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<DIV><FONT size=2>With obvious parallels to our local cult (see
below):</FONT></DIV><FONT size=2>
<DIV><BR>Wayne A. Fox<BR>1009 Karen Lane<BR>PO Box 9421<BR>Moscow, ID
83843</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="mailto:waf@moscow.com">waf@moscow.com</A><BR>208
882-7975<BR></DIV>
<DIV>________________________________________</DIV>
<DIV>
<H1>Bishop Long's 'anointed' path to power at New Birth</H1><!--startclickprintexclude--><!--endclickprintexclude-->
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<DIV class=cnnByline>By<B> John Blake,</B> CNN
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<SCRIPT type=text/javascript>if(location.hostname.indexOf( 'edition.' ) > -1) {document.write('September 28, 2010 -- Updated 1724 GMT (0124 HKT)');} else {document.write('September 28, 2010 1:24 p.m. EDT');}</SCRIPT>
September 28, 2010 1:24 p.m. EDT</DIV></DIV><!--endclickprintinclude--><!-- google_ad_section_end -->
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<DIV class=cnn_stryimg640captioned><!--===========IMAGE============--><IMG
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alt="New Birth members cheer Bishop Eddie Long Sunday. But will they continue to cheer him in the days ahead?"
src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/LIVING/09/28/long.new.birth/t1larg.newbirth.gi.jpg"
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<DIV class=cnn_strycaptiontxt>New Birth members cheer Bishop Eddie Long Sunday.
But will they continue to cheer him in the days ahead?</DIV></DIV><!--===========/CAPTION=========--><!--endclickprintexclude--><!-- /REAP -->
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<DIV><B>STORY HIGHLIGHTS</B></DIV>
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<LI>Bishop Eddie Long ascension at New Birth raises questions about megachurch
culture</LI>
<LI>Some New Birth members consider Long "anointed"</LI>
<LI>Megachurch culture creates potential for abuse, scholar says</LI>
<LI>Religious sociologist on Long: "His ministry is over"</LI><!-- google_ad_section_end --></UL></DIV></DIV>
<P><B>(CNN)</B> -- Jonathan Walton was walking through Bishop Eddie Long's
church one day when he saw something that disturbed him.</P>
<P>He stared at a 30-foot banner draped behind the pulpit of New Birth
Missionary Baptist. Church. It displayed a profile of a grinning Long with the
caption: "What is God up to?"</P>
<P>"Everywhere you went in that church, his name and face was there," says
Walton, an assistant professor of religion at Harvard Divinity School in
Massachusetts. "His image has replaced the cross."</P>
<P>Long's image is now under assault. Four young men have filed civil lawsuits
accusing him of abusing his spiritual authority to coerce them into sexual
relationships, allegations he has denied in a statement issued by his
attorney.</P>
<P>While most people focus on the men's allegations, few have paid attention to
how Long acquired and maintains his authority at New Birth, which has an
estimated 25,000 members.</P>
<P>Long and New Birth are virtually synonymous.</P>
<P>The 57-year-old pastor has built a devoted following at his church in
Lithonia, Georgia, by preaching the prosperity gospel, making savvy business
decisions and through public displays of generosity.</P>
<P>But Long has also talked about ridding his congregation of its deacon board
during his early years, and by consistently telling his congregation that he
speaks for God.</P>
<P><A
href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/09/26/georgia.pastor.sex.charges/index.html/">Read
what New Birth congregants say about charges</A></P>
<P><B>Long's controversial megachurch 'mentor' </B></P><!--startclickprintexclude-->
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<DIV>People come to believe that to turn on him is to not be committed to
God<BR><SPAN>--Jonathan Walton, church scholar, describing some of New Birth
members relationship to Bishop Long</SPAN> </DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><!--endclickprintexclude-->
