Accused pastor crusaded against homosexuals
People in positions of authority, such as this pastor (and Catholic priests) have a unique platform from which to seduce and abuse young people.
The worst hit are, of course, the victims themselves.
But these things don’t affect just the victims; they end up affecting the entire family of the victim.
I worked with a woman whose youngest son was seduced and abused by a higher up in her church. When it was brought to light, the congregation stood by the church official, and this woman and her family were run out of this congregation.
I can recall her sitting at work, in utter distress over every aspect of the situation, most specifically the damage done to her son, but including everything else that went on when the situation was brought to light.
There’s a special place in hell, IMO, for any priest or pastor who uses the authority of his position in a way that damages people, especially the most vulnerable among us.
Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) — As Bishop Eddie Long poked through a salad in his church office one summer day in 1999, he shot a weary look at a person ticking off his ministry’s successes.
His Atlanta megachurch had already reached 25,000 members. He had been invited to the White House, built a global television ministry and drove around town in a $350,000 Bentley.
But Long told the visitor who had come to write about him that the pressures of being a high-profile pastor could be brutal.
“You don’t want any of this,” he said in a raspy baritone as he shook his head. “You don’t want any of this …”
Long didn’t get more specific about those pressures.
Today, the 57-year-old minister, known for his public crusades against homosexuality, faces serious allegations.
On Tuesday, two young men who were members of Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church filed lawsuits claiming he used his position as their spiritual counselor to coerce them into sexual relationships.
The men — Anthony Flagg, 21, and Maurice Robinson, 20 — allege Long used a private spiritual ceremony to mark a “covenant” between them, with both becoming his “spiritual son.”
Flagg alleges that Long then used that relationship to take him on overnight trips where they shared a bedroom and engaged in kissing, masturbation and “oral sexual contact.”
Robinson, who claimed Long engaged in oral sex with him, said the pastor would cite Scripture to justify their relationship.