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When Bishop Eddie Long was accused of sexual misconduct by former church members, his congregation rallied around him and his wife stood by his side. About a year later, the Atlanta megachurch pastor is headed for divorce and stepping away from the pulpit.
Long announced Sunday at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church that he needed a break from preaching to focus on his family. The hiatus leaves New Birth, which once boasted 25,000 members, at a crossroads, its reputation battered and membership dwindling. Their pasts inextricably linked for nearly a generation, both Long and his church face an uncertain future.
“A church is bigger than its pastor,” said Goldie Taylor, who has attended New Birth in the past. “For too long, the New Birth family has acted as if it is smaller than its pastor. Its challenge going forward will be its ability to flip that and become a church without walls again.”
For many members, Long has been the only pastor they have ever known. He became senior pastor in 1987, taking the helm of a flock of only a few hundred members. Not long after he arrived, the former Ford salesman and Honeywell executive dismissed New Birth’s board of directors and took unilateral control of the church, ensuring that he would be the one to determine the date of his departure.
New Birth grew quickly under its charismatic, dynamic young leader, swelling to 8,000 members in five years. A decade later New Birth boasted 18,000 members and the church paid cash for the land and sprawling property it currently occupies in DeKalb County — including a 10,000-seat sanctuary. In addition to its Lithonia, Ga., headquarters, the church has satellites in several cities including Miami, Charlotte and Denver and television and international ministries.
Many who joined the church under Long’s tenure were attracted to the prosperity gospel that he preached and practiced. It was a message that mirrored an emerging black middle class in and around Atlanta. Unlike the traditional Southern Baptist preacher, Long owned a $350,000 Bentley and private jet, lived in a $1.4 million house with six bedrooms and nine bathrooms, adorned himself with diamond jewelry and read his sermons on an iPad.
U.S. Roman Catholic bishops vowed Monday to defend their religious liberty in the face of growing acceptance of gay marriage and what they called attempts by secularists to marginalize faith.
Bishop William Lori, leader of a new national religious liberty committee, condemned federal and state policies that he said interfered with the church’s ability to provide social services, from health care to immigrant support to international aid.
In Illinois, government officials stopped working with Catholic Charities on adoptions and foster-care placements after 40 years because the agency refused to recognize a new civil union law. Illinois bishops had sued the state but on Monday said they would stop the legal fight and no longer provide state-funded services.
In New York, the bishops, along with Orthodox Jewish leaders and others, have complained that the religious exception in this year’s law allowing gay marriage is too weak to be effective.
On the federal level, the bishops have been pressing the Health and Human Services Department during its public comment period for a broader religious exception to part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul that mandates private insurers pay for contraception.
“We should not be obliged to provide services or other initiatives that are contrary to our conscience,” said Lori, bishop of Bridgeport, Conn. “We don’t need the government forcing our hand.”
Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the bishops are not just reacting to Obama’s policies, but to a broader society in a “drive to neuter religion” and “push religion back into the sacristy.”
“That’s a cultural issue that the church has been concerned about forever, not just in the United States,” Dolan said.
But Dolan said he discussed the church’s concerns with Obama when the two men met last week in the Oval Office. The archbishop said Obama was “extraordinarily friendly” and “very ardent” in reassuring Dolan that the administration would look into the problems.
“I left there feeling a bit more at peace with this issue than when I entered,” Dolan said.
Religious freedom was the main focus at the fall meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has public sessions through Tuesday.
The new religious liberty committee that church leaders formed met for the first time. Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the conference, will oversee that work, which will include hiring a lobbyist and another attorney.
Picarello had worked for seven years at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public-interest law firm based in Washington, and also served on an advisory committee for Obama’s Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Bishops hope to persuade federal lawmakers to retain the Defense of Marriage Act, which passed in 1996, and launched a new website called Marriageuniqueforareason.org. Obama has said his administration would no longer defend the law, calling it “counter to the Constitution.” Bishops said it was wrong to describe their religious convictions as discrimination.
“The church has nothing against compromise, but we can’t compromise principle,” Dolan said.
The bishops are confronting the Health and Human Services Department on another front. The government agency recently decided not to renew a contract held since 2006 by the bishops’ refugee services office to help victims of human trafficking.
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing to stop the agency from making grants to groups who “impose religiously based restrictions on reproductive health services” for human trafficking victims. The women are often raped and forced into prostitution by their captors.
The bishops’ conference has called the decision biased against Catholic beliefs. Agency officials vehemently deny any bias and say the sole criteria for evaluating potential grantees was which group could best serve the victims. Administration officials note that the vast network of Catholic social service nonprofits, including the bishops’ conference, receives hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding in amounts that have increased in the last couple of years.
A heavenly ad is turning hellish for Axe.
