The Constant Gardener
Tribalism And Black Leadership
which we are discussing this week, is the reason these people exist, the reason anyone follows them. It makes no sense, none at all, for African people to, time and again, choose these unhinged bullies to lead them. They do it because unhinged bullies are all they've ever known. It's Groundhog Day over there; over and over they do precisely the same thing while hoping for different results. In the run-up to most any election, it is inevitably the candidate who projects the most terror—not even strength, terror—who wins. Or who assassinates his rivals. This image, this fierce arrogance, has come to be associated and evenly synonymous with leadership. It is what Africans seek in a leader: a lion of pure resolve. But the cycle is sadly obvious: strongmen overturning the previous dictator by promising liberation and change, only to bring neither. He is everything, you are nothing. While his early intentions may have been noble, his focus and drive inevitably becomes only about amassing more power and more wealth for himself. We've seen this time and again: King Saul, King Solomon, no different from Charles Taylor, Robert Mugabe, Issayas Afeworki, or any number of thousands of tribal warlords roaming a continent afflicted by poverty and disease, robbing, raping and killing at will.
Not knowing much about Jesus for ourselves, we take our cues from Pastor. Our model is not Christ but Pastor which, because of our innate tribalism, can often be a flawed model at odds with the personal example of Jesus Christ. But this is the image handed down one generation to the next. It is imprinted upon our global identity and defies even the word of God, which paints a much different picture of both strength and masculinity. We admire Dr. King but we want to be Malcolm X.
We string pastors up in a heartbeat for messing with the money, but deal with his personal moral failures behind closed doors if at all. For most of our pastors, there's absolutely no meekness, no temperance, no humility. Many of our pastors are loaded guns which can fire off without warning. Many have, in fact, hair-trigger tempers, stomping around having tantrums and bossing people. Beloved: this is not Who Jesus is. Your arrogant, demanding, pushy, mean pastor does not know Christ, period. He is lost and you are stumbling around in the ditch right behind him. Our culture, and this broad stereotype of the black pastor, is so deeply ingrained in us that even those of us who know better—who read scripture, who understand the divine qualities of Jesus Christ and the fruits of the Spirit—continue to seek out these pushy, arrogant bastards and hire them to pastor us. Why? Because it's all we know. Instinct is extremely powerful and difficult to overcome. Without our innate tribalism, there'd be no Bishop Eddie Long, no Reverend Bernice King. Because, in an instant, in a heartbeat, we'd see—from a football field away—the Spirit of God is not at work within pushy, arrogant, self-serving people. Our blind obedience to folks like this marks our spiritual lives as lacking, and our walk with Christ as weak.
Egos Ablaze:
Long and The Reverend Bernice king before her shameless, longwinded grandstanding
at her mother's funeral.
Nothing about either of these people resonates the love of Jesus Christ
Full disclosure: I'm no fan of MegaBishops. I think, in general, we in the black church are far too concerned with titles. We bring a kind of ersatz Catholicism to our simple heritage, and in so ding bring a kind of selective hierarchy the African American church was never intended to embrace. Our tradition rests the authority of the church at then local level. This notion of "bishops" and other far-out titles (Bobby Jones was once referred to as "Prophet Apostle Dr. Bobby Jones"). The African Methodist-Episcopal Church has a strict regime of accountability in place. The Church of God In Christ, which adopted much of Catholicism's ceremonials, has a somewhat more flexible code of accountability, allowing a perhaps greater measure of independence than A.M.E., but, in both instances, when they ordain someone a "bishop," they hold that man accountable. I am less clear about the accountability of many of these InstaBishops, Do-It-Yourself Bishops, including those unaffiliated with Bishop Long, Bishop Jakes, Bishop Morton or the Full Gospel movement. We have two InstaBishops here, locally, who opened storefronts and, within a year, changed their title to "bishop" for o reason I can fathom. And they both seem to be doing quite well, having found enough gullible followers to pay the light bill.
I'm not even sure Bishop Long is accountable to his own church. Hired pastors are more easily held accountable than founding pastors. It's a little harder to discipline the guy who started the church because, usually, everything is in his name. The choices narrow to leaving the church or allowing the founding pastor to set the conditions of his own discipline, as is likely in Bishop Long's case.
Perhaps that explains the look we se above on Bishop Long’s
face the day Long revealed four civil suits had been filed against
him by young men Long had mentored as teens who accused the
bishop of coercing them into sexual relationships.. Rather than
react with sadness and humility, rather than call for the church
to pray for the misguided young men (if such a gesture was made,
I am not aware of it), rather than petition God to forgive his
enemies, Long stood his ground, making some arrogant speech
about how he is the victim and how he’s not going to pay a
single nickel.
