Eddie Long, Pastor of New Birth accused of being on the "down low" (Gay: lawsuits, builders)

[Pressing-On]

Originally Posted by spotch

Well, in their defense, these newer preachers have way more flashy bling than Jesus ever did! I mean, who are you gonna worship? Someone who could only afford some rags and some sandals, or this!? ::






Prosperity gospel, baby. If Jesus was so great, he would've been turning water into Rolls Royce's like Creflo does.

LOL! Man, that is so not funny when you really think about it. Right?!

What a sad affair for the very true Gospel of Jesus Christ. The vision is tainted and clouded.

Thank the Lord that His truth will always prevail even when there are "hirelings" aboard the ship. But, I just want to say - Hell outta be hotter for them.

[InsaneInDaMembrane]

Ok, I will empathize with Eddie for a moment despite my total distaste for those who live their lives like him.

I was once an avid church goer. I was up to my eyebrows in fundamentalist Christianity. While I was not fond of the prosperity Gospel, I was well aware of it and it was prevalent in my church back home in the Caribbean. I knew of the Kenneth Hagins and Kenneth Copelands of the world who made the whole teaching popular. I also knew of guys like Reverend Ike in NY because I lived there.

I was a star Christian young person in the church because I knew the Bible up and down. I memorized whole biblical chapters, had bible concordances, lexicons, bible dictionaries, knew a little Hebrew and a little Greek. Also knew the basics of other world religions. I was also gifted with speaking, had the charisma and a little bit of looks. I also played bass and guitar for the choir. With all of this on my side, the elder heads kept trying to push me into "the ministry" but I kept balking at the idea. I developed a little following and the girls came flocking either because they thought it was a "sexy" thing to have so much "zeal for the lord" OR they liked the rock star status of the choir's bass player.

I knew then and there that if I EVER went further into ministry, I was going to have my issues with women. No matter how noble my thoughts were about "serving god," my friend down yonder forgot about god when some of those sisters stepped to me. It was constant pressure being single, young, healthy and trying to avoid stuff being thrown in your face (hell, girls used to come to camp meetings and hand out greeting cards).

I have since discarded religion, any and every religion, so I don't have those pressures anymore and I am quite responsible with my relationships despite the fear Christianity once heaped upon me that I could not be a "good person" without Jesus.

Now, I read where Eddie Long once anguished about the pressures of being in his position. I see a man who enjoys the pleasures of being a celebrity, but who sounds like he laments the pressures that comes with it. He has to preach from an ancient, sometimes irrelevant book that does not deal with many of the gray areas of modern day life while STILL being a mortal man with needs, desires and passions. He has to preach from a book that sometimes goes overboard on absolutes while finding it hard to live by what his mouth says. It would be a courageous but difficult thing to just up one day and tell your congregation you don't believe the s***t you preach and that you're done with it. I believe deep down inside that over time MANY of these ministers don't believe half the stuff they teach and preach anymore, but they have so much at stake and have to keep up appearances and facades it is nearly impossible to come clean. So what often happens is that the push through with the deception UNTIL it catches up to them and they look worse then than if they had just admitted they could not keep up the lie anymore.

Check out what happens just in one and one relationships. People are usually 100 steps into an affair before they are found out because frankly, very few people come home and admit to a spouse or b'friend/g'friend of many years that they don't like them anymore and want to start seeing someone else or is seeing someone else. That kind of stuff only happens in the movies and to maybe 1 in every 500 relationships that end up in such messes. The same with pastors and ministers who have the pressure of hundreds and even thousands of people BELIEVING they are genuine.

[Pressing-On]

Originally Posted by Tarheelhombre

Does anyone else wonder why this is so much "Bishop," "Apostle," and "Prophet" inflation these days? There was a time, when these sacred titles were something special to be held in the highest esteem.....

Yes, I have noticed and it is so annoying. I doubt that 50%, and it could be more, that are calling themselves preachers, bishops, apostles, and prophets are even called of God. They are self-appointed/called or placed out of nepotism.

[Tarheelhombre]

Rev. Derrick Harkins, pastor of the 19th Street Baptist Church in the District (D.C.) used part his Sunday morning message to talk about the need for integrity in the pulpit. "The only way we are empowered to do what we are called to do is if we have integrity in our churches."
Harkins went onto say, "Aside from the guilt or innocence in this particular case, the best thing that can happen is a heartfelt discussion about the negative impact of materialism, excess and human hero worship that is too prevalent in many of our churches today."

[InsaneInDaMembrane]

Originally Posted by Tarheelhombre

Does anyone else wonder why this is so much "Bishop," "Apostle," and "Prophet" inflation these days? There was a time, when these sacred titles were something special to be held in the highest esteem.....

Well you might want to check out this thread I started a while back under an earlier incarnation (screen name):

Black folks and their apparent obsession with religious titles

[Mr. GE]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Natural population control?

Do you really think GOD is trying to control population?

[Tarheelhombre]

Originally Posted by InsaneInDaMembrane

Well you might want to check out this thread I started a while back under an earlier incarnation (screen name):

Black folks and their apparent obsession with religious titles

Intriguing. So, Baptists (some) have Bishops too? New Birth and many other Black baptist churches seem more Bapticostal than traiditional Baptist.

