There's a problem with the media's coverage of Georgia-based megachurch Bishop Eddie Long. The problem comes from the fact that reporters are only paying attention to his history of anti-gay rhetoric now, and will likely stop once the scandal is over.
Nearly every major media outlet from print, to radio, to television, has picked up the story of the four young men accusing Long of sexual misconduct. Unfortunately, most in the media have failed to ask the more critical question at hand: Who speaks for the thousands of youth who are subjected to verbal assault, Sunday-after-Sunday in Long's church and others, just for being who they are?
During its coverage of the scandal, the media has thankfully turned its critical eye on the homophobia being taught by some leaders in the black church. But it's sad and disheartening that it took allegations of sexual misconduct to get us to the point where the media is finally listening to the voices of the people who are harmed by this rhetoric.
"I don't care what scientists say. You can be converted. You were not born that way."
"Homosexuality and lesbianism are spiritual abortions."
"God says you deserve death!"
Those are actual quotes from Eddie Long. These are the messages that have been passed down directly to countless LGBT youth and their families. Even if those four young men had never brought forth these sexual coercion charges, would that make those statements any less dangerous? Would they no longer deserve our attention?
Bishop Long has made this type of speech a cornerstone of his megachurch empire. He says gay people deserve death and has condemned them to hell. He was called "one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders in the religiously based anti-gay movement" by the Southern Poverty Law Center. He has marched against marriage equality, rallied against equal workplace protections, and perpetuated the myth that gay individuals can be "cured" through the power of prayer (a falsehood that has been debunked by the nation's leading medical and mental health authorities). And yet, the media did not look critically at his history of anti-gay messages until the sexual misconduct allegations recently surfaced. Again we have to ask, why does intolerance barely get a mention, until it becomes potentially hypocritical intolerance?
Bishop Long's alleged hypocrisy is far from the only thing wrong with his history of harmful rhetoric. His entire community has been victimized by the messages he has sent throughout his career. Research has proven that anti-gay messages coming from the pulpit continue to echo long after service is over. In April of last year, 11-year-old Jaheem Herrera, who grew up a stone's throw from Bishop Long's Lithonia-based church, took his own life rather than deal with the constant anti-gay bullying he was subjected to at school -- all because Jaheem was perceived to be gay.
And in just the last month several more teens across the country have taken their own lives after facing relentless anti-gay bullying. Bishop Long and others like him share the responsibility for these incidents. It is their message of intolerance and phobia that these young bullies take with them into schools and playgrounds all over the country. It is this message, that fuels a climate of stigma and shame, hurts young people and puts them in harm's way.
By telling families that "Homosexuality is a manifestation of the fallen man," Bishop Long is implying that they have no choice but to reject their children who identify as LGBT. According to the group Advocates for Youth, studies have shown that gay African American youth are more likely to have low self-esteem and experience suicidal thoughts than their counterparts of other ethnicities. The nation's leading LGBT suicide prevention organization, the Trevor Project, says gay youth who come from families that reject them are over 8 times more likely to have attempted suicide than their peers who reported low levels of family rejection or none at all.
If the sexual misconduct allegations against him are true, then Long himself has been a victim of an atmosphere of intolerance which taught him early on that his community would not accept him if he were true to who he is. But despite the possibility that he himself was victimized by this attitude -- there's no doubt he's spent his career fueling it.
Bishop Long has made himself a very good living preaching a message that has been proven to cause harm to young people in his community. Whether he practices what he preaches is for a court to decide. But the verdict won't make his message any less dangerous. And the absence of scandalous allegations shouldn't make it any less newsworthy.
The media now has a responsibility to keep a critical eye on the harmful environment being perpetuated by Bishop Long and others like him -- and to shine a spotlight on the reach of Bishop Long's words and the many victims of his message.
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The MSM media has been showing MORE "successful" Black folks in negative stituations than ever before ... it is part of that "fair and balanced" stuff!
That does NOT mean that this stuff should NOT be covered ... it is just a piss poor substitute for positive coverage of the many "successful" Black people who doing good works for Americans ... guess Black children have enough good role-models NOW that the President is Black! humpt!
I can't speak for other ethnicities but I know the media and mainstream LGBT community alike are terrified of the black church and any criticism of them and wouldn't dare say anything negative about the black church unless it was something as explosive as the Eddie Long fiasco where the plaintiffs attorney went straight to the press. Therefore that opened the door to other media arms.
The gay community did the same thing when Prop 8 won. They turned their full wrath on the Mormon Church and whatever criticisms were aimed at the black church was left to be said online in safe spaces.
The bottom line: all of these people are afraid of being called racist. The black church is aware of that just like black politicians. And they play off of it and know they can get away with a lot of bold stuff.
But playing the race card as the rest of us in the black community can see is quite damaging. Especially as it relates to inequities within the black community that black ministers and politicians never felt behooved to address because who was going to make them.
All that to say that the black community has conditioned the media to respond the way it does.
Gosh! If he's found guilty, they'll have to reject HIM!
NOT ONE of the SPLC's top ten, highest paid executives is a minority, much less an immigrant.
Despite being headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, cradle of the American Civil Rights Movement, hometown to Rosa Parks and located LITERALLY in the backyard of Dr. Martin Luther King's home church, the Southern Poverty Law Center has never hired a person of color to a highly paid position of power.
http://wp.me/pCLYZ-67
And even though the Boy Scouts of America, (BSA), which receives federal funding, state proudly on their web site that "gay men are not moral enough to be Scout Leaders," you won't find a single word against this most blatant discrimination on the SPLC's web site.
Why? Because many of the SPLC's mostly elderly donors were Scouts or the parents/grandparents of scouts and calling their beloved institution a "hate group" tends to negatively impact the all-important donations.
"Fighting Hate" is all well and good, until it cuts into the bottom line.
http://wp.me/pCLYZ-1c
Some "experts"
No, it doesn't. One could imagine that you're trying to distract attention from these important issues. Criticizing the SPLC for not walking their talk is well and good, but right here we're talking about homophobia and why it's such a destructive force in society. Have anything to say about that?
He verbally lynched people who were doing nothing more than living their lives as gay men and women. He promoted hate and self loathing so the fact that behind the scenes he was grooming the young men under his care is worthy of harsh examination.
You're all over the site speaking up for Long... I'd prefer to speak up for the young men who were under his care.. the ones he was preaching against homosexuality to while he was grooming them.
His actions are documented when it comes to the trips, gifts and special attention he gave to these young men. What possible reason could their be for them to come forward if the story wasn't true. They only have something to lose by their actions. They lose the support of their community, they lose the gifts they were getting and the attention. Perhaps you should think of the children...
His words are not in question here, and his words are undeniably homophobic and hateful. He should be condemned on the basis of his words alone. Nothing needs to be said about the unproven allegations of sexual misconduct for reasonable people to conclude that Long's rhetoric has no place in a pluralistic, modern, civil society.