IS THERE A PREDATOR IN THE PULPIT?

I have no idea whether Bishop Eddie Long of Atlanta, Georgia is guilty or innocent of allegations that he groomed young boys in his Longfellow Youth Academy program and eventually manipulated them into having sex with him. The boys had reportedly reached the age of consent when the sexual conduct supposedly occurred, so no criminal investigation will be held. Nevertheless, after hearing descriptions of Bishop Long's alleged methods of operation, if they are true, then members of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church should know that they've got a predator in their pulpit.

It's understandable that members of the New Birth congregation would be stunned by the allegations made against their Pastor. Equally understandable is the decision by many of those congregants to reject the allegations outright and stand wholeheartedly behind Bishop Long. After all, Bishop Long is a widely loved preacher, and nobody wants to believe that a man of the cloth, a person in whom they've placed their deepest trust, would betray that trust and commit predatory acts against young members of their congregation.

It does happen though, and members of the New Birth congregation would be well-advised to take a long, hard look at both the substance of the allegations and Bishop Long's responses to those allegations before rendering a final judgment on the matter. Many a preacher has used the pulpit as a cloak to hide their personal transgressions, and a congregation invites a far greater crisis of faith by automatically dismissing charges of improper behavior leveled against a pastor, even a beloved pastor, simply because the pastor is supposed to be a man of God.

Jim Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggert and Tony Alamo are the first who come to mind when I think of sexual misdeeds of so-called men of the cloth, but any Catholic in this country can probably whip off the name of some priest in their diocese who was charged with sexual misconduct, and many in other denominations can do the same. All of those men had several things in common, besides their sexual transgressions. They all railed in the pulpit against the very type of conduct they were committing in private. They all used their position of authority to accomplish and conceal their acts. They were all loved by their congregations. They all initially denied the allegations of their misconduct and their denials were believed by many of their followers.

Whether Bishop Eddie Long finds himself walking in the footsteps of the formerly disgraced men of the cloth, or reveling in the comfort of the vindicated, remains to be seen. What is certain is that the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church faces a difficult challenge in days and months ahead, and I wish them well on their journey. They have my prayers.