans make up 5% of the vote.
Regarding Eddie Long, I'll wait for the facts to come out before passing judgment.