Bishop Eddie Long is the senior clergyman at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Georgia (approximately 25 000 members) and a successful proponent of the Prosperity Gospel. Unsurprisingly he has joined a very long list of ministers and televangelists by (September 2010) facing accusations of coercing young men into sexual activity. Long has responded by vowing to fight his accusers, describing his problem as “spiritual warfare” and comparing himself to David in David vs. Goliath (“I'm not a perfect man but this thing I'm going to fight. I feel like David against Goliath but I've got five rocks and I haven't thrown one of them yet”). “Gospel Today” has taken up the fight (Long is on the board of directors, but the publisher denies that Long has influenced their presentation).
Diagnosis: Bigotry, charlatanery and pure evil alone do not grant you an entry in the encyclopedia, but being a proponent of the prosperity gospel does, at least insofar as you actually believe what you preach (I have no evidence that Long does not). And Long’s responses to the allegations made against him are utterly bizarre. Hopefully this episode will undermine his status among his relatively significant number of fans.
You can find an update on the legal proceedings here.
ReplyDeleteI have a few idea entries for American Loons:
ReplyDeleteMichele Malkin
Brent Bozell
Rick Perry
Christine O'Donnel
O'Donnell will appear for sure, and there is no doubt Perry is a loon. Though the political stance of the authors may sometimes shine through, we wish to remain politically neutral - to qualify for an entry you'd have to be a science denialist, crackpot or generally exhibit easily discernible poor critical thinking skills (religious fundamentalists generally turn out to be very good at all three). We've considered Malkin, and currently find it hard to take her down without going into politics (maybe you have some pointers?). We missed Bozell when we passed the letter "B", and will try to make amends next round.
ReplyDeleteAnother update on Long. He appears not to be doing so well.
ReplyDeleteOh, never mind. Long was just recently crowned king according to Hebrew scriptures. I guess that makes all of our criticisms obsolete.
ReplyDeletePoor Eddie Long. His troubles never seem to end.
ReplyDelete