The deodorant brand has seen its latest campaign banned in South Africa because its depiction of gorgeous angels falling from heaven offends Christians, the Daily Mail reports.
Carrying the tagline “Angels will fall,” the 60-second commercial sees models sporting wings and halos crashing down from the sky as a man walks down an Italian street. The smitten angels then throw their halos down as they chase after their fresh-smelling prey.
Following a complaint from a male Christian viewer, who said he was upset by “the suggestion that God’s messengers could literally fall for a man on the basis of his shop-bought fragrance,” the country’s Advertising Standards Authority moved to ban the ad on the presumption that other viewers would also be offended.
“The problem is not so much that angels are used in the commercial, but rather that the angels are seen to forfeit, or perhaps forego their heavenly status for mortal desires,” the ASA ruled.
“This is something that would likely offend Christians in the same manner as it offended the complainant.”
They’re after Bishop Eddie Long once again. They, meaning anyone whose got something against the guy.
The head of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga. is in trouble again. A lawsuit was filed against the scandalous preacher for allegedly scheming church folk out of millions of dollars, via a business Long endorsed.
According to the Atlantic Journal-Constitution, the allegations stem from a three-day investment seminar Long held at the church in October 2009, at which church members were encouraged to invest in a company named City Capital Corporation, according to the suit. The company’s then-CEO, Ephren Taylor, attended and was heralded by Long, attorney Jason Doss told the AJC. Doss, of Marietta, and attorney Quinton Seay are co-counsels in the suit.
“I am responsible for everyone I bring before you and what they say,” Long said at the seminar, according to the lawsuit. “The gentleman that I am going to bring before you is an ordained minster. That gives me great pride to bring him for you.”
The preacher’s latest allegations are just another thing to add to his long list of scandals and schemes.
SIDEBAR: What does it take for a person to step down, they are pretty good at it in the Middle East!
The National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) group sounded the alarm Thursday about new media outlets such as Facebook, Google and Apple, which they say have written policies that violate the fundamental rules of free expression, particularly concerning religious free speech, says the Christian Post.
The NRB released a report at the National Press Club Thursday analyzing the various content policies of social networking websites. What they found was disturbing: new media platforms Facebook, Apple, Comcast, AT&T and Google have adopted policies to censor lawful viewpoints expressing Christian views or controversial ideas on “hot button issues.” Some platforms, such as Apple’s iTunes App Store and Google’s search engine, have already started to use those policies to remove orthodox Christian viewpoints considered “offensive” or too controversial.
Former Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth said, “The irony is the companies listed in this report are some of the most open companies in the world.”
In a January 2010 interview with TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg praised social networking for opening people up to share “more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people.”
However, Zuckerberg’s social network has removed content deemed “anti-gay,” according to the NRB report. It is unclear whether that censored material contained any religious expression. However, the NRB report warns, “The position of Facebook on the issue of homosexuality and its collaboration with gay right group the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination (GLAAD), coupled with its troublesome written policies, are all strong indicators that its social networking platform poses a high index of risk for anti-Christian discrimination.”
A gunman killed his wife at their Florida home and then burst through the front door of a nearby church on Sunday, wounding a pastor and associate pastor before parishioners tackled him, authorities and relatives said.
The suspect, 57-year-old Jeremiah Fogle, killed one person at a home about a block away from the church before shooting the pastors, the Polk County Sheriff’s office said. The two men, pastor William Boss and associate pastor Carl Stewart, were in critical condition. No other church members were hurt.
Maria Beauford said the slain woman was her sister, 56-year-old Theresa Fogle. The Fogles married in 2002 and ran a transportation business together. They had been members of Greater Faith Christian Center Church, where the shootings happened, but had started their own ministry out of their house and regularly hosted Sunday services, Beauford said.
Beauford said she had never known Jeremiah Fogle to be violent toward her sister. He had been sick over the past year and had back surgery, and Theresa Fogle nursed him back to health, Beauford said. She said her brother-in-law was always smiling at family gatherings.
“We have no idea what his motive was,” she said. “We just have no idea.”
Jeremiah Fogle’s older brother, Collis Fogle Jr., said that the couple never had a big wedding celebration and that they seemed to have gotten along well.
“It’s so sad,” Collis Fogle said. “I’ve been trying to call to figure out what went wrong.”
Authorities said Jeremiah Fogle ran through the doors of the Greater Faith Christian Church after a morning service had wrapped up and just before another daily service. The red-brick building also serves as a school and sits across from a mobile home park.
It was not immediately known if he had an attorney.
Several police cars and police tape blocked off the church and the street in front. Ambulances and police cars rushed down the street when the shooting happened, neighbors said.
