[Vision2020] Interesting Parallels

Wed Sep 29 18:47:13 PDT 2010

This is, of course, a tragedy in a season that has spawned far too many.  And it's a tragedy because he betrayed the Lord, his wife, and his congregation.  It's not more heinous because he evidently did so with guys, although most will see it that way.

I'll say this to anyone who attends a Christian church -- if the pastor, priest, or minister in charge says he speaks for God and that anyone who graciously, prayerfully and passionately challenges him on that point or any other is malicious, causing division, and disobeying God Almighty, there is only one thing for the congregant  to do.

LEAVE.  Get out.  Sound the alarm to those who will listen, pray for those who won't, and make your exit.  The sickness of your former church family can be gauged by the hostility, whether through shunning or outright disrespect, you face from them once you leave it.  Of course, a tip-off to other problems in the church might include little things like requiring congregants to sign a loyalty oath promising never to say anything negative about the church even after terminating membership in it, or restricting congregational meetings to men and only those very few women who themselves are "heads of households," or appointing men to the governing board (elders and deacons, church council, etc.) who are financially dependent on the ministries of the church and its pastor.  

That's not as bad as seduction, adultery, and lying to God or to one's brothers and sisters, but it ain't good, and it IS worth questioning . . . 

Keely
www.keely-prevailingwinds.com

From: deco at moscow.com
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2010 11:31:10 -0700
Subject: [Vision2020] Interesting Parallels

With obvious parallels to our local cult (see 
below):

Wayne A. Fox
1009 Karen Lane
PO Box 9421
Moscow, ID  
83843

waf at moscow.com
208 
882-7975

________________________________________

Bishop Long's 'anointed' path to power at New Birth

By John Blake, CNN

September 28, 2010 1:24 p.m. EDT

New Birth members cheer Bishop Eddie Long Sunday. 
But will they continue to cheer him in the days ahead?

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  Bishop Eddie Long ascension at New Birth raises questions about megachurch 
  culture
  Some New Birth members consider Long "anointed"
  Megachurch culture creates potential for abuse, scholar says
  Religious sociologist on Long: "His ministry is over"
(CNN) -- Jonathan Walton was walking through Bishop Eddie Long's 
church one day when he saw something that disturbed him.
He stared at a 30-foot banner draped behind the pulpit of New Birth 
Missionary Baptist. Church. It displayed a profile of a grinning Long with the 
caption: "What is God up to?"
"Everywhere you went in that church, his name and face was there," says 
Walton, an assistant professor of religion at Harvard Divinity School in 
Massachusetts. "His image has replaced the cross."
Long's image is now under assault. Four young men have filed civil lawsuits 
accusing him of abusing his spiritual authority to coerce them into sexual 
relationships, allegations he has denied in a statement issued by his 
attorney.
While most people focus on the men's allegations, few have paid attention to 
how Long acquired and maintains his authority at New Birth, which has an 
estimated 25,000 members.
Long and New Birth are virtually synonymous.
The 57-year-old pastor has built a devoted following at his church in 
Lithonia, Georgia, by preaching the prosperity gospel, making savvy business 
decisions and through public displays of generosity.
But Long has also talked about ridding his congregation of its deacon board 
during his early years, and by consistently telling his congregation that he 
speaks for God.
Read 
what New Birth congregants say about charges
Long's controversial megachurch 'mentor' 

People come to believe that to turn on him is to not be committed to 
God
--Jonathan Walton, church scholar, describing some of New Birth 
members relationship to Bishop Long 
Long's leadership style at New Birth follows a similar pattern at many 
megachurches (congregations of 2,000 and above). Pastors can acquire so much 
unchecked power that members are afraid to challenge them, says Scott Thumma, 
co-author of "Beyond Megachurch Myths: What We Can Learn from America's Largest 
Churches."
If members of such a megachurch dare to bring any accusations against a 
minister, they are often greeted with hostility by the congregation, says 
Thumma, a religion professor at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research in 
Connecticut.
"If somebody comes and brings an accusation against the pastor, people ask, 
'Who are we going to trust? The person I don't know or the person I've been 
giving 10 percent of my income to for the last eight years?' "
Thumma wrote his dissertation on an Atlanta megachurch near New Birth that 
collapsed after its pastor was caught in a sex scandal that involved his 
brother's wife and many other women. That pastor, Earl Paulk, was a 
"quasi-mentor" to Long, Thumma says. They appeared in public together.
Read more 
stories about faith on CNN'S Belief Blog 
Sarah Posner, author of "God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican 
Crusade for Values Voters," says Long considered Paulk his "spiritual 
father."
Thumma says the problems at Paulk's church festered for years because Paulk 
convinced his congregation that questioning him would be seen as an act of 
rebellion.
Paulk's church, Chapel Hill Harvester Church, once had at least 15,000 
members who worshipped in a soaring cathedral. The church was forced to sell the 
cathedral after its pastor's scandal became public. Paulk died in 2009.
"That church was a sick place and even I didn't know it until after two years 
of studying it," Thumma says.
'He is finished'
Some church scholars wonder if New Birth will suffer the same fate.
On Sunday, New Birth appeared to throw its support behind Long.
New Birth members leapt to their feet to cheer Long as he vowed to fight the 
allegations. Long took to the stage with his wife, Vanessa, and compared himself 
to David fighting Goliath.
"I've got five rocks, and I haven't thrown one yet," Long said.

