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Recent public statements by megachurch pastors in response to a
scandal-ridden peer reveal differing perspectives on repentance,
restoration and ministerial ethics.
Last September, four men—all
former members of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta—claimed
the church’s pastor, Eddie Long, used gifts, trips and money to coerce
them into engaging
in sex acts with him. Although no criminal
charges were filed, Long settled with his accusers last month, leading
some church leaders who had previously reserved judgment to speak out.
On June 5, fellow Atlanta pastor Creflo Dollar urged his World
Changers Church to refrain from gossiping about the Long scandal and
warned disgruntled New Birth members that they would not find a
listening ear at his church.
“That preacher’s still anointed to do what he was called to. He just had
a wreck. The blood will take care of his issue just like it will take
care of yours,” Dollar stated. “And I just can’t believe that people would leave their
preacher because he had a wreck, instead of praying for him.”
When
the allegations first hit the news last September, Dallas pastor
Bishop T.D. Jakes encouraged his congregation, The Potter’s House, to
pray, saying: “When all this is over, one thing is for sure—somebody, if
not everybody in it, is going to need the blood.”
More recently, Jakes was interviewed by The Christian Post at the McDonald’s Gospelfest on June 18 in Newark, N.J. When asked about the scandal, Jakes noted that New Birth should be allowed to address the situation within its own church structure.
“The
New Birth church is a church unto itself who has a board and it has a
membership. How they choose to handle their leadership issues it’s not
something that we can control regardless of which side
you stay on that issue,” Jakes said. “It is their church issue and their
responsibility and their response.”
The most direct statements
have come from Bishop Paul Morton, who leads Greater St. Stephen Full
Gospel Baptist Church in New Orleans and Changing a Generation Full
Gospel Baptist Church in Atlanta. In a message posted online June 21,
Morton called on Long to apologize to the men who sued him.
“If the
settlement has already been made they can’t sue you again, but you
can apologize,” he said. “Some people will stay with you, some
people gonna leave you, but you’ve got to leave that up to God. Those
are the consequences for the sins that we do.”
Morton is the
presiding bishop of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, the body
that consecrated Long as “third presiding bishop” of the group in 1994
(a position now held by Los Angeles pastor Clarence McClendon). However,
Morton appeared to be addressing Long as a fellow minister, not in a
disciplinary function, and New Birth is not listed in the fellowship’s
directory of affiliated churches.