Are you suffering from malnutrition? Are you receiving any public assistance or do not have access to emergency funds if you need them? Do you experience debilitating depression, so much so, that it has rendered you incapable of holding down a job or looking for one? What about XBox? Do you own one of those or have a computer to read this story on? What about DVD’s and a DVD player, do you have those too?
I ask these, seemingly, unreasonable questions because it appears that “poverty” has taken on a new face since the 60?s and 70?s. Back then, when someone was poor or living below the poverty line, THEY WERE REALLY FRIGGIN’ POOR! Nowadays, if you don’t own an XBox, don’t have a car or have less than 5 DVD’s in the house … you’re poor!
Two of the men who accused Bishop Eddie Long of coercing them into sexual relationships gave an extensive interview to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News. Jamal Parris and Spencer LeGrande were among four young men who accused the founder of New Birth Missionary Church of sexual coercion. Their lawsuit against him was settled in May. The following is an excerpt from the story, which will be posted in its entirety on ajc.com around 5 p.m. Atlanta’s Channel 2 Action News will air the first part of their interview with the men in their 5 p.m. newscast.
Among those tuning in to watch the most anticipated sermon of Bishop Eddie Long’s career were two of the young men who, one week earlier, had filed suit claiming the powerful Lithonia pastor had coerced them into sexual relationships.
“It was like the Super Bowl for us,” said 24-year-old Jamal Parris, describing the anxiousness he felt before Long took to the pulpit last September. “This might be the day he finally says something.” Neither Parris nor fellow accuser Spencer LeGrande, now 23, expected an admission of wrongdoing or an apology.
“I knew who he was,” LeGrande said. “I knew what was coming.” In speaking before 25,000 New Birth Missionary Baptist members who packed the church and watched on television and online, Long vowed to clear his name. “This thing I’m going to fight,” he said, comparing himself to the biblical David, turning the table on his accusers.
Ironically, they say, Long often compared the two young men to David, the metaphorical armor-bearers to the bishop’s King Saul. Now they were being portrayed as Goliaths.
“I just got quiet,” Parris said. “I started crying. I couldn’t even stop crying because I was angry. The way he walked up [to the stage]. The way I saw people stand up and applaud this man. How dare you.”
Nearly one year later, the wounds are still raw for Parris and LeGrande who, along with two other plaintiffs, filed lawsuits last September alleging the charismatic pastor “uses monetary funds from the accounts of New Birth and other corporate and non-profit corporate accounts to entice the young men with cars, clothes, jewelry, and electronics.” Each alleged that, once they reached the age of consent, Long coerced them into sexual relationships. The cases were settled in late May after months of mediation talks.
Long has, through a spokesman, denied the allegations. He did not respond to requests from the AJC for an interview. Following the announcement of the settlement agreement the 58-year-old bishop released a statement saying the decision was made “to bring closure to this matter and to allow us to move forward with the plans God has for this ministry.” “This resolution is the most reasonable road for everyone to travel,” the statement continued. Documents were filed May 27 in DeKalb State Court confirming the lawsuits had been dismissed “with prejudice.”
Parris and LeGrande declined to discuss specifics of their settlement with Long, per the terms of their agreement. Their attorney, B.J. Bernstein, said at the time neither she nor her clients would be available for an interview “now or in the future.” By speaking out, Parris and LeGrande risk losing unspecified monetary rewards outlined in the settlement.
“The truth should’ve set [us] free,” said Parris, interviewed along with LeGrande in Miami late last week. “I thought I could cover the pain up. I thought I could move, start over and everything would go away. I was terribly wrong. I’m living a lifestyle meant to crash.”
The money is irrelevant, LeGrande said. “I’m going to tell the world – money does not buy happiness,” said LeGrande, who was 15 when he met the bishop. “When you sleep at night, the problems are still there. The money stuff, who cares about the number.” “I feel like burning [the money],” he said.
LeGrande was 15 when he met Long at one of New Birth’s satellite churches in Charlotte. The sermon, on the importance of fathers, left him in tears. “When I started crawling, that was the day [my father] left,” LeGrande said. “A lot of years I didn’t even see him.” LeGrande said Long embraced him. “I got you” … “I will be your dad,” the bishop told the teen. Soon they were talking regularly on the phone.
“The day I met him it was like a God moment,” LeGrande said.
Parris said he too was raised without a strong male influence. “I have a clown for a father,” he said. “My dad was abusive, my dad would flake out … that’s all a predator needs.”
Long was the father figure both youths craved. He called them his armor-bearers and their loyalty was rewarded with exotic trips, expensive gifts and, more importantly, a role model. “He did teach us good things,” LeGrande said, “but something had to be wrong with him.”
In 2004, when LeGrande was 16, he accompanied Long to Kenya. On another trip, to Johannesburg, they dined with Winnie Mandela. Rubbing elbows with the rich and famous became routine. “You’re thinking you’re the luckiest kid in the world, like someone’s always got your back,” LeGrande said. “For me, it was more of a spiritual connection. It was about God.”
