A NEWS BY YAHOOFREESHOP:LITHONIA, GA . – Determined to hold on to the mega-church he built just outside Atlanta, Bishop Eddie L. Long vowed to “vigorously” defend himself against four lawsuits alleging that he used his position to coerce young male members of his flock into sex acts.
Long, an important national figure in African American church circles, took to the pulpit of his sprawling New Birth Missionary Baptist Church Sunday morning and addressed his 25,000-member congregation with defiance and confidence.
“Please hear this: I have been accused. I’m under attack. I want you to know that I am not a perfect man, but this thing I’m gon’ fight,” said Long, who also preached a short sermon on surviving painful times.
“I feel like David against Goliath, but I’ve got five rocks, and I haven’t thrown one yet,” the bishop said to roaring applause as he dropped his microphone on the pulpit with a thud, took his wife Vanessa’s hand and left the stage.
The lawyer for the plaintiffs has also referred to the biblical figures of David and Goliath, but the lawsuits describe Long, 57, as a towering Goliath who manipulated four young men from his church. According to those lawsuits, Long enticed members of the church’s male mentorship program into homosexual acts with jewelry, cars, trips and access to celebrities.
B.J. Bernstein, attorney for the four plaintiffs, declined to comment on Long’s decision to remain head of the church, which sits on a 240-acre campus and has satellite churches in other cities.
