(ThyBlackMan.com) One of the top stories at my station this morning was the story of a Pastor, recently released from prison on sexual assault charges of two young girls, returning to the pulpit. The man is a registered sex offender. Children who attend his services are sent to another building as the pastor can not have any contact with them. Even with the precautions in place the story disgusted me. After watching and reading through it the first time, and then over and over again all morning, I just started to wonder why were people at the pastor’s new church taking up for him. They were belligerent that the reporter at my station was even doing the story. The nerve of us for wondering why a registered sex offender is allowed to preach from the good book.
I know. I know. I know. Let he without sin cast the first stone. I’m not trying to judge the pastor I’m just trying to understand why in a society where Jerry Sandusky’s name will be marred for the rest of his life how is it a small time Jacksonville, Florida pastor is able to escape his local public’s wrath unscathed. Even on a larger scale how is it preacher’s and pastors in the public eye — as pillars of their community — seem to never get dirty, never get messy, even though from the knee down their covered in the doo.
Just last week Georgia’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church pastor Eddie Long was crowned a King. The man who settled out of court with four men who said they were assaulted by their spiritual father was wrapped in a tallis, lifted on high in his throne like chair and exalted as if he were Christ the Redeemer himself. I know Jesus got mad. He had a fit in the church. But never did he ever anywhere in the Bible come into questionable contact with any of his flock; young or old male or female (Davinci Code theorists let me have this.)
[youtube AVkoQHCXSK8]
Someone please explain the above blasphemy to me.
Michael Jackson went to his grave with many believing in their heart of hearts the King of Pop was a boy booty toucher, yet a pastor whose influence is almost as pervasive as the man in mirror can settle out of court and be crowned King by another religious group. Is that what makes religious royalty these days: catching a case? Excuse me while I lose grip on my New King James.
And the local pastor in my area and Bishop Eddie Long are not alone in their exaltation and being fiercely defended.
The Catholic Church is still reeling from the sex abuse scandal that began being revealed in the 1980?s. While Pope John Paul II did little to address the scandal before his death in 2005, Pope Benedict XVI has been on an apology tour. But the amends stop at an apology. Instead the Catholic Church to which I was baptised and raised in has busied itself with the new translation of mass and the constant mysteries revealed or not in the Bible, Dan Brown Books, and the Vatican’s own hidden coves.
Yet church scandals go beyond sex abuse and sex assault.
Prophetess Juanita Bynum and her ex-husband preacher Thomas W. Weeks III got into a huge argument in 2007 during their divorce. Bynum was beat up. No charges were filed. Weeks re-married and Bynum went about doing God’s work. The domestic dispute was a hot topic for a few days before being dismissed as old God gossip. However, Chris Brown and Rihanna can’t even tweet each other without someone somewhere rolling their neck and popping their gun to the tune of ” She better not get back with him. She stupid if she does.” Where was all this self-righteous contempt toward the preacher who beat the prophetess?
No really. Where was it?
Going further still, Tammy Faye is more remembered for her false eyelashes and painful death than she is for her two marriages to a televangelist and his fixer. Faye’s first marriage ended after Jim Bakker was sent to prison after allegations his church and company paid off a woman accusing Bakker of sexual assault. Tammy Faye’s second marriage ended after investigations into the fraud case stemming from Faye’s first marriage showed her second husband Roe Messner to be deeply involved in the fraudulent finances of Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker’s once gold mine of a Christian brand.
These scandals are just a few that have rocked mega churches and small churches in our country and around the world. While people get over the deeds of the people of the cloth, Wall Street financiers like Bernie Madoff are serving more than life sentences for cheating Americans out of a white picket dream. (word to Solange)
If Madoff, Sandusky and M.J. to an extent deserved to be demonized to the ninth layer center of hell than so do priests, preachers and pastors who abuse their power.
Why convict one in both the court of public opinion and sometimes in court and not the other? Why allow “God’s messengers” off the hook but continue to lynch those not called to the cloth? Do priests, preachers and pastors get a pass when waiting in line to ascend into heaven and sit at the right hand of the father? Are their sins weighed with lesser value than those of us common folks who just happen to live and work and sometimes make bad decisions? Is theirs a salvation we the regular people of God’s kingdom can’t come to know because we didn’t study hard enough to deliver the Blood.
Am I missing something in my walk with Christ? Am I not privy to the particular treatment of those that deliver the word in the eyes of the King of Jews?
What gives?
How is it man made in His image can’t see the crimson stain on the flesh of the anointed?
Or is the free pass, the pass go card, the quick forgiveness of all wrongdoings and eager mercy for future transgressions just another symbol of why it is better to hold fast to the trinity than it is to the pomp and circumstance of dogma?
[youtube 1IAhDGYlpqY]
Why do you think church leaders are forgiven quickly?