Parris met Long a few years earlier, in 2001 when he was 14 and new to Atlanta. He was at choir practice when he met the man he’d soon be calling “daddy.” Parris said he left that day with the preacher’s cell phone number, which he called days later after getting into trouble at school. Long interceded, getting the teacher who had reprimanded Parris nearly fired, said Parris. The power wielded by the bishop made an impression on the teen. “It’s the power he commanded when he walked into the room. It’s like I’m with the president,” he said.
The bond was intense, say both accusers. Neither was aware of the other until after they broke away from Long. Beyond the gifts — each more expensive than the last, Parris said — and the trips, there were deep conversations about spirituality. “Out of nowhere he hits you with the most emotional question,” LeGrande said. “‘I know what you’re feeling. I know what it’s like.’” Parris equated their relationships to high school. He and LeGrande were like freshmen girls. Long, they said, was the senior with the fancy car, the big man on campus.
Tims’s body was discovered Friday afternoon when a worker trying to check the minibar in his room at the W Hotel, and found the room’s door latched from the inside. A maintenance worker opened the door and found Tims lying on his back between the bedroom and living room area. According to a law enforcement official, police found a glassine envelope with a white powerdery substance inside the right pocket of his shorts.
The substance was being tested, according to a law enforcement official.
Another law enforcement official familiar with the case said, “what that white powdery substance is and whether it played a role in Mr. Tims’ death is still to be determined.”
Police found no signs of trauma to his body. At this point criminality is not suspected, officials said. Detectives spoke with his family members and it appears Tims died in possession of his jewelry and other belongings.
Tims was in town for a meeting and was supposed to leave for Texas last Thursday, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the matter.
Tims was a young drug addict in Maryland when he was “miraculously saved” according to his website and a memoir published in 2006. After discovering Christianity, he earned degrees in accounting and theology and worked at a ministry in Baltimore. In 1996, he and his wife Riva moved to Orlando, where they founded the New Destiny Christian Center.
At the ministry’s first service, six people gathered in a hotel room, according to the ministry’s website. In 1999, they purchased a church; two years later, the ministry expanded to a second 21-acre-location dubbed “City of Destiny.”
As the church grew, it was able to bestow lavish benefits, even giving away cars to members, according to its website.
Tims’s memoir and self-help book, “It’s Never Too Late: How a teenage criminal found his divine destiny and became a successful millionaire and pastor of a thriving church,” released through Charisma House Publications in 2006, sold “fairly well,” moving around 23,000 copies, said Woodley Auguste, the imprint’s director of marketing and publicity.
Why he is a local hero: Osborne is working to bring people of different faiths together to solve many of today’s problems.
The way Pastor Osborne sees it, people of different faiths waste too much time arguing about things that aren’t important while issues, such as drug addiction and youth gang violence, go unaddressed.
“There are so many faiths divided in the community. Everyone thinks they are going to heaven and that the other person is wrong. It breaks my heart because for years I have been in the street teaching the gospel of unity. I’m a Christian. I believe Jesus Christ is the son of God, but everyone doesn’t think like me. The question is what can we do to help the children,” says Osborne.
Osborne has tackled this issue by entering into a variety of interfaith efforts, including the Newark Interfaith Coalition for Hope and Peace. The group supports other grassroots organizations seeking to stem the tide of violence in and around Newark. The most dramatic of Osborne’s efforts, though, may be that Muslims, Christians, and Jehovah Witnesses alike attend Bethel Family and Youth Resource Center, his Newark, N.J., church.
It started a few years ago when Osborne ran an intensive life skills program that helped people dealing with addiction issues. Afterward, many of his attendees, who are of various faiths, began showing up at his church, because they felt a sense of togetherness at Osborne’s church.
During the services, Christians say, “Hallelujah,” and the Muslims say, “Alluh Akbar.” Muslims teach Christians Arabic, and there is an overall greater understanding and respect of one another’s faith. And that’s what is needed to challenge many of the social problems plaguing America today, says Osborne.
“Let us pastors and imams go out into the street at 2 a.m., where people are shooting one another. Let’s create employment. Let’s work together. I long for pastors and imams to unite and say, ‘We don’t have same theology, but let’s do what we have to do,’” says Osborne.
The move hasn’t come without criticism. Some think what Osborne’s doing is heretical, but Osborne sees proof of the opposite in the lives of the changed men and women of different faiths who step in to his church every week. It appears that many critics are actually fearful of what can be accomplished when people of different faiths come together around common goals.
“The only way to do this is to try and bring people together, where a Jewish can go to a masjid, a Muslim can go to a church, and a Christian can go to a synagogue,” said Osborne.
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