How Many OTHER Ministers Knew What Eddie Long Was 'Allegedly' Doing?

According to one of the ministers





PART 2 - YouTube - EX Ministries Video EX-Cast Eddie Long




PART 3 "We're looking at a cycle of abuse that's been going on 20, 30, 40 years...."

Rondy Long...Eddie Long's Relative Speaks Out About Scandal

On a blog called The Waiting, Dating, & Mating Page a man claiming to be Eddie Long’s cousin, Rondy Long chimed on the current sexual coercion scandal hanging over the head 'Bishop' Eddie Long.

In it, Pastor Rondy Long says he believes that more gay pastors will be exposed in due time.  Here's a copy of his rather lengthy response to his cousin's sex scandal:

It is with great sorrow and concern that we response to this latest news. Many of you know that I am related to Bishop Eddie Long and I am very concerned about the recent developments- yet not surprised. For years we have known that this was happening. Of course, as you can imagine, because of my stance on Homosexuality, I am very distant from many of my relatives in 'Main-stream' ministry. We have prayed for these guys  some of them we have spoken to directly about this secret sin in 'the family' (Eddie is not the only one) but to no avail. My heart has already wept for them years ago, but now my heart weeps for you, the public because now you know what we knew for years but could not publicly say.

There are other BIG Bishops tied to this kind of activity as well. There was one young man who came out and started sharing how Jakes, Long, and others had a sex-ring of young men that they flew around the country to do favors for them and their friends. After he started talking, he was mysteriously beaten up, and then the Minister ( a personal friend of mine) who was in contact with the young man all of a sudden lost contact. People this stuff is foul. Yet God never leaves his people in the dark some of you remember that a little over a month ago in our daily word we said this:

July 27, 2010

God seems to have a progression when it comes to Judgement. First there is minimal disclosure so that a person can repent. What I mean is that God protects His people from public embarrassment by only exposing these people to, usually, a few discreet people who can go to them, warn them and possibly restore them. Folks, most of the people that many of you love and adore in Gospel Music or in Preaching ministry are foul. Some of them I know personally and others I know of who have been involved in sin so depraved that it would make some of you vomit. Yet, why hasn't God publicly exposed or judged them yet? Because He is merciful and full of Grace. There are some very great people that God had me personally go to and warn some listened (Glory to God!) but most of them didn't.

The next stage is exposure to all spiritual Christians. Years ago I would tell my wife there was something wrong with T. D. Jakes and the turns he was making. Hardly anybody recognized it back then I know several people that have warned him  G. Craige being one. But he didn'?t listen. Now it seems almost anybody who is spiritual is picking up on what Jakes is doing. Now the last stage of judgment if a person doesn't repent during the first two stages is public humiliation -everybody knows your sin. God strips you of everything and He judges you openly. Folks I have seen this happen over, and over.

August 5, 2010
'Almost always, by the time you see a pastor on the news or he loses his church you can be certain' that this was probably not his first, second, or third time, but he was a repeat offender who ignored clear warnings from God, and wouldn't repent. The difference between the leaders that salvage their ministries and those that lose them seems to be in this: One Pastor is so remorseful that He exposes himself to his wife and close circle; but the other Pastor keeps doing it until he is caught. By the time most leaders lose their ministry they have been warned several of times, but they wouldn't repent. I will say this prophetically there are some very Big Black TV Pastors that will be exposed for sexual sins in the near future.

I don't glory in the sin or the exposure. But I do glory in the accuracy of the Spirit of God. Let's all be praying for Bishop Eddie Long his wife Lady Vanessa his children but mostly all of the true Christians that this news will damage and all of the sinners this news will keep from the church. Also pray for the many victims of this type of sick activity by leaders in the black church?

yall somebody is going to pay for all of the young people that have been molested and sodomized by these so called 'Men of God.'


