Filed under: News
The Bishop Eddie Long sex scandal has been the peculiar incident in Atlanta that turned the black church upside down. A popular pastor given the responsibility of caring for scores of young men has been accused of coercing some of them in to sexual relationships.
Just when you thought the scandal couldn't get anymore scandalous, another piece of evidence emerges from the fray.
Several of Bishop Eddie Long's accusers now claim that the reason they broke in to his office earlier this year was to obtain evidence against Bishop Eddie Long for a pending lawsuit. This is in contrast to previous reports that the men broke in to Long's office for money.
"That man was hurt," said one of Long's accusers, Jamal Parris. "He wanted to get evidence to prove what was happening to him and to all of us."
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Parris' story is corroborated by the fact that the buglars took Bishop Long's I-Phone and I-Pad, copying all of the information off of it before giving it back.
Additionally, there was more than $100,000 in jewelry left in the Bishop's private bath that could have been easily stolen. The young men did, however, take some of Long's valuables during the break-in.
"They are feeding the media that this was about money," Parris told Fox 5 News in Atlanta back in September. "But it was about more than that, these men were collecting evidence because they were tired, tired of being hurt and used - so they decided to stand up for themselves and do what they had to do to get attention."
When it comes to the Bishop Eddie Long sex scandal, my head has been spinning for months. First, I must publicly wonder why a man has more than $100,000 in jewelry just laying around his office?
Is he a Baptist minister or a gangsta rapper?
Most black folks don't even have $100,000 in home equity or in their 401K account, let alone in jewelry.
Second, the fact that the young men didn't take the jewelry supports their case. At the same time, it's not as if they didn't take anything of value, and it's hard to determine if that particular part of the theft was due to revenge or simple robbery.
At the very least, Long's attorneys can't easily write the men off as thugs just because they broke in to the man's office. The truth is that young people who are sexually abused may act out in strange ways.
We recently asked here on Black Voices why Bishop Eddie Long settled for mediation instead of a public trial. One of our members of the Your Black World coalition, an attorney out of Atlanta, claims that part of the reason Long might have gone for mediation is because the court system in Atlanta is overcrowded and the courts strongly encourage this option. In fact, he claims that Long was forced to use mediation, which doesn't make much sense to me. So, I reached out to Dr. Christopher Metzler, a highly-respected attorney who also resides at Georgetown University to ascertain the likelihood that Bishop Long was not given the option of having a public trial.
According to Dr. Metzler,"He could have decided to forgo mediation and went to trial. The court can't force mediation, it is simply an alternative. Under Georgia rules of Civil Procedure, and county rules, mediation is known as alternative dispute resolution. Thus, it is an alternative rather than a mandate."
Once again, I submit that Bishop Eddie Long, being accountable to thousands of church members and supporters around the nation, should ensure that his name is cleared by asking that all evidence be presented to the public.
If there is any chance that he may have been having sex with teenage boys while they were in his care, he should not be anyone's spiritual leader.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.