Staff Writer; Nikesha Leeper
To connect with this sister feel free to visit; Change Comes Slow.
Great & relevant article here. It is very important & good that people are looking at these occurrences & laying them out for discussion. My main comment is only that in my personal associations I have been somewhat or received something of an education on “Church folk” It came when I decided to date someone of the cloth at a rather young age. Well when we got to a moment of intimacy this person pulls out poppers. I know bad enough the intimacy was of that nature but add ..drugs??? This person was a minister of Pentecostal background. I will never forget the inner shock when I was offered a hit of poppers by the pastor which incidentally I actually declined. The point is that day I knew God had meant for me to walk away with an adults mind as opposed to an immature mind. I realized these folks are no more than human as we all are, what I realize that I want to share with everyone here today is the idea Jesus Yeshua taught about the nature of “faith” it is not so much that folks “get away” with anything. But the notion of faith indicates that it is our OWN “faith” that carries us through any crisis not so much as it is God picking and choosing “favorites” it is more about what we “take” from God than it is about what God “grants” to us. For instance I do something that makes another person question my degree of say “holiness”
It might appear that I have gotten over but in actuality it is my degree of how I see my God..seeing me that makes or breaks how I “come through it”
The thing about celebrities & their trials vs a person of the cloth or a holy roller’s public trial…well for the most part the general public’s eye is on the celebrity & NOT as much on a person of the cloth. SO the public will be more engaged with the “raking over the coals” of a celebrity over a minister. A celebrity is basically ALWAYS in the public eye we “know” them vs. a Preacher who “becomes” famous for his/her shortcomings…still we don’t really care as much about them because, one, we just aint really trying to be religious like that & two we just don’t “KNOW” them like that! They aren’t getting any “real” pass per se they just don’t “register” or “rank” as high on the general public chart. Remember for the most part our entertainment industry is by design “entertaining” light, trivial, day to day over coffee chatter it isn’t meant to be “heavy” talk about religion in general and now we have entered the “heavy” status. this is just my opinion. But speaking of Bishop Long particularly…well just look at the man’s face esp. during his “King-ing” ceremony! This man does NOT look to be the picture of “Ooh I done got over on my Bishop pass again!” Honestly none of us “get a pass when it comes to our own conscious… which is fitting bcuz that it where the “kingdom” lies to begin with isn’t that what Yeshua said? My “education” which I spoke of earlier just ultimately leads me to this…Let’s just pray for one another dudes…Hey it makes God Happy, it blesses us & keeps us from judging others when we “do the same things” as the scripture actually states it just that way. We judge only when we DO THE SAME THINGS …somebody PLEASE read Romans 2:1 even if you never read a Bible again. I say this because that ONE verse when I Re-read what it is saying??? put it to you this way it’s one of those things that make you wanna drop to your knees and praise God why? because He reads us & knows us like a book & that particular scripture when I actually saw that there was no question involved but a STATEMENT ..not “when” or “if” you do the same things it’s more like you DO do the SAME THINGS…as those you judge!!???!!! It still goes almost beyond my comprehension what this one verse is implying …yet somehow my deeper self is like…You know EXACTLY what that scripture is saying so just quit with the judging already why cuz bottom line you did it else you would NOT even know what “it” is.
Mack: true I was referring to Europe’s kings.
Allah: Most kings in the past were NOT gay. You must be referring to the ones from Europe and the present day Arab states. African and Moorish kings were the epitome of manhood who would rather die than give up their masculinity; not to mention the kings from other parts of the world. And for the UMPTEENTH time:
King James didn’t WRITE the bible. He simply authorized it’s translation into modern English from it’s original text written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Chaldean and Greek. But maybe you didn’t know: the Quran was first translated into English by Christian white men. Now there’s food for thought…
Nikesha:
Not all pastors get a pass. Just the ones with deep political connections and a stranglehold on the minds of their church members. Eddie Long and New Birth have turned into little more than a Christian cult. People have left the teachings of Christ and created their own religions based on His Name. So when they should be worshiping God they worship their pastor instead. Nothing new. All this mess must come to a head before it can be cleaned up properly.
Most kings in the past were gay. King James appointed men to write his version of the hebrew bible. He was also homosexual. Hale King Long!!!!!!!
@DG I didn’t forget R. Kelly. I got to the end of the article and realized I hadn’t mentioned him and then didn’t know where to insert him. As one of my favorite blogs said about Kells, you love his music you just hate the messenger.
I’m disgusted by the whole crowning him a king no matter what he may or may not have done. That just isn’t right.
But as for Michael Jackson he didn’t deserve what happened to him.
The suicide of the accusers father says that to me.
Great article. However don’t forget R. Kelly. He has been given a clear pass, along with other celebrities. But to your point. I believe church leaders should be held to higher accountability not lower accountability.
Folks are lost when you crown a pastor a king. Where in the bible is that?