Every shepherd should love his flock but the leader of the sheep should not abuse the little lambs.
By now, members of Atlanta's New Birth church congregation should be over the initial shock of allegations of misconduct lodged against New Birth Bishop Eddie Long.
I wasn’t shocked that a preacher had been accused of bad deeds and you shouldn’t have been shocked either. No matter how big the church is and no matter how many members are in the church congregation, it doesn’t mean that the religious leader always does the right things.
Church leaders are like political leaders. We don’t always expect our leaders to be perfect but we certainly expect our leaders to be more correct than incorrect.
God forgives and we should be forgiving also. But neither God nor we should sit back and let our so-called leaders wallow in sinful transgressions. Repetitive wrongful behavior should not be tolerated.
Now, I don’t have a clue if the sexual themed indiscretions Bishop Long has been accused of are true but I do know that at the time of this writing, Eddie Long had not denied the allegations.
Bishop Long held a “press conference” and said he was not perfect and he listed many of the wonderful ministries and programs he has initiated at his church. But he never said he didn't do what he was accused of doing by four different young men.
His “press conference” was merely a statement. Long refused to answer questions from the media, saying his white attorneys advised him not to try his case in the court of public opinion but instead try the case in a court of law.
Again, if he didn’t want to discuss the allegations of sexual misconduct with the press, at least he could have told his church members he didn’t do what four different young men said he did.
Long is not the first religious leader that has been accused of sexual misconduct with boys and young men. For some reason, similar accusations surface all of the time in a variety of denominations and religious settings. Everybody should know about the allegations involving young boys and Catholic priests.
My people, stop bowing down to, sucking up to and putting all of your faith in devilish people. The church is full of molesters, pimps, prostitutes, thieves, adulterers and other sundry crooks and criminals.
But God is all good, all the time. Believe in God and believe in yourself.
The church is a wonderful place to worship, the choir is a mesmerizing group of holy voices and the congregation fellowship is something to be admired and desired. However, we all must do what is right, whether the preacher does right or not.
It doesn’t matter how big your church is or how much money your preacher earns to deliver the Word, a devil is a devil whether he is in the pulpit or standing on the corner.
I pray that God will bless the Christian soldiers at New Birth church and I pray that God will chastise the devilish hypocrites that use church resources to abuse young people anywhere in any House of Worship in the world.
Lucius Gantt is the Tallahassee-based author of Beast Too: Dead Man Writing. He may be contacted at www.allworldconsultants.net.
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