A
delay in reporting can be serendipitous at times. Take the case of
"Bishop" Eddie Long and his alleged gift-and-tryst escapades: I found
out about it only 15 minutes after the initial AP story broke and was
ready to do a BREAKING news flash for my blog when something personal
arose and I'm just now getting back to the keyboard 24 hours later.
I was glad for the delay. This story's more
entertaining than Ted Haggard's, and twice as important. The story has
fleshed out considerably during the last 24 hours and it presents a
clearer picture of what went on at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church
in Atlanta.
CNN:
In a lawsuit, two men in their 20s now are saying the bishop, Eddie Long, took them on trips, gave them gifts, bought them a car, gave them cash, gave them jewelry, all as a ploy to have sex with them. And they say it was the church's money that he was giving to them.
(hat tip: Pam's House Blend)
And the scandal was giving ... and giving ... to the Bishop: one more suit was filed today with predominantly the same allegations.
Eventually, it turned into such a relationship that the bishop had a ceremony with Anthony Flag called a covenant. Within that covenant, it was essentially a marriage ceremony where there were candles, exchange of jewelry and biblical quotes given, in order for Anthony to know and for the bishop to tell him, I will always have your back and you will always have mine. He would use biblical stories to talk about how important it was to follow your leader and your master and let him know that the acts he was engaged in were not necessarily meaning that he was a homosexual or that either of them was. But rather, the pastor, Bishop Long, was releasing his passion and his love for Anthony. (Italics, my own)
Considering his vicious attacks on same-sex marriage, this "covenant" now puts Long in the category of uber-hypocrite. Yes, "Bishop" Eddie Long is now in the Strom Thurmond-Ted Haggard big league: fostering disdain for one group of people while secretly having sex with them. Long's outspoken animosity towards gays has been prevalent for years.
Long has called for a national ban on same-sex marriage and his church counsels gay members to become straight. In 2004, he led a march with Bernice King to her father's Atlanta grave to support a national constitutional amendment to protect marriage "between one man and one woman."
Irony Alert! One of Long's book titles: What A Man Wants - What A Woman Needs.
All
hypocrisy aside (which is tough to do, considering it takes a mental
bulldozer to push it!), one of the main points of this scandal is that
Long has used his titles to place him in authority, respect and even
awe. He might have saved money by riding on his elevated credentials
alone, but he chose to ply his sexual interests with gifts essentially
bought by the church.
Dumb.
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