[GrandviewGloria]

I think he's smokin' hot!!! I bet those young men didn't have to be 'coerced' with too much 'coercion', and had the time of their lives, up in those Marble-lined bathrooms with the giant tubs. And I'm getting mental images of something with the size and voraciousness of a Giant Rock Python, too.

And Eddie Long's name is already just right for him to be a star of Adult Film. I mean, Jonn Wayne Bobbitt and Joey Buttafuoco were able to transition into that market niche, each born with a name perfect for his own personal shtick.

So where's the sex tape? Come on, y'all! 'Leak' one: even if you have to make one! It will get top billing at bachelorette parties with flayvah, for decades to come! And 'leak' a few shots of the 'Rev', please, walking out of one of his Marble bathtubs...or 'coming clean' in one of his big Marble showers. Playgirl needs those photos! The spandex was a nice teaser. Your public wants more.

But that silly chinstrap beard has to go. He needs to grow it out to be big, and cover the underside of his jaw. The little wisp of a beard makes him look like a eunuch. So, until he gets a bigger beard, he needs a bag over his head, or maybe a ski mask...which would actually be kinda hot.

While I don't personally know anyone who's ever gotten busy with a minister (they generally don't look good enough to be of interest to my bodybuilding crowd), I do know a Gay man who carried on with the studly, hyper-masculine Athletic Director at a big Baptist church....at the church...in his office. However, I know lots of men who have been hit-on by preachers of the more downmarket Protestant sects (generally, anything below Methodist...and it gets worse, the lower you go).

We were trying to unload a string of problem properties, when we were younger, and this fat, ugly, old Pentecostal preacher (who was trying, quite insistently, to get them for nothing, and on terms only an idiot would agree to) first hit on my Husband, then, later, hit on Me. Most memorable, though, was going with him for lunch at 'the Fish House'. The owner came over, and was shooting visual daggers at the Reverend, while throwing warning looks toward us. Then, a younger waitress slinked over, and started telling the Rev. how she hadn't been to church lately, and needed to go...while covertly giving my DH the eye. I guess she thought my Husband was the new assistant preacher, and was hoping to get nailed by the new talent. (If this is making your skin crawl, imagine sitting at the table, in a room reeking of rancid grease and stinky Fish).

As for womanizing, the activity is incessant. I knew a woman whose maid rescued a street child from the clutches of a 'minister'. He had her living in a slum house without furniture....eating KFC off the floor, while having 'his' babies.

There was a big, big, (white) Baptist church, full of second and third generation new rich, where a (married) woman suspected her (also married, and not to her) preacher was 'cheating on her' (redefines 'cheating', but not in her mind), put a tape recorder in his office, and discovered that there was not 'an' 'other woman', but five of them. This was at a very powerful church, full of (newly)rich people.

The thing of spouting hatred of Gays, while very actively indulging in more homosexual acts than 'out' Gays ever dreamed of, is standard practice, over at the Left End of the Bell Curve. I worked out at the same gym in Mississippi, for over two decades. There were a bunch of semi-retarded bodybuilders among the patrons (mostly White, but a flavor assortment, really), who very loudly said ugly things about Gay people, and even advocated physical violence against them. As time passed, I discovered that these gay-hating morons were not 'latent' (as I'd suspected), but had been carrying on with other men (and usually, also with women) all their lives. So, I'd been watching guys denouncing Gays to men they'd 'slept' with. And I'd been watching men making fun of gay individuals for whom they'd played the 'passive' role. OY! So, to hear that this goes on with Churchey Folk at for-profit churches only confirms what one would expect.

A school is no better than its students. A neighborhood is no better than its residents. And a church is no better than its congregants (and its clergy). With downmarket sects, this is what you get.

What I find truly obscene are the photos of The Smirking Chimp (some people refer to him as President Bush) and his wife, pandering to these people. They knew what sort of operation this guy was running. Their behavior toward him had the effect of endorsing him. There are plenty of lovely Black churches, full of lovely, cultivated, dignified, fine people...and with real ministers. I find it obscene that our presidents pander to off-brand Megachurches (Bush also pandered to Ted Haggard's 'church'), while ignoring more established congregations with more credible bona fides.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by GrandviewGloria

I bet those young men didn't have to be 'coerced' with too much 'coercion', and had the time of their lives, up in those Marble-lined bathrooms with the giant tubs. And I'm getting mental images of something with the size and voraciousness of a Giant Rock Python, too.

And Eddie Long's name is already just right for him to be a star of Adult Film. I mean, Jonn Wayne Bobbitt and Joey Buttafuoco were able to transition into that market niche, each born with a name perfect for his own personal shtick.

Not that it really makes a difference but I thought the allegations were that Long was performing oral sex on the boys.

[Tarheelhombre]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Not that it really makes a difference but I thought the allegations were that Long was performing oral sex on the boys.

It doesn't make a difference to me, but to many it does matter who is giving and who is receiving.