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.’”

My Open Letter To Eddie Long

An Open Letter to Eddie Long

It has been over a week since news broke about the civil lawsuits filed against you. In the time that has passed we have seen or heard nothing from you other than your patent self-aggrandizing that seems to be the anchor of the Eddie Long brand. 

The blatant defiance and arrogance that you displayed during last night’s “Empowerment” service was sickening and in total contradiction to the Christ that you’ve publicly claimed to love and worship. I was truly disgusted by your code messages (not to the media but to whomever has more pics and videos of your deviance), your clergymen’s bullying of the congregants, ordering them to give their best seed for offering, and reminding them that obedience to you as their leader is pleasing unto God. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Before I go any further, let’s do away with the Bishop and Reverend titles. The Bible says that ministers are servant leaders who are not above any other member of the body of Christ, anyway. You read that part of the Bible, right? Good. So, let’s take it down a notch; you’re just Eddie to me anyway.

The charges against you are serious, and the evidence presented thus far is quite damning even if you try to defend yourself. For you and your legal team to insist on this being kept out of the public clearly implies that you have something to hide. If you didn't, you'd be more vocal in your own defense.

You’ve programmed your followers to trot out that “touch not my anointed” scripture(1 Chronicles 16:22) whenever someone dares to challenge or question anything about you. But because you have bastardized the gospel to suit your selfish desires, your followers are ill-equipped to rightly divide the Word of God for themselves. You see, if you were teaching sound doctrine, and if you had led your people to become capable of reading the Bible for themselves, they would know that the “touch not my anointed scripture” does not apply to you. You may have been anointed by God at one time, but that is not for me to say. Now it’s easy to see that you are not under any anointing now. The pictures of you with the three young men in your clandestine hideaway in downtown Atlanta is proof of that.

Watch this, Eddie. Let’s go to the Word. Turn with me to Matthew 7:15-20. I’ll give you the scripture from the New International Version of the Bible:

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.”

Put a pin right there.

What fruit have you produced, Eddie? The New Birth corporate entity? Your New Birth church franchise? Your “Taking Authority” broadcast? Your LongFellows Academy? Your Father’s House Ministry Association? Your books? The eerily demonic New Birth logo? The slick ads and posters with your image plastered all over them? The house, the car, the custom-made clothing, the jewelry? Sure, you have donated hundreds of thousands to local and international charities. You’ve provided shelter to the homeless, food and clothing to the needy. But those works far pale in comparison to the Eddie Long and New Birth brands that loom large on TV, the internet and in the megachurch arena. Is Jesus anywhere in your tree? Methinks not, because I surely don’t see Him anywhere on your website. (But what I do see is that the first tab on your website is for Contributions. Interesting.)

Now you may point to your snazzy new vision statement and the logoed t-shirts: “Love Like Him, Live Like Him, Lead Like Him” as being your fruit, but one could argue that the ‘Him’ in the vision statement/slogan is actually you. Like other wayward mega church pastor-slash-CEOs out here, you use Jesus as bait to draw the people in. Then you dangle God above their heads like carrots leading them further and further towards the altar you’ve built for yourself. It’s really hard for me to believe that you are referencing the Lord in “Love Like Him, Live Like Him, Lead Like Him”, especially when it’s rather obvious that you yourself as the leader of the New Birth flock, fail to carry out that vision statement.

I tend to think that your shiny new slogan is a subtle, yet deliberate way to get gullible followers to ascribe to your insatiable God complex. If you tell them in the beginning that the Him is Jesus, yet the Him that they see is you, and you keep playing abracadabra, hocus pocus magic tricks – Watch This! – with the people, they eventually could see you and Christ as one in the same.

If you proclaim to “Love Like Him”, you would have taken the opportunity to acknowledge and pray for the four young men who have brought the sexual misconduct charges against you, whether or not you are guilty of the allegations. To “Love Like Him” means to demonstrate Christ’s unconditional love for everyone regardless of their station in life, their sexual orientation or how they treat you. God loves the sinner, but hates the sin. Did you know that? When you “Love Like Him” you think of your members, and you put their needs and interests before your own because you only want the best for them. You don't castigate or condemn them. You emulate Christ's love when you "Love Like Him". He loved us so much that He gave His life for us. 


What have you sacrificed because you love your New Birth members or non-believers? I’ll give you some time to marinate on that one. But in the meantime, look past your s-curl hairpiece, your Bentley, your private jet, your mansion, your hideaway condo, and look deep within your soul and ask yourself one question: can you say that you truly “Love Like Him”, Eddie?

To “Live Like Him” means to exemplify Christ in everything you do. Our Savior walked this earth displaying humility and dignity in His words and deeds. He had no need for material trappings. He gave what He had, shared what He could to ensure others’ needs were met. Jesus didn’t drive a luxury vehicle or live in a large, beautiful home. He didn’t wear stupid looking suits that made him look like Uhuru's crazy half-brother Umbuku from the planet Zultron on Star Trek. Jesus lived a modest life, and that’s what we should be striving for.

