Bishop Eddie Long

Now of course it is not my place to say whether Bishop Eddie Long is innocent or guilty of the charges that are being alleged of him.  What I will say is that God gives us all discernment.  Being a survivor of molestation myself, I will say that my spirit truly feels and identifies with the young man who publicly spoke out about Bishop Long. Now my feelings do not mean that of course Eddie Long is guilty, but...........what I will say is that I can feel this young man's heart and I can certainly identify with him.

What I want to say about Bishop Long is that, at the end of the day, before he is a pastor, man of God or anything else, he is a human.  And we as humans no matter how large our call in life, still deal with the frailty of the human condition.   Just because he is accused of this treacherous crime does not mean that he is not still a man of God.

One of the principles that we believers must deal with is the truth about our human sin nature. When children are young you must teach them how to behave correctly.  Very rarely do we catch 2-year-olds washing the dishes and folding the laundry, and working out sandbox disputes with honor and grace.  No at the core of us is the primal nature to act a plum fool. We must be taught to act in a moral and upstanding way.

So what am I saying?  Before there was a Bishop Eddie Long there was a 2 year old Eddie Long and a 10-year old Eddie Long and a 17-year old Eddie Long and a 24-Year old Eddie Long.  And I am POSITIVE that all of those previous Eddie Long's were just as full of sin and mischief and had some "issues" that needed to be worked out like us all.  But that doesn't mean that God didn't call Eddie Long.  God calls us ALL IN OUR SIN NATURE.........God knows that we are sinners and calls us anyway. 

If Bishop Eddie Long DID do the things that are alleged of him that does not mean that his love of the Lord is any less.  That means that just like all of us Bishop Eddie Long is wrestling with his sin nature and maybe his sin nature was more powerful.  Just because R. Kelly urinated on little girls ( which for the record is almost so wrong I don't know how to look at him) but it does not change the call on R. Kelly's life to make beautiful music.  I DO think that R. Kelly should get some mental and emotional help and guidance, but his sins do not wash away his anointing. 

We as humans need to love the dark sides of our character.  We need to go ahead and be honest about their existence and love the hell out of our nature to smoke and curse and drink and sleep with other people's spouses, or underage partners, or rape, or murder. When we act one way to the world and another way to ourselves the only people we are hiding from is ourselves, and when we try to denounce the demons living inside of us, as though they completely do not exist, the demons begin to act independently of our own free will. 

If you leave a 2-year old to his or her own devices, they will eventually end up killing themselves or hurting someone else because they are not able to recognize the danger they can cause.  If we try to pretend that we do not have a little devil in us and we try to deny the existence of the evil in our lives then we give that demon power to run outrageous and crazy. 

When you try to act like your life is perfect and then you get caught acting in a devilish way, you have no idea where this demon came from.   You cannot believe that it has gotten this big and ugly and has caused this much hurt.    I mean the last time you looked at your demon it was a little baby demon that had an attraction to young boys.  But now you've tried to wash it away with a big church, and big money and a big ministry, you have tried to buy your demon off!  But the last time you looked your demon was a small baby, now left unchecked it has turned into a big growling monster. 

Last time I checked the only thing that can really put a child in check is pure love and pure discipline.  If you buy a child a Wii, or a car, or a laptop, our give it a big glitzy party......that will never take the place of spending quality time with our child, and taking the hard role of brandishing out discipline.  And of course you don't recognize it as being you......because you have been so in denial and trying to sell the good side of you to the world that you yourself can't even believe how large this thing has grown. 

I really hated my mom when I was in high school! (Like the rant of many a teenager who thinks that their "uncool" parents are all in their business) But she wasn't afriad to be my parent and not be my friend.  She was brandishing out discipline and justice.  She went up to the school to talk to my teacher's without permission, she beat my ass, she wouldn't let me go to the parties when my grades were not up to snuff.............but now I love her with all my heart and we are best friends because she took the time to take the hard line approach and love the hell out of me. 

So my metaphor for parenthood is the little evil that MAKE NO MISTAKE lives inside EACH AND EVERYONE OF US.  INCLUDING Bishop Eddie Long. If we try to pretend that we have no sins, no problems, and no issues, and try to pretty up our lives like we are mistake free..........we gone get caught up like Bishop Eddie Long.  We have to look at our ugly nasty dirty little demons and stop thinking that if we put a pretty pink dress or clean silk suit on a cobra, that that is going to flush all of its poison out.  All you have is a Cobra in a pretty pink dress.  The way something looks on the outside has nothing to do with the poison that is stored up inside.  But that's what we do to ourselves.  We cloak ourselves in the PIOUSNESS of the church and think that a pretty "saved" outfit oozes all the poison and venom out of our hearts................CHILE PLEEZE.......you better get real. You better get in there with that demon and choke it to death and then cut its head off........but we christians are content to think that we can tithe it away, or praise and worship it away, donate our time it away, praise & holy dance it away, and pray it away.  The only thing that will kill your demon is getting in there and wrestling with it and winning through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Not as pretty, but a much better result!

People we have to love the monsters inside of all of us, no matter how much you want to pretend that your sin nature is in control.............the greatest trick that the devil ever pulled off is making people thing that he didn't exist..............that's all I'm saying people.

Bishop Eddie Long get your house in order!  I'm not saying you did anything.............but this situation gave me a reason to blog what I felt.