Below is the text of a letter sent to Bishop Eddie Long and his accusers.  The letter was sent September 23, 2010. 

 

Brethren,

 

First, I bring greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is with a heavy heart that I write this letter, for it is dealing with a matter that has been brought to national attention, and has caused many in  the body of Christ to begin taking sides with the men involved, rather than seeking and obeying the truth.  Many in the body have had their attention diverted from Christ and toward these men without regard to the error involved in the handling of this matter.  The Holy Spirit spoke about this issue expressly through the beloved apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 6:1-7:

 

1Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?

   2Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

   3Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

   4If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.

   5I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?

   6But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.

   7Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?

 

When you take this matter to a court of man’s law, you bring the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to an open shame.  Is there not one among a congregation of what is reported to be 25,000 that cannot judge this matter with righteous judgment?  Taking this matter to a worldly court in order to win shows that those among you are not strong enough to take wrong and keep the matter within the spiritual family.  This is not a criminal matter; if it were, then Eddie Long would be subject to the civil authorities and all consequences that accompanied the violation of any law.  Yet, the authorities themselves have acknowledged that no laws have been broken.  If there is no one there that can judge wisely, I know sons of God that can do so, and would lay their lives down to bring this matter to a Godly conclusion.  I would certainly offer to be a part of that solution.

 

Now, we see that all parties are prepared to defend themselves in this worldly court with representation.  Brethren, this is nothing more than self-preservation, which is the exact opposite of what the Lord Jesus Christ demands of us.

 

Luke 9:23 - And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

 

Is obeying the commands of our Lord less important than self-preservation?  Is it truly more important to win than to risk putting the name of Jesus Christ to an open shame? 

 

I am not familiar with the structure of your local fellowship; however, the word of the Lord is clear on how to handle matters involving elders:

 

1 Tim 5:1, 19 - Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren; and Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.

 

If the these men were offended by brother Eddie Long, then the Lord Himself has given specific instruction on how that offense should be handled:

 

Matt. 18:15-17 - Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.  But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

 

If there is any fear among the men in approaching brother Eddie Long in this manner, then they fear man more than they fear God.  If this matter was not addressed according to the manner that the Lord Himself prescribed, I admonish these men to lay aside their agendas and humble themselves, that the word of God be not compromised.  How much more can God be glorified than through your obedience to him and his word? 

 

This national attention that is being brought to the situation is doing damage to the body of Christ.  Must we now defend you brothers as hypocrites? 

 

What shall we say then?  If one party wins, shall it be said that the Lord was with them?  If the other party prevails, should it be said that the Lord fought for them?  Will the Lord then give favor to one of His children and not the other?  The Lord will rejoice in the truth, not in personal victory.  It is the truth that will bring God glory, and nothing else. 

 

Finally, brethren, if it be so that Eddie Long or these young men are overtaken in a fault, again, the Lord gives us specific instructions on how the matter should be handled:

 

Gal. 6:1 - Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

 

Again, is there not any that are spiritual among you that can restore the parties involved?  We are in an age and time where unbelievers will use any method to spread doubt about the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I appeal to you as brethren not to provide them with ammunition.  Our matters can and should be handled within the family of God, and not in the world. 

 

I implore you to remove these matters from a court of man’s law, and handle them in the way that the Lord prescribed in His word.  If Eddie Long has truly done wrong, I am confident that, as a man of God, he will do the honorable thing and take time to heal.  If these charges are false, I am also confident that he will forgive, and help these young men heal.  It is now time to submit ourselves to the true head of the church, and bring order back to the body of Christ at that local fellowship.

 

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with each of you.

 

Ron Mosby

Elder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This may be a moot point, considering how Bishop Long and his accusers have decided to forgo a public trial and submit to private mediation (http://www.theroot.com/buzz/bishop-eddie-long-opts-mediation), but if the young men had wanted to avoid pursuing the matter in secular court, where would they have taken their grievances? Would Bishop Long have made himself subject to the investigation and possible sanction of his members at New Birth?
This is a legal matter because there is a separation between church and state.  If we were in the time of Moses then the law of God's word would be used.  But this is the 21st century.  Maybe we should use the law God gave moses.  Then what would happen to Eddie?  Who would carry out the law?  He has been accused of using his position to persuade gullible young men.  The mega churches are not saying a word.  That alone should tell you something.  The only one who opened his arms to Eddie was Pastor Carlton Pearson.  The same man that the megachurches maligned so very erringly.

This letter is correct in what was asked.

They should have went to him FIRST and if not then they should have went to the courts with the documented evidence of them FIRST trying to speak to him and the leaders of the church.

 

However, we all know church folk only follow the letter of the Word when it comes to condemning someone and money.

Do we know whether they went to him?