Video: Bishop Long speaks to 
church

Long during his church appearance did not address the specific allegations 
contained in the four lawsuits filed against him.
Long, in a statement read on a syndicated radio show Thursday, denied the 
allegations. "Let me be clear: The charges against me and New Birth are 
false," the statement said. "I have devoted my life to helping others and these 
false allegations hurt me deeply, but my faith is strong and the truth will 
emerge."
Shayne Lee, a sociology professor at Tulane University in Louisiana, says 
Long had to unequivocally deny the allegations from the pulpit to maintain New 
Birth's support.
"His ministry is over," says Lee, author of "Holy Mavericks: Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual 
Marketplace," which looks at the appeal of celebrity preachers. Lee has 
written extensively about how big business has shaped megachurch pastors.
"What I saw was more lamb than lion," Lee says. "I didn't see the truculent, 
masculine preacher. There should have been some pent up sense of outrage."
Long's demise will take place over time, but it is inevitable, Lee says.
Read 
details about the suits
"I have seen many pastors survive scandals where it was a woman," he says. 
"But it's unprecedented for a leading black evangelical of his reputation to 
survive the taint of same-sex charges."
How Long took charge at New Birth
Long's ascension at New Birth didn't seem likely at first.

His ministry is over.
--Shayne Lee, sociologist, on Bishop Eddie 
Long 

RELATED TOPICS 

  Eddie Long

  Religion

  Civil 
Trials
When he started as a pastor, he was so nervous before preaching that he often 
threw up. He started with 300 members.
When Long arrived at New Birth, he had to consult with a deacon and trustee 
board. Long wrote in his book, "Taking Over," that New Birth's deacon board was 
"gripping the purse strings" of the church, and "telling the man of God when to 
jump and how high."
After the church grew, Long told the congregation that he received a 
revelation from God that New Birth's governing structure was "ungodly," he 
recounted in "Taking Over."
Long said the board relinquished its authority over him with his 
congregation's approval.
"That was the day I became pastor," Long wrote in "Taking Over." "Up until 
that time, I was the hired preacher."
As time went on, Long also embraced a more charismatic approach to ministry 
(charismatics encourage Christians to develop "gifts of the Holy Spirit," such 
as speaking in tongues).
The minister's job wasn't just to preach, Long once said in a profile in the 
Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"A pastor is called to minister to God," he said. "Then God ministers back to 
him the word, and he comes before the people to tell them what God said."
It is not unusual for pastors to portray themselves as vessels of God's 
revelations. Long also, in time, became something else to some of his 
parishioners: "God's anointed," says Lee, the Tulane University professor.
When outsiders would question Long's leadership, New Birth members would 
often cite Psalms 105, verse 15: "Touch not my anointed ones, and do my 
prophets no harm.''
Lee says some charismatic leaders invoke Psalms 105 to discourage 
criticism.
"It's a great scripture to try to keep people from questioning their leader 
and keep them in line," Lee says. "But there's another scripture in Matthew 7: 
'By their fruits ye shall know them.' ''
Walton, the Harvard professor who saw the giant banner of Long behind the 
pulpit, says Long's stature at New Birth as God's anointed inspires fierce 
devotion.
"People come to believe that to turn on him is to not be committed to God," 
Walton says.
Walton 
asks Long: Did you or didn't you?
Marketing a megachurch
There are business reasons, though, for some megachurch pastors to 
consolidate authority in a church, says Thumma, the megachurch scholar.
"It's much easier to market a personality than it is to market a church," 
says Thumma.
Many megachurches are financially dependent on the appeal of a solitary 
pastor, Thumma says. The pastor's sermons, television broadcasts, books and 
tapes -- all bring in the crowds.
As the pastor grows in popularity, though, he loses accountability, Thumma 
says. He or she becomes a celebrity.
"What ends up happening is the authority structure goes from having a church 
with a board of elders who consult and fight over power with the senior pastors 
to one where the pastor has selected people on the board who are more or less 
yes people," Thumma says.
Retaining the loyalty of a congregation, though, is another challenge for a 
megachurch pastor like Long, says the Rev. Gerald Durley, senior pastor of 
Providence Missionary Church in Atlanta.
He says Long can retain New Birth's support if he appears transparent before 
his congregation in the days ahead.
"What people want to see is a certain sense of humility, a certain 'I'm back 
under the will of God and he has appointed me to lead if you trust me.' At that 
point, he can pick and go on and do what God has called him to do."
But if Long doesn't seem sincere, he will suffer, Durley says.
"If he's perceived as manipulative," Durley says, "he's 
finished."

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