<P>Long's leadership style at New Birth follows a similar pattern at many
megachurches (congregations of 2,000 and above). Pastors can acquire so much
unchecked power that members are afraid to challenge them, says Scott Thumma,
co-author of <A class=cnnInlineTopic href="http://www.megachurchmyths.com/"
target=new>"Beyond Megachurch Myths: What We Can Learn from America's Largest
Churches</A>."</P>
<P>If members of such a megachurch dare to bring any accusations against a
minister, they are often greeted with hostility by the congregation, says
Thumma, a religion professor at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research in
Connecticut.</P>
<P>"If somebody comes and brings an accusation against the pastor, people ask,
'Who are we going to trust? The person I don't know or the person I've been
giving 10 percent of my income to for the last eight years?' "</P>
<P>Thumma wrote his dissertation on an Atlanta megachurch near New Birth that
collapsed after its pastor was caught in a sex scandal that involved his
brother's wife and many other women. That pastor, Earl Paulk, was a
"quasi-mentor" to Long, Thumma says. They appeared in public together.</P>
<P><A class=cnnInlineTopic href="http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/">Read more
stories about faith on CNN'S Belief Blog</A> </P>
<P>Sarah Posner, author of "God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican
Crusade for Values Voters," says Long considered Paulk his "spiritual
father."</P>
<P>Thumma says the problems at Paulk's church festered for years because Paulk
convinced his congregation that questioning him would be seen as an act of
rebellion.</P>
<P>Paulk's church, Chapel Hill Harvester Church, once had at least 15,000
members who worshipped in a soaring cathedral. The church was forced to sell the
cathedral after its pastor's scandal became public. Paulk died in 2009.</P>
<P>"That church was a sick place and even I didn't know it until after two years
of studying it," Thumma says.</P>
<P><B>'He is finished'</B></P>
<P>Some church scholars wonder if New Birth will suffer the same fate.</P>
<P>On Sunday, New Birth appeared to throw its support behind Long.</P>
<P>New Birth members leapt to their feet to cheer Long as he vowed to fight the
allegations. Long took to the stage with his wife, Vanessa, and compared himself
to David fighting Goliath.</P>
<P>"I've got five rocks, and I haven't thrown one yet," Long said.</P><!--startclickprintexclude-->
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church</SPAN></CITE>
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<P>Long during his church appearance did not address the specific allegations
contained in the four lawsuits filed against him.</P>
<P>Long, in a statement read on a syndicated radio show Thursday, denied the
allegations.<B> </B>"Let me be clear: The charges against me and New Birth are
false," the statement said. "I have devoted my life to helping others and these
false allegations hurt me deeply, but my faith is strong and the truth will
emerge."</P>
<P>Shayne Lee, a sociology professor at Tulane University in Louisiana, says
Long had to unequivocally deny the allegations from the pulpit to maintain New
Birth's support.</P>
<P>"His ministry is over," says Lee, author of <A class=cnnInlineTopic
href="http://www.nyupress.org/books/Holy_Mavericks-products_id-7980.html"
target=new>"Holy Mavericks: Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual
Marketplace,"</A> which looks at the appeal of celebrity preachers. Lee has
written extensively about how big business has shaped megachurch pastors.</P>
<P>"What I saw was more lamb than lion," Lee says. "I didn't see the truculent,
masculine preacher. There should have been some pent up sense of outrage."</P>
<P>Long's demise will take place over time, but it is inevitable, Lee says.</P>
<P><A class=cnnInlineTopic
href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/09/24/georgia.pastor.lawsuit/index.html?hpt=T1">Read
details about the suits</A></P>
<P>"I have seen many pastors survive scandals where it was a woman," he says.