Jesus, as the Son of God, was the only perfect man on earth. Yet, as we as followers of Christ strive to be like him, we will sin and fall short of the glory of God, but it is our aim and goal to live a life pleasing unto God. There is a wonderful thing called grace that God grants us, for He knows we are prone to sin. When we sin, and repent, he forgives us and our sin is to be remembered no more. And then we move forward in our lifelong quest to “Live Like Him”.

Last time I checked, living like Him wasn’t about having expensive things, or a $3 million salary with benefits. So tell me, Eddie, how is it that you “Live Like Him”? Do you think that because you have elevated yourself to the status of a blameless vessel of God that you are living like Him?

The third spoke in the wobbly wheel that is your vision for New Birth is “Lead Like Him”. Christ-centered leadership is not appointing yourself dictator of the New Birth universe and issuing edicts to your lowly subjects. Have you ever heard of “servant leadership”? Sure you have. I’m sure you learned about it when pursuing your divinity degree. But how do you show yourself to be a servant leader? Is that what the tight muscle shirts are about? To show that you’re tough and macho and capable of pummeling anyone who dares to disobey you? A servant leader serves his people, and does not demand that his people serve him. Jesus served, met people’s needs, listened, ministered, guided. When was the last time you rolled up your sleeves (scratch that, because you’re all about the muscle shirts, we know)…when is the last time you really humbled yourself to serve the people of God selflessly?

I’m not addressing my thoughts on your possible guilt or innocence in the sex abuse case, but looking at the pictures that have been released, it's hard for me to see you as being innocent. If you were truly trying to "Lead Like Him", you would not have allowed yourself to end up in any questionable situations that would show poor leadership judgment, and faculties. 

I thank God you stopped with the 3 L's - Love, Live, Lead. If you had gone and added "Look Like Him", well, there Houston, we would have had a hell of a problem. Jesus didn't look like you: an super pimp-fantastic fool with the suits and the bling. (You thought I was going to mention that rug again, didn't you?) Jesus probably wouldn't recognize you because you're all a mess on the inside, and it shows. Your countenance betrays the image of confidence and machoness you try to pull off. Watch this, Eddie. You are a got-damned hot-a$$ed mess. Inside and out.

It grieves my heart to see that you pawn yourself off to be a Bishop leading a church, yet your church’s mission statement has deviated away from the Great Commission. Remember that? Probably not. Read Matthew 28:16-20 after you finish fluffing your scary curl wig.

I could not believe my eyes when I saw New Birth's Strategic Goals for New Birth. Sure, you’re operating under a business model, but do you not ascribe to anything Biblical anymore?
Your Strategic Goals are:

• 100% mature 
• 100% tithers 
• 100% homeowners
• 100% debt free

This is 100% garbage. Based on what I am seeing, as long as everyone in your congregation is mature (how do you define that?), forks over 10% of their money, owns a home and is debt-free, you will be satisfied. They could be wading in all kinds of sin and despair, but as long as they are mature enough to realize it, and they pay their 10%, your goals are met, huh? Prosperity preaching sure has distorted and corrupted so many. A real shame. 

I wasn’t going to touch on tithing, but since you brought it up, I was unaware that New Birth is still under the Old Testament covenant. The New Testament declares that believers should give a freewill offering. What if I wanted to give more than 10% (not to you, because you’re shady, but I’m saying...)? What if I could not afford 10% of my income? I know the thought of that makes you and your mega church preaching buddies nauseous. You and your friends would probably break out into hives if you had to admit that. If you look at the book of Malachi closely, never does it state that your tithe is solely 10% of your income. It also mentions time and talent, but I guess you can't take time and talent to the bank to deposit in your checking account.

And I suppose time and talent won’t purchase luxury vehicles. Or hairpieces. But time and talent surely would edify the body of Christ and the building. You want cash money, right? You probably take people's 10% and buy yourself clothes and hair that only cover 10% of your Body By Jake a$$. That's a damn shame. 

In light of these charges, Christian leaders and faithful Bible-believing folks were waiting for you to step down while the litigation was pending. Your ego wouldn’t let you do that. You instead chose to characterize your followers as victims with you in an attack, and you used them as a shield to deflect attention from the charges that you have yet to face. You begged and demanded their allegiance through subtle messaging. While you were busy strucking around the pulpit like Mayor McSleaze, God was not pleased. He does not ordain or condone activity that would even call into question a man’s character.

You keep playing with God, Eddie Long. When Jesus comes back for His church, He just might pass right on by New Birth because both inside and out, it looks like it’s nothing more than a multimillion dollar corporation that makes, markets and sells the Eddie Long brands of homophobia and hypocrisy.

