(ThyBlackMan.com) Some have been waiting for Bishop T.D. Jakes to speak up on the scandal involving the other southern megapastor down the road, Bishop Eddie Long. Jakes recently commented on the case, stating that Christians should simply pray for Bishop Long because they don’t have the right to do much of anything else.
Long was accused of sexual coercion by four young men in his care at New
At The Potter’s House in Dallas, Jakes said “Christians should just pray,” for Long. “When all this is over, one thing is for sure – somebody, if not everybody in it, is going to need the blood [of Jesus Christ].”
Not only does Jakes say that Christians should pray for Long, he says that they don’t have the authority to do anything else.
Courtesy of; ChristianPost.com
“We have no other authority but to pray,” he said. “The New Birth church is a church unto itself who has a board and it has a membership. How they choose to handle their leadership issues it’s not something that we can control regardless of which side you stay on that issue. It is their church issue and their responsibility and their response.”
How convenient that Bishop Long would avoid supporting his friend, who might be a gay child molester, but would support his right to handle the situation in his way. With Bishop Jakes’ remarks, in conjunction with those of Creflo Dollar, we are finding that friendship can go much deeper than doing the right thing when it comes to protecting our colleagues.
I wish I could be more diplomatic when discussing the remarks of Bishop Jakes, who is a man I could end up meeting at some point in the near future. But when it comes to protecting young children, I simply cannot allow any of us to skirt around the issue. I can’t imagine anyone who stands firmly behind the legacy of Jesus Christ to simply overlook the idea that an alleged man of god might be harming young children who’ve been wired to trust him.
While Bishop Jakes stops short of either endorsing or condemning Long, he certainly appears to be protecting him. A pastor who also happens to be an expert at Church organizational structure commented to me that one of the great problems of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church is that, for far too long, it was a shop that was run and controlled by Bishop Eddie Long. Board members existed, but few would stand in defiance of a pastor who’d made his own name bigger than that of his church. As a result, allowing this very serious sexual coercion issue to be handled by the board behind closed doors is like allowing an accused criminal to be judged by his own family.
I don’t trust that the board at New Birth has the ability to protect the children in that church, because I fully suspect that Bishop Long’s behavior was allowed to continue due to the presence of silent enablers of his egregious activity. I also interpret the remarks of T.D. Jakes and Creflo Dollar to be part of a concerted strategy to support their friend without running into criticism from their own congregations. The reality, however, is that there are moments in our lives when we must ask ourselves the simple question, “What would Jesus do?”
Personally, I don’t believe Jesus would protect a man accused of sexually abusing children in the church, even if he lost his Rolls Royce in the process. I encourage Jakes and Dollar to do the right thing and speak up on behalf of those poor boys who may have been perpetually damaged by the man they trusted with their lives. These allegations, which are not being publicly refuted by Long, are simply unforgivable.
Staff Writer; Dr. Boyce Watkins
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. For more information, please visit http://BoyceWatkins.com.
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Jakes and Eddie Longstroke are one of the same, except Jakes has not preyed on under age boys that we know of.
Wish these men of the "cloth" would come out of the DL closet, and be who they are.
Jakes has done more than pray for Eddie Long. He was a speaker at New Birth's Focus 2011 conference in March 2011. His attendance at that event, which included an embrace of Long as he took the stage, is an endorsement and he knows it! He had no problem condemning Franklin Graham or Carlton Pearson, but he tells us to just pray about Long. Really? He's Eddie Long's spiritual father and pastor to thousands of fathers, sons and single mothers, and that's the best he can come up with? Really???
Jakes needs to stop having Leadership and ManPower conferences if he's unable or unwilling to deal with issues like this. If you don't approve of Long's behavior, stop participating in New Birth events until Long steps down. If you approve, have the balls to put it on the line like Creflo! Bishop, your lack of outrage and courage to speak out is disappointing and embarrassing.
I agree with what you pointed out. TD was accused of some of his own scandal not too long ago anyway...wow I just think these men should be standing up for the victims not the victimizers. Also I think that many of these women that make up the majority of these church congregations are some of the most ardent supporters of these false teachers. Unfortunately many of these preachers get away with a lot of the heinous acts they do because of the lack of objective strong men in the church. Men that are not afraid to hold other men and women in leadership accountable for their actions. Many of the men that make up the church are out numbered and out ranked by the status quo leadership in the church. Men are the minority in many of these churches and do little to balance the tide of support by the ardent single women that seek strong male leadership in their lives. Thus they get fleeced like sheep.