Until He Comes,

Rondy Long

“Spiritual Amway” – Eddie Long’s Authoritarian Financial Pyramid Scheme Spans Churches Across US

Posted by B. E. Wilson on @ 8:42 am
Article printed from speakeasy: SpeakEasy
URL to article: “Spiritual Amway” – Eddie Long’s Authoritarian Financial Pyramid Scheme Spans Churches Across US « SpeakEasy

Millions of dollars in church and charity based income. A $350,000 Bentley. A $1.4 million dollar mansion. Even by the often lavish standards of high-profile megachurch pastors, Bishop Eddie Long’s lifestyle has appeared extravagant. Where does all the money come from? The members of his 25,000 member New Birth church near Atlanta? In part, yes, but As Talk To Action contributor Rachel Tabachnick details, in a new two part series [part 1, part 2], Bishop Long is spiritually authority over the pastors of a sprawling network of 275 churches across America, in 38 states including Alaska, and these pastors are instructed to all tithe to a network under Eddie Long’s control – The Father’s House.

American media treatment of religion is typically a mile wide and an inch deep, and coverage of Bishop Eddie Long’s roiling sex scandal is no different. Stories about the allegations that Long coerced teen and young adult males at his church-based Longfellows Academy into having sex have gained national traction. Try a Google news story search on “Eddie Long” – 3,840 search results and climbing.

But add to that search an additional word, “tithe” and you’ll get all of 6 search results. One might suppose all the cash sloshing around Eddie Long’s church and bank accounts might generate even a little interest. Apparently not, and the media neglect is especially curious because of the widely recognized truism that sex, money, and power tend to flow together.


As Tabachnick suggests, Bishop Eddie Long represents a gathering trend in American evangelicalism – the anti-democratic concentration of authority under fast rising church networks under the authoritarian control of self-made “apostles” :

Bishop Eddie Long may or may not be guilty of the charges of abusing his authority and having sexual relationships with four young men. However, the current Dominionist trend results in congregations where members are supposed to submit to the almost absolute authority of their anointed leaders, a change that removes the congregation as a balance or check to the power of the pastor. Long claims spiritual authority over more than his New Birth mega-church in Lithonia, Georgia. He is the ‘apostolic authority’ over churches in The Father’s House network, including 79 churches in Georgia alone. Many evangelical churches are shifting away from their traditional democratically governed structures. A model for making the transition was the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, formerly led by Ted Haggard (who defended Long in broadcasts over the weekend). Haggard wrote his 1998 book The Life Giving Church as a guide to pastors in making the transition to what he and his colleagues dubbed ‘New Apostolic’ churches and networks.

[...]

Once a church has shifted to this model, the pastor can no longer be hired and fired by the membership but becomes the authority over his flock. Only his overseers or spiritual authority figures can remove or discipline him. In these networks an apostle (or bishop in some cases) provides spiritual or apostolic “covering” over others.

Their growing authoritarian nature and the concentration of power in these apostolic church networks has irritated and dismayed even some in the apostolic movement such as J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine (and a former apostle in C. Peter Wagner’s mammoth International Coalition of Apostles – ICA ) who blasted in a 2009 Charisma op-ed,

Some charismatic apostles became mini-popes who carved out their fiefdoms. Suddenly the independent charismatic movement had more invasive authoritarianism than the denominations these pastors abandoned 10 years earlier.
In some circles apostles demanded total allegiance from the leaders who were “under” them. Some required a policy of “tithing up,” creating a monstrous organizational structure similar to a spiritual Amway. So-called apostles with huge “downlines” made exorbitant amounts of money. One leader even offered pastors the opportunity to become “spiritual sons” by contributing $1,000 a month to his ministry.

If we can now make some informed guesses about where some of Long’s money comes from, Tabachnick’s second story segment highlight’s the ultimate agenda – political power:

Like the apostles and prophets of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and other Dominionist networks, Long does not believe in separation of church and state. And similar to the NAR prophets, Long believes that God gives messages directly to him to pass on to his flock. In his book Taking Authority he states,

God has strongly communicated to me His displeasure with our nation’s growing acceptance of the mythical “separation of church and state” heresy. I am convinced this so-called separation was never the intent of our nation’s founding fathers – it is merely a device fraudulently created by an errant Supreme Court totally apart from historical precedent, tradition, or even the will of the people.

Also, like many other New Apostolics and Dominionists, Eddie Long is known for his extensive charitable work. And also like the New Apostolics, this work is at least partially intended to provide access and gain authority over government as mandated in dominion theology.

