You’re all probably up on the Bishop Eddie Long situation, but if not:
Mega-church Bishop Eddie Long is set to go on radio on Thursday to make a statement on the civil lawsuits filed against him over allegations of sexually abusing three young males from his congregation. Long, who is reportedly an anti-gay pastor, allegedly abused the three young men and coerced them to do sexual acts.
According to various reports, Eddie Long lavished the young men with gifts such as money, cars, clothes and jewellery and lured them into a homosexual relationship with him. A spokesman for the mega-church bishop said the lawsuits were a “shakedown.” Long is known for his frequent denunciation of gay acts. In 2007, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s magazine published an article about the bishop and called him “one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders in the religiously based anti-gay movement.”
The lawsuits were filed by Jamal Parris, Anthony Flagg and Maurice Murray Robinson, all are around 20 to 23 years of age. The three, who were said to be in their teens when the allegations happened, where placed in a group called the “Spiritual Sons,” which followed the mega-church leader in his sorties. All three alleged that the bishop’s sexual coercions took place when they were a part of the group and all shared a similar story – that they were taken on trips, shared a room with Bishop Long and engaged in touching and oral sexual contact with him.
As is usually the case, the louder the anti-gay rantings are, the more boys the ranter is likely to have stuffed in some sort of closet. PZ Myers put it this way:
It’s gotten so I can’t see any of these crazy god-wallopers and not assume they’re going to leave the podium and run off to a back room to do exactly what they’ve been railing against. It’s sort of like a Dorian Gray scheme: they’ve got a lilly-white sanctimonious face for the public, and what they reveal when off-camera and out of sight is something sickeningly depraved. What Pope Ratzi does behind closed doors must be nightmarish.
Nightmarish, indeed.
Yeah, so none of this is surprising. Guess who’s offered his support? Ted Haggard.
Heh.
By the way, I don’t think the picture above is his the one from his church website, but Jim Burroway cautions that if you see that picture on Grindr, RUN.
