Special Report: The Worst Homophobic Churches in America
New Birth Missionary Baptist Church
Lithonia, GA
Bishop Eddie Long, senior pastor
“I’ve been accused. I’m under attack. I want you to know, as I said earlier, I am not a perfect man, but this thing, I’m going to fight.” – Eddie Long on September 26, days after Maurice Robinson, Anthony Flagg, and Jamal Parris filed separate lawsuits in DeKalb County alleging that he used his pastoral influence to coerce them into a sexual relationship with him
Before scandal rocked the very foundation of his life in 2011, Eddie Long – a megachurch preacher with a major strong arm on televangelism and thousands of followers – had no shame in spitting out fireballs at gays and lesbians in his sermons. The Southern Poverty Law Center produced a 2007 report on Long for his proud anti-gay outbursts. “The problem today and the reason why society is like it is, is because men are being feminized and women are becoming masculine,” Long says in one of his popular anti-gay sermons. “You can not say, ‘I was born this way’… I don’t care what scientists say, If you say you were born this way, then you’re saying, ‘God, you’re a liar! And I see this thing down here but I’m going to ignore it!’”
Long continues his rant: “That’s the reason why we got sexual immorality. That’s the reason why there’s a rise in the gay agenda. That is the reason why… Church won’t say nothing — It’s amazing, church folk: ‘Well, I’m gay. Well, ‘Just don’t bother me. Or you can bother me.’ That’s the only statements. You don’t say, ‘and the Lord said.’ You’re out of order. You’ve turned the truth into the lie. You can be converted. You were not born that way! Let me pray with you. Let me tell you, don’t you be conformed to this world. But be ye transformed from the, ‘Well, I don’t know what I am.’ Tell it, take your clothes down, I’ll show you who you are!” Further into the message, he condemns gays to the grave: “God says you deserve death!”
In 2006, Long’s church became the center of attention when the highly-televised funeral of civil rights icon and MLK widow, Coretta Scott King, was displayed there. King’s daughter Bernice King, a former member of New Birth, has marched in anti-gay marches with Long in Atlanta. After the scandal broke, King made a public announcement that she was removing herself from Long’s ministry.
Today, Long remains the presiding pastor, even after he settled out of court with the three young men, including another victim Spencer LaGrande. A fifth unnamed victim, Centino Kemp, was also awarded settlement monies. It has been rumored that the total cost of the final settlement exceeded well over 24.8 million.
Political journalists and black journalists have all asked that Long step down from leadership. Writer Cynthia Tucker wrote in the Atlanta Constitution-Journal that Long was a “homophobe, narcissist and a con artist.” CNN’s Roland Martin wrote that he should “step down immediately. “Long has utterly failed even his own preaching,” he wrote in 2011. “He has stood in the pulpit and demanded accountability of others, but clearly believes a different set of rules applies to him. The Daily Beast even jumped on the story and the apparent problem of homophobia in the black church.
On the other hand, preachers like Bishop T.D. Jakes have defended Long in public. “Christians should just pray,” he told his congregation. “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].”
It is reported that the church’s membership had dwindled down to a few hundred people, but he remains in power. He may have calmed down on his homophobic rhetoric, now knowing that he has admitted to being guilty through his own settlement with the victims, but he is still holding on to his post of power.
