According to Bishop Eddie Long, Pastor of the Atlanta megachurch, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, the job of the preacher is to "bring fresh sperm" to his congregation. See below:
If you can handle it, there is a longer version of the Bishop's speech (complete with romantic music) available here.
If the allegations leveled against Bishop Long yesterday by two members of his congregation are correct, I guess the Bishop has been taking his job seriously and literally.
Along with the power trip, these preachers are basically entertainers. People love the dramatics, the cool music, never knowing what drastic thing the pastor's gonna say on Sunday morning. It's a show.
ReplyDeleteIf the allegations turn out to be true, I think many in the church will forgive and forget. Why? Because that preacher is giving them something they want, and most will not give that up. What breaks my heart is thinking of young people who truly believe that these preachers are really good people.
Also, I was astonished that I'd never heard of this guy. Is his church a lot bigger than even Stanley's and Dollar's?
ReplyDeleteYawn. Humans of every ilk have been acting effed up since their emergence on this planet.
ReplyDeleteLynn,
ReplyDeleteIt is defintely bigger than Charles Stanley's First Baptist of Atlanta but not as big as his son's Andy Stanley's Northpointe Community Church (both mega churches). It is also bigger than Creflo Dollar's World Changer's Church International. For the largest 100 churches in the US, see thislink.
This guy's church isn't that far from where I live. Neither are the Voices of Faith bunch, another rising prosperity theology group, who built a new branch about 2 miles from my house in Conyers a couple of years ago. I don't know why they all keep ending up so near where I live. The followers of these churches are totally on board with making the pastors wealthy. They KNOW they're doing so, and they see the pastor's prosperity as God's reward for doing his work. The pastors are leading the congregations to believe that Jesus was actually quite the wealthy itinerant, evidenced by a rather tortured reading of some key passages in the gospels. I really hate to see people so willingly taken advantage of, and now we learn that it's entirely possible that some may be sexual victims as well as the financial victims that we already knew them to be.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of this guy either, and I live in the metro-Atlanta area. Wrong side, I guess. Wow. Just sick.
ReplyDeleteThe list of the largest 100 churches was very interesting. I cannot believe that Jack Schaap's church is #19!!! Good grief, I can't believe he has THAT much influence. Maybe the rolls are inflated due to all those bus kids. UGH. That's almost as disturbing as the news of this latest pervert masquerading as a pastor.
I had no idea that Andy Stanley's church is roughly the same size as Kennesaw State University. Haha. Interesting. That's actually one I would have considered visiting not long ago, when I could still stomach the idea of visiting anywhere. That list shows how desperately people desire security and belonging. The word "lemmings" comes to mind.
5 of the 100 largest churches in America are in Metro Atlanta. 17 are in Texas and 20 in California.
ReplyDeleteWhile there are a few mega-churches in the US, it should be remembered that as of 2003 60% of evangelical churches had an attendance of 100 or fewer, and as of 2005 there were only 1210 Protestant churches in the USA with congregations larger than 2,000 persons.
ReplyDeleteI do not know the entire story behind the accusations against Bishop Long. It is only right to make note of the fact that he is not representative of all of evangelicalism. To hastily characterize all of us based on the repugnant actions of a few is a gross overstatement. Caution should be exercised here, whether you agree with Christianity or not. It would be gross negligence for me to mischaracterize all atheists due to the comments and actions of a few.
DWSmith: I do completely agree, and I may have been insufficiently clear in qualifying my remarks. Having neglected to do that, I apologize for the ambiguity and would like to be clear that I do not believe that this sort of sexual exploitation of evangelical congregations is typical.
ReplyDeleteI do, however, stand by my disdain for the financial exploitation of congregations by Prosperity Theology ministers. To be fair to the other evangelicals, Prosperity Theology churches are a very small subset of the larger population of evangelical churches. Prosperity Theology is an odd development, and I think it is unlikely that the pastors (most of which use the title "Bishop" for reasons unclear to me) who endeavor into a Prosperity Theology ministry have chosen this particular route for any reason other than to enrich themselves at the expense of their congregations. Again, though, I don't believe this is true of most other evangelical pastors.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments. I agree with you regarding properity theology. The Bible has nothing but condemnatory remarks to be said about those who attempt to mislead others for sordid gain; consistently refering to them as false teachers/false prophets and assuring true believers of their impending judgment (e.g. 2 Pet. 2:1ff).
Thanks again for your clarification.
http://web.archive.org/web/20051220235851/http://www.myfortress.org/bishopeddielong.html
ReplyDeleteI have a hunch that Bishop Eddie Long is UPC (United Pentecostal Church) that was kicked out of the Assemblies of God Church and is the largest non-trinitarian group which means that they wouldn't be Christian.
ReplyDelete