Ancient Christian Witness

I haven't made a decision on his guilt or innocence yet. Instead I'm gonna leave that to the courts. I knew about Eddie Long back in the late 1990's. I had a bunch of friends in Alabama who use to go to the Impact conferences in Atlanta Georgia in where Eddie Long was often a guest speaker. They would tell me about him and how wild and crazy he was in the pulpit. Also, anyone that knows anything about Eddie is that it's common for him to wear street clothes and muscle shirts in the pulpit as well. At the time we always saw that as Eddie trying to connect with the urban youth that he was mentoring and trying to reach. My friends would always have mixed feelings about him, but it would always be on theological grounds. The Calvinists didn't like him, but the charismatics did.

I grew up in a Baptist Church and even though Eddie Long's group is somewhat of a different Baptist animal, the church scandals of pastors seem somewhat the same. I know all to well the imperfections of preachers. Back in the late 1970's to early 1980's when I was little, we had a very famous preacher who was a known womanizer. He got struck by lightening one day while playing golf in the rain and never recovered. He was either in a comma in a hospital bed for years or he was on life support. I really can't remember, but the preacher we had after him was gay and he use to beat his wife alot. I could be wrong, but I think he died of AIDS.

The next preacher we had was a noble, and honorable man, an awesome role modal, but the deacon board didn't like him and so eventually they got rid of him. The next pastor was an awesome preacher, but his wife left him because she didn't like the city of Pittsburgh and didn't want to stay. And so, alot of us who were raised in black churches already know about church scandals. These things are nothing new.

On a protestant christian hiphop message board I often hang out at, there is a split between the Calvinists and Reformed who tend to see Eddie Long as unsaved and so they were pretty happy about this situation. They had nothing good to say about the man. He was pretty much guilty at the start.

Then you had the Charismatics, Pentecostals, and Word of Faithers who were more compassionate about the situation. They wanted to wait and see what the outcome was.

However, I think most of us already know deep down inside that he's probably guilty. I mean, when you have four young adults come forward on you it's pretty much a wrap. The court of public opinion is already gonna be decided. My heart goes out for the four that stepped forward, but my heart also goes out to the people at New Birth as well. It's never a good feeling when stuff like this happens. There needs to be better accountability for clergy in general. In the ancient church the deaconess was used as a buffer between the Bishop and other female laity. Yes, the deaconess was a lay person. She was used to help Baptize women.

We may not need a deaconess anymore, but it might be good to have someone do the same function that she was used for. There needs to be a buffer between the clergy and females as well as a buffer between clergy and children. This would save everyone alot of heartache and pain. I don't know if this is the practice everywhere, but male doctors aren't allowed to be in a room alone with women patients. There must be another woman doctor there or a female nurse present as well.

In some group homes, male workers are not allowed to work at female homes. I don't know what the policy is for public schools, but we all know about the scandals that happen there with both male and female teachers. And so this problem is rampant in society in general. It's not just a church thing. It's a fallen humanity thing. It's a lack of accountability thing.





What Troy Polamalu said at the 1:47 to 2:25 minute mark pretty much sums it all up:






Lord Have Mercy!