The pastor of New Birth Christian church in Atlanta Georgia, Bishop Eddie L. Long, has been accused of having sexual realtions with multiple young men. These alligations came out to the public in late September. Bishop Eddie Long has been preaching at New Birth Christian Church for over 10 years and has gained many faithful members and followers in his congregation. The young me alleged that Bishop Long took them on trips and put them up in fancy hotels under various aliases, bought them expensive gifts, and introduced them to infamous people (such as Tyler Perry) in exchange for sexual favors. Although the allegations never hinted towards sexual assault some of the boys were minors when they first started having these relations with the bishop.
Of course, living in the 21st century, I got wind of this issue through Twitter. People had turned Eddie Long into a trending topic and the news spread like wild fire. Some people were shocked and appalled that a “man of God” would even do such a thing and other people, such as comedian ‘Lil Duval’, made jokes about the situation. Regardless of how the message was conveyed, it was definitelyspread throughout the Twitter nation.
When allegations were first released to the media Bishop Eddie Long would not comment on anything. He just simply continued to tell the press that his lawyers suggested that he not say anything at the time. Heading closer into Sunday morning throughout the week the question was if Bishop Long would speak out to his congregation on Sunday morning. There were many speculations that he would have a guest speaker and not even show up to address the people of New Birth, but to much surprise he announced to the public that he would in fact be speaking on Sunday morning.
From a public relations stand point I believe that Bishop Long’s speech to his congregation was horrible. First, instead of holding a separate press conference with the different news stations, he allowed the media to come into his church and film his message. So, although he blocked his normal Sunday morning UStream from his website everyone got to hear what Bishop Long said to his congregation on that Sunday. By allowing the media to invade someones place of worship is simply disrespectful and he came off inconsiderate. Secondly, because the media was there it was obvious that Bishop Long’s speech was very rehearsed and very impersonal. These are people that look to Eddie Long for guidance and counseling and peace of mind and he gave them a dry, rehearsed, cold speech.
I believe that the way the issue was addressed was unprofessional and rude. I believe that because Bishop Eddie Long does have such a strong dedicated group of church memebers that they deserved a proper, intimate explination of the issue at hand. I believe that it was necessary to separate the chrch from the media in the issue of this case.
One thing that will stick with me until this case is over is the fact that the entire time Bishop Long was addressing his congregation, not once did he deny the allegations. When he spoke, he spoke about fighting the allegations and prevailing over the issue, but he never said “I didn’t do it.”
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