A Long View Of Bishop Eddie Long's Troubles
By George E. Curry
NNPA Columnist
Sep 17, 2010
digg
facebook
email
twitter
Not surprisingly, embattled Bishop Eddie Long turned to the
Bible to defend himself against charges by four men who filed suit last week in
which they charged that as teenagers, Long showered them with money, expensive
gifts, cars and international travel to entice them into having a sexual
relationship with him.
On Sunday, Long told his parishioners at New Birth
Missionary Baptist Church in suburban Atlanta, “I want you to know one other
thing. I feel like David against Goliath, but I’ve got five rocks and I haven’t
thrown one yet.”
If the charges against Long are true, another passage in the
Bible involving David might be more appropriate. David’s seduction of Bathsheba
is recounted in 2 Samuel 11. While walking on the roof of his house David, king
of Israel and Judah, saw Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, bathing.
Verse 4 reads: “And David sent messengers, and took her; and
she came in unto him, and he lay with her...”
When Bathsheba sent word to David that she was “with child,”
David ordered Uriah home from battle, hoping he would have sex with his wife
and think that he had impregnated her. But Uriah chose to remain on the
battlefield. David then ordered his general, Joab, to leave Uriah stranded in
battle. After Uriah was killed, David married Bathsheba but was later punished
by the Lord.
At this point, it is unclear which David story best fits
Eddie Long. Serious questions have been raised about his actions and judgment
and it will be fairly easy to corroborate whether the teenagers traveled to the
places they say they went with Long, whether they received expensive gifts and
the number of times they talked to him on his cell phone.
In his suit, Jamal Parris, now 23, said Long insisted that
he call him “Daddy” and coerced him into having sex with him. Two other
plaintiffs – Maurice Robinson and Anthony Flagg – said on some trips, Long
registered under the pseudonym Dick Tracey.
Accurint, a database owned by LexisNexis, lists a Dick
Tracey as living at the Lithonia, Ga. address of Eddie L. Long, according to
the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Initially, Defendant Long engaged in sexual touching during
their encounters and then escalated the activity to oral sodomy and other acts
of sexual gratification,” the Parris suit alleges. “Long would discuss the Holy
Scripture to justify and support the sexual activity.”
If the allegations are true, it would represent the height
of hypocrisy. Long has strongly and repeatedly denounced homosexuality. His
church offers counseling to encourage homosexuals to go straight. And in 2004,
he and one his associate pastors, Rev. Bernice King, the youngest daughter of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., led a march to Dr. King’s grave to support a
national constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and to protect
marriage “between one man and one woman.”
When New Birth was chosen as the funeral site for Coretta
Scott King, then-NAACP Chairman Julian Bond refused to attend the services
because of Long’s anti-gay views.
If found guilty, Long would join a long list of prominent
religious leaders who have engaged in
sexual misconduct, including Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggard, Jim Bakker,
Elijah Muhammad and former National Baptist Convention President Henry J.
Lyons. Institutions such as Boys Town,
Congress, the Boy Scouts, and the Roman Catholic Church have also been rocked
by sexual scandals.
Although Long did not directly deny the allegations against
him while speaking at his church on Sunday, his attorney, Craig Gillen, earlier
issued a statement saying Long “categorically denies the allegations.”
Long said twice during the same sermon Sunday that he was
not a perfect man, which wasn’t the perfect comment to make under the
circumstances.
In addition to raising questions about how the Black church
addresses homosexuality, the Long controversy will undoubtedly renew concerns
about so-called prosperity preachers who seem to place acquiring material
wealth ahead of spiritual development.
In 1975, it was disclosed that Bishop Eddie Long Ministries,
Inc., the charity Long established, made him its largest beneficiary, providing
him with a salary of at least a $1 million a year over four years, a $1.4
million home and use of a $350,000 Bentley.
The opulent lifestyle of mega-church stars continues as the
U.S. poverty rate increased to 14.3 percent in 2009, up from 13.2 percent in
2008. A quarter of all Blacks – 25.8 percent – live below the poverty line,
which is defined as approximately $22,000 for a family of four.
Proverbs 31:9 reads, “Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and
plead the cause of the poor and needy (King James version).
Bishop Eddie Long is entitled to the presumption of
innocence as he prepares to defend himself in the judicial system. In the
meantime, he and all other religious leaders should carry out the Biblical
admonition to place the plight of the poor and needy ahead of material extravagance
and aberrant behavior.
(George
E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine and the NNPA News
Service, is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach. He can be
reached through his Web site, http://www.georgecurry.com/. You can also follow him at www.twitter.com/currygeorge.)
Hear Bro. George Curry On W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio:
2010 State Of The Black Union
“It Ain’t About Tavis, It’s About Us, & It's About Time!”
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2010/02/25/tha-artivist-presentswe-all-be-radio
More George Curry On W.E. A.L.L. B.E.:
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/search?q=george+curry
More George Curry On W.E. A.L.L. B.E.:
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/search?q=george+curry
No comments:
Post a Comment