"But it's unprecedented for a leading black evangelical of his reputation to
survive the taint of same-sex charges."</P>
<P><B>How Long took charge at New Birth</B></P>
<P>Long's ascension at New Birth didn't seem likely at first.</P><!--startclickprintexclude-->
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<DIV>His ministry is over.<BR><SPAN>--Shayne Lee, sociologist, on Bishop Eddie
Long</SPAN> </DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV><B>RELATED TOPICS</B> </DIV>
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<LI>
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cnnRelatedTopicKeys.push('Eddie_Long');
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<A href="http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Eddie_Long">Eddie Long</A></LI>
<LI>
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cnnRelatedTopicKeys.push('Religion');
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<A href="http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Religion">Religion</A></LI>
<LI>
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cnnRelatedTopicKeys.push('Civil_Trials');
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<A href="http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Civil_Trials">Civil
Trials</A></LI></UL></DIV></DIV><!--endclickprintexclude-->
<P>When he started as a pastor, he was so nervous before preaching that he often
threw up. He started with 300 members.</P>
<P>When Long arrived at New Birth, he had to consult with a deacon and trustee
board. Long wrote in his book, "Taking Over," that New Birth's deacon board was
"gripping the purse strings" of the church, and "telling the man of God when to
jump and how high."</P>
<P>After the church grew, Long told the congregation that he received a
revelation from God that New Birth's governing structure was "ungodly," he
recounted in "Taking Over."</P>
<P>Long said the board relinquished its authority over him with his
congregation's approval.</P>
<P>"That was the day I became pastor," Long wrote in "Taking Over." "Up until
that time, I was the hired preacher."</P>
<P>As time went on, Long also embraced a more charismatic approach to ministry
(charismatics encourage Christians to develop "gifts of the Holy Spirit," such
as speaking in tongues).</P>
<P>The minister's job wasn't just to preach, Long once said in a profile in the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution.</P>
<P>"A pastor is called to minister to God," he said. "Then God ministers back to
him the word, and he comes before the people to tell them what God said."</P>
<P>It is not unusual for pastors to portray themselves as vessels of God's
revelations. Long also, in time, became something else to some of his
parishioners: "God's anointed," says Lee, the Tulane University professor.</P>
<P>When outsiders would question Long's leadership, New Birth members would
often cite Psalms 105, verse 15<B>:</B> "Touch not my anointed ones, and do my
prophets no harm.''</P>
<P>Lee says some charismatic leaders invoke Psalms 105 to discourage
criticism.</P>
<P>"It's a great scripture to try to keep people from questioning their leader
and keep them in line," Lee says. "But there's another scripture in Matthew 7:
'By their fruits ye shall know them.' ''</P>
<P>Walton, the Harvard professor who saw the giant banner of Long behind the
pulpit, says Long's stature at New Birth as God's anointed inspires fierce
devotion.</P>
<P>"People come to believe that to turn on him is to not be committed to God,"
Walton says.</P>
<P><A href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/27/walton.bishop.long/">Walton
asks Long: Did you or didn't you?</A></P>
<P><B>Marketing a megachurch</B></P>
<P>There are business reasons, though, for some megachurch pastors to
consolidate authority in a church, says Thumma, the megachurch scholar.</P>
<P>"It's much easier to market a personality than it is to market a church,"
says Thumma.</P>
<P>Many megachurches are financially dependent on the appeal of a solitary
pastor, Thumma says. The pastor's sermons, television broadcasts, books and
tapes -- all bring in the crowds.</P>
<P>As the pastor grows in popularity, though, he loses accountability, Thumma
says. He or she becomes a celebrity.</P>
<P>"What ends up happening is the authority structure goes from having a church
with a board of elders who consult and fight over power with the senior pastors
to one where the pastor has selected people on the board who are more or less
yes people," Thumma says.</P>
<P>Retaining the loyalty of a congregation, though, is another challenge for a
megachurch pastor like Long, says the Rev. Gerald Durley, senior pastor of
Providence Missionary Church in Atlanta.</P>
<P>He says Long can retain New Birth's support if he appears transparent before
his congregation in the days ahead.</P>
<P>"What people want to see is a certain sense of humility, a certain 'I'm back
under the will of God and he has appointed me to lead if you trust me.' At that
point, he can pick and go on and do what God has called him to do."</P>
<P>But if Long doesn't seem sincere, he will suffer, Durley says.</P>
<P class=cnnInline>"If he's perceived as manipulative," Durley says, "he's
finished."</P></DIV></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>