{"id":1796,"date":"2011-06-09T13:32:45","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T17:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcdistrictdiva.com\/?p=1796"},"modified":"2011-06-09T13:32:45","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T17:32:45","slug":"after-creflo-dollar-chooses-long-over-alleged-teen-victims-its-past-time-to-check-our-spiritual-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/after-creflo-dollar-chooses-long-over-alleged-teen-victims-its-past-time-to-check-our-spiritual-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"After Creflo Dollar Chooses Long Over Alleged Teen Victims, It's Past Time to Check Our Spiritual Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.” — 1 Corinthians 5:11<\/em><\/p>\n

When I saw this video<\/a> yesterday of \u00a0Atlanta megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar admonishing the members of Bishop Eddie Long’s church, New Birth Missionary Baptist, for leaving the church after Long settled <\/a><\/em>the\u00a0homosexual misconduct lawsuit against him (for tens of millions of dollars, allegedly), my stomach turned. \u00a0Dollar tells his congregation that Long is his “friend,” and his “friend” just had a “wreck,” and we “Negroes” just left his poor friend to twist in the wind. \u00a0Long, of course, was accused of abusing his role as pastor, using \u00a0money and lavish trips and gifts, in order to coerce young men into sexual activity with him, as a way for the young men to be closer to God.<\/p>\n

The accusations against Long are beyond deplorable. The fact that he settled this lawsuit instead of fighting to save his good name, like he promised<\/a> his congregation he would — and refuses to release any details about the settlement — is enough to make anyone suspicious. \u00a0As CNN’s Roland Martin wrote<\/a>, “No, Bishop Long,” we cannot just move on with no explanation and pretend like none of this happened.<\/p>\n

But what is just as sickening is the fact that Dollar would admonish people for not sticking by Long (like a good, abused wife should do). \u00a0Not only is this perverted thinking, it is not biblical. Here is what the BIBLE says about what one needs to be a bishop:<\/p>\n

1 Timothy 3<\/h4>\n

1<\/sup>This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.<\/p>\n

2<\/sup>A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;<\/p>\n

3<\/sup>Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;<\/p>\n

4<\/sup>One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;<\/p>\n

5<\/sup>(For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)<\/p>\n

6<\/sup>Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.<\/p>\n

7<\/sup>Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.<\/p>\n

Bishop Long has to go. By settling the lawsuit without explanation and leaving no “good report of them who are without” one, he no longer qualifies to be a bishop or lead a flock. \u00a0Instead, he serves as a stumbling block to those who do not yet know Christ.<\/p>\n

I have no authority to say that Long will never again<\/em> qualify to preach or be a pastor, as Dollar suggests that Long’s critics are saying. \u00a0I’m saying Long needs to step down and seek serious therapy and spiritual counseling for whatever is ailing him. He should submit to the authority of another pastor, or the Baptist convention — someone — who can be in prayer with him and discern whether he is spiritually able to return to the pulpit. He should not return to the pulpit a minute before that.<\/p>\n

This is not an issue of forgiveness — all have sinned, all will continue to sin every day. This is about being in a trusted leadership position over the spiritual lives of other people. \u00a0As James 3:1<\/a> says: \u00a0“Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” \u00a0I think it’s safe to say that child abusers should be among those “many” who should not become teachers. But beyond that, there should be an understanding amongst preachers and their congregants that pastors\/preachers\/spiritual authority figures are held to a higher standard — because THEY HAVE TO BE! And with that higher standard, comes higher consequences when you fall as extremely short as Long is alleged to have fallen.<\/p>\n

This is not a “wreck.” \u00a0These are lives of young men whose spiritual life may very well be derailed because of the extreme alleged violations of their trusted pastor. \u00a0These are single mothers who trusted their sons to this pastor, hoping he would be a good father figure for them. These are people all over the world who are looking on, wanting to know who Christ is and being turned off by the outrageous example being set by Long and Dollar. This is disgusting.<\/p>\n

Christians, we need to wake-up! \u00a0Not only do we need to call out other people’s leaders, like Long, when this sort of abuse is alleged, but we also need to check our own spiritual leadership, as well! How will we know if our leaders are not practicing what is biblical if we are not reading the Bible for ourselves? Though we shouldn’t need the Bible to tell us that abuse is wrong, we seem to need it to tell us that there are pastors out there who are not following God’s will. (Lamentations 2:14<\/a>;\u00a0Ezekiel 22:28<\/a>;\u00a0Matthew 7:15-23<\/a>;\u00a0Matthew 24:24<\/a>)<\/p>\n

We serve God, we serve CHRIST, and our allegiance is to Him, not any pastors who are acting of their own accord and operating outside of the will of God. \u00a0Read your Bible! Develop your spiritual relationship with Christ for yourself so that it won’t be shaken when your human pastor messes up, or worse, does something as despicable as Long is alleged to have done and Dollar is doing. Pray for discernment so that you may never be caught sitting under unholy leadership.<\/p>\n

Shame on Long for settling if he is innocent and remaining in the pulpit if he’s not; shame on Dollar for admitting Long was wrong but excusing it as just a “wreck” that should be defended; and shame on every member of Dollar’s church who applauded and agreed with him as he spoke. We’ve got to do better. The Kingdom of God is at hand.<\/p>\n

DCDistrictDiva.com is up for THREE BLACK WEBLOG AWARDS!! Vote DCDistrictDiva.com \u201cBest Faith-Based Blog,\u201d \u201cBest Personal Blog\u201d and The Prototype Series \u201cBest Blog Post Series\u201d\u00a0HERE<\/a>!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.” — 1 Corinthians 5:11 When I saw this<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21],"tags":[767,844,862,989],"class_list":["post-1796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-absence-of-christ","tag-rebuke","tag-sexual-misconduct","tag-smh","tag-unholy-leadership"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7nB6F-sY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}