Showing posts with label Religion and Spirituality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Religion and Spirituality. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
What Attracts Hypocrites to Religious Leadership? | The Atlanta Post
What Attracts Hypocrites to Religious Leadership? A Discussion, Bishop Eddie Long | The Atlanta Post
The jury is still out on Bishop Eddie Long, who is facing charges of sexual coercion from four men. And as time passes for the religious leader, accusations continue to mount. Besides the sensational value of the scandal, the Eddie Long issue has put some of the most serious questions about organized religion on the table. If Long is proven guilty, he will represent the latest religious leader to symbolize hypocrisy in the church; while he vehemently condemned homosexuality as a leader for the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, he was involving himself in sexual wrongdoing with young men. To better make sense of this relationship between the Church, homosexuality and hypocrisy, we turned to Dr. Richard N. Pitt, associate professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University and an expert on the sociology of religion.
Saturday, October 09, 2010
Hatewatch | Southern Poverty Law Center » Homophobic Megachurch Pastor Accused of Exploiting Teenage Boys
Hatewatch | Southern Poverty Law Center » Homophobic Megachurch Pastor Accused of Exploiting Teenage Boys
f the allegations in two lawsuits filed Tuesday in Georgia’s DeKalb County are true, staunchly anti-gay megachurch leader Bishop Eddie L. Long told two teenage boys that, according to Holy Scripture, it was cool for them to have sex with him.
Maurice Robinson, 20, and Anthony Flagg, 21, have accused Long, the leader of the Atlanta-area New Birth Missionary Baptist Church – one of the largest churches in the nation – of misusing his mentoring role of “pastor, counselor and bishop” to coerce them into sexual acts when they were teens. Their lawsuits allege that Long gave them gifts of cars, clothes, jewelry, electronics, college tuition and overnight trips to places including New York, Las Vegas, Dallas, the Caribbean and New Zealand – and that Long would share bedrooms with them in luxury hotels. Long allegedly would “sleep in the same bed” as Flagg while the teenager was living at the church (Robinson complaint [1], Flagg complaint [2]).
The lawsuits describe Long as engaging in various sex acts with Flagg and Robinson.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution [3] today reported the filing of a third sexual exploitation lawsuit against Long. Jamal Parris, 23, another former member of New Birth, similarly accuses Long of using his leverage as a mentor and spiritual leader to compel the plaintiff into a sexual relationship. Parris, who now lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., joined New Birth at age 14 with his mother in 2001, and worked as summer camp counselor at the church, the newspaper reported.
Long’s attorney said the pastor “adamantly denies” all the allegations, telling Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “We find it unfortunate that these two young men have taken these actions. We are reviewing the complaint and will respond accordingly.”
The allegations are particularly stinging to a charismatic African-American pastor identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2007 as “one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders [4] in the religiously based anti-gay movement” and who, along with other prominent clerics [5] including Bishop Harry Jackson [6] of Hope Christian Church in Washington, D.C., embodies black religious resistance to gay rights progress. In a videotaped sermon described in an SPLC profile [7], Long declared, “The problem today, and the reason society is like it is, is because men are being feminized and women are being masculine! You cannot say, ‘I was born this way.’ … I don’t care what scientists say!”
Robinson and Flagg were enrolled in a tuition-based, New Birth ministry for boys 13 to 18 years old. The ministry, called the Longfellows Youth Academy, intended “to train young men to love, live and lead as they proceed on their ‘masculine journey,’ ” according to the lawsuits. The church’s website was down Wednesday afternoon.
The complaints allege that “Long has utilized his spiritual authority as Bishop and leader of Defendants’ ministries to coerce certain young male members and employees of Defendant New Birth … into engaging in sexual acts and relationships for his own personal sexual gratification.” Further, it alleges that “Long has a pattern and practice of singling out a select group of young male church members and using his authority as Bishop over them to ultimately bring them to a point of engaging in a sexual relationship.”
“Defendant Long, through manipulation, coercion, deception and fraud resulting from the abuse of his confidential relationship with Plaintiff Robinson, convinced him that engaging in a sexual relationship was a healthy component of his spiritual life,” one of the lawsuits says.
The lawsuits are civil actions accusing Long, the church and church officials, among other things, of intentionally inflicting emotional distress, negligence, failure to intervene to protect the defendants from the sexual conduct, and fraud – for “representing that the Longfellows Youth Academy was a benevolent enterprise designed to foster the spiritual growth of young men.”
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Schools Urged To Teach Youth Digital Citizenship : NPR
Schools Urged To Teach Youth Digital Citizenship : NPR
In the wake of a Rutger University student's suicide, researchers who study youth and the Internet say schools need to do a better job of teaching kids the basics of digital citizenship.
Freshman Tyler Clementi jumped off a bridge a few days after his sexual encounter with another man was broadcast online. Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, and Ravi's friend Molly Wei were arrested on invasion of privacy charges. They haven't said why they allegedly broadcast the video, but by all accounts, they were good students who had no history of cruel behavior.
I think that the technological revolution has in some cases outpaced schools' ability to keep track of it.
- Jim Steyer, Commonsense Media
"I think it's a case where good kids can do terrible things," says John Pelfrey of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and author of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives.
Freshman Tyler Clementi jumped off a bridge a few days after his sexual encounter with another man was broadcast online. Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, and Ravi's friend Molly Wei were arrested on invasion of privacy charges. They haven't said why they allegedly broadcast the video, but by all accounts, they were good students who had no history of cruel behavior.
I think that the technological revolution has in some cases outpaced schools' ability to keep track of it.
- Jim Steyer, Commonsense Media
"I think it's a case where good kids can do terrible things," says John Pelfrey of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and author of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives.
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
In New York City Jewish And Moslem Leaders Join Forces In Support Of Mosque
This was the Jewish community that I grew up around and loved in New York City. They stood up against ignorance and bigotry in an environment where much of it existed. I thanks God for that wonderful community. So many others in America need to wake up, open their closed bigoted minds and learn from their example.
John H. Armwood
Saturday, August 21, 2010
What's Behind A Surge In Anti-Muslim Rhetoric? : NPR
What's Behind A Surge In Anti-Muslim Rhetoric? : NPR
The controversy surrounding the proposed mosque near Ground Zero is the most visible sign of what may be growing anti-Muslim sentiment around the country -- from protests over proposed mosques in California and Tennessee to plans for anti-Islam protests and Quran burnings on Sept. 11. What may be fueling the anti-Muslim rhetoric?
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