Watching Revelations: Southern Baptist

Du Du hit the fan and splattered everywhere in September of 2010. Mega-church pastor Bishop, Eddie Long was accused of one of the most foul and dehumanizing crimes ever. 5 teenaged boys, ages 17 and 18 accused him of cohercing them into doing sexual favors. In return, they got lavish vacations, cars, and other expensive gifts. When this news broke, all I could think was, “I knew it”.  I don’t say that because I have a personal issue with Eddie Long, I’ve just always felt a vibe from him…  The way that he bashes the gay community super hard has always made me feel uncomfortable, and I’m a straight, black woman. It’s almost like he bashes with this hatred. I’ve literally sat in his church and watched him use his religion as a weapon a FEW times. What happened to using your faith as a tool to help learn and spread love. Isn’t that part of what religion is all about?  There’s just something about this dude that I have never trusted. Maybe it’s the super tight muscle shirts or the bad toupees. Better yet, maybe it’s the “vanity” mixed with his open hatred for homosexuals, and love for expensive material things. I AIN’T HATIN’ I’M JUST SAYIN…

The part that got me in this whole scandle is that Eddie Long NEVER once stated that he did not do this. If I was innocent and I knew it, I wouldn’t contain it. Forget legal “counseling” advising me not to say anything. If you’re innocent, you’re innocent. To have the words “rapist” or “molester” attached to your reputation is something that you can never clean off.  Even if people don’t talk about it, they will remember. I feel like if this man didn’t do anything wrong, he would have aired that. I don’t believe that the lord told him to keep his mouth shut, his lawyer maybe, but not the Al-mighty. Instead, he finally returned back to his church with a dead poodle on his head saying, “I feel like David and Goliath”.  Are you serious? What further disgusted me was the fact the whole congregation stood up and clapped. NewBirth approved. Recollecting the whole scene still bothers me today. It seems like the people wanted to hear anything other than their pastor being guilty of such a demoralizing, heinous crime.

Am I the only one that didn’t get the memo? He never addressed the congregation like he was supposed to. He “George Bushed” everyone and just simply didn’t say anything. He settled out of court to try to hurry the situations 15 minutes of shame. If he were innocent, he would have fought back for the sake of his congregation and his reputation.  He didn’t do any of that and, the cop out excuse about being a child of God is some straight up BULLSHIT. I remember listening to the Frank and Wanda Morning show on Atlanta’s V-103 radio station that day. Frank Ski openly said, “I don’t believe it, it’s not true.” No one wanted to get the other side of the story. No one seemed to question the boys aligations.

Out of a congregation this big, you mean to tell me, nothing settled wrong in anyone’s gut? Just think about it? For these five boys to come forth and put their truth out on the table in front of not only the massive New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, but the world. Who does that? Who does that when you’re getting treated to exclusive vacations and meeting celebrities all at the hands of your “daddy” (and the fact that he had the victims call him “daddy” sounds like some straight up pimp ishh to me). Something was eating them up. The fact that “money” was labeled as the motivation for the victims “lying” is worse than the whole R. Kelly situation. The victims were already being broken off by Eddie Long, so why on earth would they come forth in try to pursue more money? They literally had a huge piece of the world right there at their fingertips… Why break that shameful silence?

At the end  of the day, Eddie Long reportedly paid out 15 million dollars to the victims. Only 2 million of that money came from his actual pockets.  UMMMMMMM