I suggest you take a serious look at yourself in the mirror. You probably don't even recognize yourself. Beneath the s-curl rug top, the too-tight muscle shirts, the speedos, the Under Armour, the raging homophobic aura, there is a man, a lonely, frightened man who needs to have a real, person encounter with Jesus. You need to find that man, Eddie. Find him, get on your knees and repent. 


Watch this, Eddie. The clock's ticking. You don't have much time.


Signed,
Girl
Repost from Girlwithemail

This is WAY WAY Bigger Than Just Sum SEX

A Repost from GirlwithEmail

This Eddie Long situation is waaaay bigger than these sexual coercion charges. Reviewing his speech ('cause that certainly wasn't a sermon) yesterday, I could see that his movement and his behavior, his tone and his message indicated a deep level of fear. And that fear has as much to do with the sex charges as it does some possible blackmail scheme.

Here are some things that I picked up on:

1. Long said more than once during his speech that "I never said I was a perfect man." Obviously, that indicates that he knew there would be some new revelations coming out, and he was trying to forewarn his followers. Some of what has yet to be revealed is not related to these sex charges, but it will be damning all the same.
2. If Eddie Long declared his innocence using that specific language, he would have put himself in a very, very bad situation. He knows that whoever put his business on Front Street knows ALL of his dirt -- sex-related, legal, ethical, etc.
3. When he compared himself to David and said he hasn't thrown any of his stones yet, that was a warning shot not to the plaintiffs or attorney BJ Berstein, but to whoever is the mastermind of this whole operation. Here's the deal: this his cat is being set up. (And for the record: no, I do not believe he's totally innocent of these charges.) I don't know who it is, but Eddie Long has gone against the grain over some powerful entity. Could it be a political group? A secret society of "The Children" maybe lead by one sparkly, twirly gospel diva with his own show on BET? (just kidding...kinda). Maybe it's the clique of prosperity preachers he's been running with. I don't know. But it's someone, something that Eddie Long pissed off by not doing something he was expected to do, or by doing something he was not supposed to do. He didn't stay on script, he didn't follow the rules of the game, and somebody's mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore. And Eddie knows this. But he also knows who is leading this campaign, and he has dirt on them, too. So when he starts singing like a canary about some of the backdoor shadiness others around him may have been party to, he's throwing his stones.
4. Watching his tense body language in the pulpit on Sunday, and the weary look on his face, These sex charges are the least of his worries. He knew this was coming. He knows that the information that has yet to be made public will ruin his entire empire once it gets out. He wouldn't have time to take it to court. He knows that once his congregation learns the whole truth -- all the shady deals, all the questionable connections, all the scheming to fleece his flock, all that he's said and done including and beyond the questionable activity with the young men -- even his most faithful followers will leave him. And he is scared to death. He wasn't kidding when he said he's in the fight of his life.
5. Many were speculating about Eddie Long's wife Vanessa, whether she'd stand by him. I had even heard rumors that she had left him. But she knows the depth of the trouble her husband is in. Wives tend to know when their husbands are unfaithful; it's women's intuition. Vanessa Long very well knew her husband has been spending lots of time with these young men. She knows what's going on. Her reassuring calmness towards her husband, and her visible support let his "blackmailers" know that whatever is going on, she's there with him.
6. While all the evidence outlined in the lawsuits are very compelling, I find it a little strange that there is too much similarity in the accounts. (Now let me stop here and state, I don't doubt for one minute that Long didn't have dalliances or at least attempt to engage in some activity with these young men. I believe those young men were victimized on several different levels.) I think they were given careful counsel on what to say to BJ Bernstein.
7. What I find most interesting about all of this are the pics of Eddie Long and some young men that turned up on HipHopBlog.com seem to reveal a lot. He totally did not look comfortable posing for the camera. I think he knew at the time that these pics would come back to haunt him, as he had no choice but to let them be taken.

Please don't get me wrong; I don't think Eddie Long is completely innocent. I don't think he's operating under any sort of anointing. He came to my church a couple of times, and I thought his message was nothing but foolishness. After about an hour of "watch this" and some inaudible mumbling and gesturing, I had about lost it. People were falling out and screaming as if he was preaching a major word. I think Eddie Long's nothing more than a gimmicky preacher...if he trots out a snappy slogan, cool graphics and a silly dance move (the Cross-Up?  Whatever.), he thinks he's doing something.

Whatever happened to rightly-dividing the Word? You don't need gimmicks and foolishness to do that. In my opinion, Eddie Long is in ministry not because of a calling, but because it's a career option. Now he got caught up in the power and influence that came with the career choice, and he got tangled up in some mess that he now can't get himself out of. He knows his career is on the line; he could give a hoot about his ministry. His career is about to be over; his corporation could very well crumble right before his very eyes.

And with the yet-to-be-revealed charges (it's going to be BIG, on epic proportions), he could lose his reputation, and everything that he's acquired during his season of prosperity.