In 2001 church growth specialist C. Peter Wagner announced the advent of the “New Apostolic Reformation” which, Wagner has continually stated, is at least as significant if not more so than the Protestant Reformation was. Wagner now heads what is possibly the biggest charismatic evangelical apostolic network on Earth (the ICA), but he’s also one of the apostolic movement’s leading strategists.

So where does Wagner see Eddie Long as fitting in? Tabachnick provides a striking quote from a Peter Wagner article titled “Let’s take Dominion Now!” –

In an article titled “Let’s Take Dominion Now!” (and also in his book Church in the Workplace), C. Peter Wagner describes Eddie Long as providing a model for city `transformation.’ Wagner quotes Long’s book Taking Authority,

The New Birth congregation finances and operates vital support programs in the city and pumps large sums of money and thousands of volunteer hours into key areas such as youth offender intervention programs, public school programs, and support and outreach programs for homeless women and children. We are involved in every aspect of life, and we are making a major impact in the Atlanta metropolitan areas.

This, in turn, is causing us to gain major footholds in the city infrastructure, . . . the criminal court system, public high schools, the Georgia State Senate, the United States Senate, and even into the White House itself. . . . When you are a politician in a major metropolitan area, it isn’t wise to dismiss or ignore a highly unified, committed, and motivated group of voters exceeding twenty-two thousand people representing almost every voting precinct in your city.

In light of the fact that Eddie Long’s church received a million-dollar grant from George W. Bush’s Faith Based Initiative, Wagner’s analysis is striking, and all the more so for the authoritarian and intolerant nature of the new apostolic movement Long represents. As Rachel Tabachnick details, Eddie Long’s teachings are both virulently anti-gay and also openly contemptuous of church-state separation.

Eddie Long and C., Peter Wagner are dominionists – they want to extend church authority over every sphere of society including the political realm. The strongly anti-democratic nature of dominionism comes out perhaps most strikingly in the doctrine of “spiritual fatherhood” that’s now in mainstream media parlance especially due to the fact that Eddie Long has been accused of coercing sex from his “spiritual sons.”

The “Spiritual Father” concept, as Tabachnick relates, is part of the “Discipleship and Shepherding” movement that erupted out of a small but astonishingly influential Ft. Lauderdale ministry during the early 1970’s.

The movement spread so explosively across America and grew so extreme that, as author Sara Diamond described in her groundbreaking 1989 book Spiritual Warfare, Pat Robertson, who along with his wife Dede had been close to the “Fort Lauderdale Five” who launched the Discipleship and Shepherding movement, became sufficiently alarmed that in 1975 he tried to squash it. As Diamond quoted Robertson’s internal 700 Club memos,

“The so-called ’submission-shepherding’ cult is vastly worse than anything I could have conceived of…

…In these cells, each member is under total domination by the shepherd. The shepherd can forbid the husband and wife from living together…. When one man said he would not be under subjection to any man, he was told, ` you will be ruined spiritually, financially, and ruined physically.’ “

Leaving its coercive spiritual aspects aside, the Discipleship and Shepherding movement established the sort of pyramidal hierarchies of authority one would typically find in a military structure – “shepherds” could disciple “sheep”, or serve as “spiritual fathers” to “spiritual sons” but such “sheep” or “sons” could in turn take roles as shepherds or spiritual fathers to other Christians presumably lower in the spiritual pecking order. And so on down the line.

All of which brings us to a startling video Tabachnick showcases in her 2nd story segment, from a 2003 trip Bishop Eddie Long made to New Zealand, where he declared at a Wellington, NZ megachurch that powerful New Zealand megachurch leader Brian Tamaki (who has his own apostolic network of churches in his country) would in 5 years rule the nation of New Zealand: spiritually, economically, politically – total dominance.

Tamaki prophesied a church-based takeover of New Zealand would occur within five years and Eddie Long, whom Brian Tamaki has described as a “spiritual father,” lustily endorsed Tamaki’s theocratic vision,

“He made a declaration that in five years you shall be ruling and reigning in this nation. That means you control the wealth, that means you control the riches, that means you control the politics, that means you control the social order, that means that you are in charge. Touch your neighbor and say, `It happens because of order.’”