WHat would they say when they went to him?  "You had sex with me?   Please saints get real

 

There are people all over the US who knew what was going on and no one could do anything because you do not speak out against the socalled mega preachers

According to Jamal Parris, he and the other two accusers in his lawsuit approached the Bishop privately to confront him about his behavior:

 

"All we wanted to do was talk and just say, 'Help me with this hurt that you caused.' And he had no sense of reverence, guilt, or remorse. So if you are not going to deal with us privately, then you are going to have to sit down publicly, one way or the other. But you are not going to hurt another young man another day in our lives."

 

If Parris is being truthful to Fox News in Atlanta, those three accusers did initially appeal to the model of conflict resolution outlined in Matthew 18. Now, it can be said they didn't follow through by bringing their grievance openly before the church. However, there may be no mechanism for them to do so. Though called a bishop, Long does not appear to be beholden to any organizational authority. What were they supposed to do? Stand up in the middle of a Sunday service and call him out? His adjutants probably would have given them a beat-down.

so true my brother.  I am so tired of this "go to the accuser" mess.  I have confronted people who have abused me and once it wound up in a physical altercation.  People know when they hurt you and many of them do not care

Honestly, I am not believing what Jamal stated. I saw the newscast and I didn't believe one word he was saying. He didn't look believable to me.
One of the dudes broke into the Bishop's office and stole money, jewelry and other things and then returned them. Now, however, he did this AFTER he found out that Bishop had replaced him with another young hottie.

Let's be real here.

Bishop knew what he was doing and these boys knew what they were doing too. If you really sat down and looked at the timeline of how everything went down all these guys were dealing with Bishop at the same time at one point and when they all found out about it they were all upset and decided to get back at him.

I know people want to get emotional and get all upset because the boys were young but let's take our emotion out of this and put this into perspective.

There is enough blame to go all around.

These young men didn't think anything was "wrong" when Bishop was filling their bank accounts with the church money, paying their rent, college tuitions, bough them cars and the hottest clothing this side of heaven so NOW that you realize he is "cheating" on you and you are not his only "tenderoni" why get upset now?

My issue with this whole thing is not Bishop Long's sexuality (I knew the man was gay I mean come on lol who didn't) but my issue is this man took CHURCH MONEY to take care of his harem of boys.

DOES ANYBODY SEE THE BIGGER ISSUE HERE?!

 

the big picture is these young men are getting paid.

And they had NO problem with receiving the financial and material gifts that Long was giving them. It wasn't until one of Long's "boys" found out he was not the only did the rest find out they were not the only one and NOW all of a sudden they want to "claim" molestation and coercion.

Common sense is my guide on this case.

From beginning to end Long was wrong.  I do not care how it came about, unfolded or culminated he was wrong.

I don't think it's an emotional reaction to see these young men as victims... I don't think it means we are being unrealistic about their alleged misbehavior or warped values. These were not Bishop Long's emotional equals... he did not engage in down-low relationships with grown men. He approached 17-year-old boys who didn't have fathers in their lives, through his youth ministry... If they exhibit some of the character traits of prostitutes, doesn't the man who "turned them out" deserve most of the blame?

 

The bigger issue here has always been abuse of power. It is the elephant in the room that most of Bishop Long's apologists refuse to acknowledge. Authority figures--like pastors, teachers and bosses--cannot have legitimately consenting sexual relationships with those under their authority. Coercion is always going to be at the center of such relationships. All the more so when the partner is a teenager.  Do you really believe a 17 year old can give consent to sex with a 50 year old man? If these were young girls, we would just call it statutory rape.

First, I am not excusing Bishop Long at all- he knew exactly what he was doing. However, there wouldn't be a "Bishop Long" if there weren't followers. We want to throw the light on Bishop Long but he wouldn't be who he is and do what he did if he didn't have people laying themselves before him.

Next, these were 16 and 17yr old HOMOSEXUAL young men (being that I doubt you've lived the life of a young homosexual teenager) you honestly are not seeing the TRUTH when it comes to the "give and take" that was going on in this type of situation. Bishop Long didn't "turn" these young men into anything. You know how there are women who go from church to church following preachers and sitting under them trying to have sex with them? There are young men who do the same thing.

Go to any national music convention (especially GMWA) or church convention and they are there.

Abuse of power?!

This wouldn't be an issue if we had people who taught and preached the Word of God as the church is supposed to.

I heard a message one time, "Watch Them Dogs."

The old church taught you what to watch out for and WHO to watch out for- and didn't care how you felt about it.

Lastly, I can't and won't see these young men as victims when they KNOW they were wrong in what they were doing, they know Bishop Long was wrong but they only got upset when they realized they were just one of the "he's" in the pod.

 

 

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