by Monica A. Coleman

I apologize in advance to those who normally follow my blog, Beautiful Mind Blog. I usually focus the blog on the intersection of depression and faith with a new entry at least once a week. Nevertheless, the firestorm around the allegations of sexual misconduct by Atlanta pastor Bishop Eddie Long compel me to break the silence I’ve kept in the last week.

In short, Bishop Eddie Long, leader of the 25,0000 member Atlanta-based church, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, is being sued in civil court by four different young men (in their early twenties) who are (former) members of his church. They accuse him of coercing them into having sexual relations with them when they were around 17 years old.

There are so many issues at work here. Many friends and colleagues have posted amazing blogs and commentaries about some of the issues surrounding what is now being called “The Eddie Long case.” Dr. Yolanda Pierce of Princeton Theological Seminary reminds us that pastors are servants, not kings. She also highlights the poverty of a prosperity theology. Dr. Jonathan Walton of Harvard Divinity School talks about what happens when churches conform to the motifs of wider celebrity culture. Dr. Shayne Lee of Tulane University brings his expertise on megachurches and market forces to bear on the kinds of issues that Long now faces. In light of Long’s history of virulent homophobia and the gender of the accusers, Dr. Anthea Butler of the University of Pennsylvania reminds us that homophobia in black churches must be addressed. Saida Grundy and Atlanta activist Craig Washington indicate that Eddie Long may now be having to bear the consequences of his dangerous rhetoric about homosexuality. Dr. Kathi Martin of Interactive Faith Café says that the time is ripe for Long and others in church communities to choose love and justice over exclusion and condemnation. Years ago, I wrote about Long’s (mis)use of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy in the fifth chapter of my book, Making a Way Out of No Way. Many of us say these things out of a deep love for and years of scholarship on African American religious culture. We also mention these issues while acknowledging, as Ted Haggard does, that we do not know what happened and that Long deserves a fair trial.

These are all poignant responses, and I agree with many of them. It’s difficult not to comment on the challenges – even problematic nature – of black church homophobia, possible hypocrisy, prosperity theology, and the corporate and celebrity culture of churches. I’m adding my voice to the commentary because of what I have not heard addressed.

I have not heard enough people talk about what I see at the heart of this matter:

the possibility of clergy sexual misconduct

With my colleagues, I cannot say whether or not Eddie Long is guilty of the allegations. I can say that the Eddie Long Case has the opportunity to raise all of our consciousnesses about clergy sexual misconduct. When we remember this, the charges against Long are less about homosexuality, the defensiveness of his congregation, the theology he espouses, or the age and gender of the accusers. The case is about the possible abuse of clerical power.

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By Courtney Pinkerton

Being a pastor is a weird job. I love the freedom to read, plan worship, talk with interesting people, and sit with scripture and the tradition. But sometimes I just have to laugh at myself and at any expectation I have or someone else might have that I can come up with a spiritual word or reflection. Some weeks the consciousness feels clearer, a gift of the Spirit, and usually a result of time spent reading good words, sitting in silence– God’s primary language– or with loving friends. But what about those other weeks, the weeks like this one where I don’t have childcare and I feel my children and their needs pressed up against me, inseparable from the August heat?

I wake up groggy and Perl is cranky, using her “small voice” demanding apple juice in a sippy cup and determined to change out of her pajamas with flowers on them to pajamas with monkeys on them even as I explain that it is daytime and so we should really be putting on regular clothes. In the end I cave and just let her dress herself and she walks around in nothing but soft blue elastic-waisted pajama shorts pulled up to midchest and a pair of lime green sandals. Richie comments that she looks like a retiree in Florida. Later she dons a string of pearls.

I imagine most of us have situations that push us back to our own version of the small, whiny voice within. Our own challenges and frustrations feel like big rock formations encircling a valley of despair, loneliness, and at times self-pity. Ironically the only path I can find up and out of the valley is compassion for myself, what wisdom teachers call ”Compassionate self-observation.” Don’t try to force a change in attitude, just observe the dark stuff and don’t hold on to it. And sometimes, when I do that, life provides situations that help me reconnect to gratitude and the dark stuff shifts at least for a moment and I can see my next step on the path.

On Monday I gave myself permission to do whatever it took to make it through the day with small children, so that meant we went to Taco Cabana for lunch. And I had a large Diet Dr. Pepper in lieu of a much desired nap (sorry new baby). As we left I noticed a dry cleaner across the parking lot and remembered the soiled cushion cover in the back of the car needing some attention after one of the children from our Montessori preschool co-op spread Aquaphor (which is basically non-petroleum derived Vaseline) all over our new vintage chair. So I drove 20 yards and parked, feeling grumpy in the 107 degree heat as I unbuckled my kids again from their seats and we went inside, where it was even hotter. They had all the doors open and no air conditioning on and the poor man who rang up my order was soaking wet.

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On September 22, Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old college freshman at Rutgers University in New Jersey, jumped from the George Washington Brudge in what the New York Times is calling an “apparent suicide.” Clementi’s 18-year-old roommate and another 18-year-old classmate have been charged with illegally taping and broadcasting video of Clementi in an intimate encounter with another man. Clementi was a promising young violinist, and for the perpetrators of this hate crime, “The most serious charges carry a maximum sentence of five years.” Three lives have been ruined, in addition to the ripple effect of grief on family and friends. Our response must be not only lament, but also resolve to speak out for the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people at all levels of society.

The next day, on September 23, Asher Brown, a gay 13-year-old eighth-grader in Houston, Texas “shot himself in the head.”  As reported in the Houston Chronicle, his family describes him as being “bullied to death” by his classmates, in particular for his sexuality.  Asher was a straight-A student. Our response must be not only lament, but also resolve to speak out for the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people at all levels of society.

On Friday, September 3, according to the Lincoln, Nebraska Journal Star, another hate crime was committed when a 19-year-old man verbally harassed and physically assaulted a 32-year-old man for being gay. Our response must be not only lament, but also resolve to speak out for the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people at all levels of society.

This short, but devastating, list reflects only the hate crimes documented this month alone at The Unfinished Lives Project website, “a place of public discourse which remembers and honors LGBT hate crime victims, while also revealing the reality of unseen violence perpetrated against people whose only ‘offense’ is their sexual orientation.” Our response must be not only lament, but also resolve to speak out for the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people at all levels of society.