The lawsuits against the bishop were settled
last month for a
rumored
$1.5 million of his followers’ hard-earned tithes and offerings,
gifts to God used
to to cover the bishop's prurient homosexual indulges including
an alleged "covenant" ceremony between himself and one of his
young accusers, complete with flickering candlelight and
scripture readings. Long has since returned to his New Birth Missionary
Baptist Church pulpit, but has reportedly demonstrated no signs
of contrition or healing from the experience. Reverend Bernice
King reportedly resigned from New Birth Missionary Baptist
Church the same week Bishop Long's settlement was announced. The
bishop continues to enjoy the adoration and financial support of
his followers.
Releasing Our Sense of Self: Long accusers Robinson, Flagg, and LeGrande
I have no real perspective on the accusations against Bishop Long.
When I was a teenager, I knew what I was doing, and I was responsible for my own choices. This makes me especially suspicious of teens who hang adults they've gotten involved with. Courts and mommies like to treat these people as if they are mentally retarded. Most teens are brilliant. Impressionable, sure, but brilliant. They spend virtually all of their copious free time in exhaustive problem-solving: video games, school tests, figuring out how to beat the system. How to get around Mom or Dad, how to pass a test without studying, how to get that pair of shoes. Painting these people as Rain Man certainly suits society and political gains, but I am suspicious of such accusals as those against Bishop Long. It seems near-impossible to develop a close mentoring relationship with a young person because of how it might look or, sadly, the temptations to young people to, frankly, lie. I won't ever, under any circumstances, be alone with anyone, male, female, giraffe, under the age of 18, and maybe not under the age of 30. It's just too risky. Assuming the best case scenario, Bishop Long is a big target. For all we know, he did absolutely nothing wrong. Even the damaging photos (below) could have a reasonable explanation: Long is a bodybuilder. Sending pictures of their muscles is what bodybuilders do. It's not even necessarily an ego thing. It's a look-at-the-progress-I'm-making thing. Bodybuilders, I believe, are intrinsically vain: they want (and, technically speaking, need) people to look at them. It carries sexual connotations if you are homophobic, but it's more about technique and skill with a healthy dose of vanity stirred in. We weren't there, we don't know, but Eddie Long is a fat paycheck waiting to be written. I presume he knows that. I presume the young folks he hung out with knew it, too. Anytime you reach out to any kid you are taking a huge risk. That kid could say anything, anything at all, and they will be believed at face value. The onus is on the adult, on Long, to prove he's innocent, which should not be, but that's how this works.
For all we know, if this happened at all, Long may have been the victim. Assuming the worst, there's no evidence or accusation of the bishop holding these young men at gunpoint. Assuming the worst, the bishop exploited his influence in their lives which, yes, is a painful lesson learned. But I doubt, had the cases gone to trial, that these young men would have won. There seems to be no real evidence of any wrongdoing, just a calamitous well of accusation, one the bishop could have drained dry by simply standing his ground.
That stand would have taken years and cost millions. During that time, more and more allegations and ugly details both invented and provable would likely have emerged. Was the bishop guilty or innocent? We'll never know. What we do know is the bishop is rich. That makes him a target for all manner of evil. What we do know is God has used this man to do a major and mighty work, which marks him as Satan's enemy. It is unlikely these young men would have filed suit against a school janitor they became involved with. Beyond the age of legal consent, there is no criminal activity here, just extremely poor judgment all around. Thus, what we know is the bishop had money, the janitor would not have.
Going forward to clear his name would have cost Long his reputation. Settling out of court cost him his reputation. We weren't there. We don't know. We may never know. Only Long knows. God knows. The young men know. We can't tell by looking in Long's eyes or even criticizing the haughty look on his face. Our duty is not to judge the bishop but to pray for him. Not to ask God to reveal the truth of this matter to us—that's not our concern. We should be asking God to reveal Himself to Bishop Long, to renew Bishop Long, restore Bishop Long. If we're not doing that, if all we're doing is flapping our gums and gossiping, then we can hardly call ourselves Christians.
I criticize Bishop Long not for any alleged misconduct but for what I maintain the bishop is indeed guilty of: arrogance and unseemly behavior, questionable doctrine and conduct unbecoming not only a bishop but any follower of Jesus Christ. Whether or not Long is guilty of this specific event, his un-Christlike posture has made this humiliation possible if not altogether undeserved. Behind that, I’m tired of pretending not to see what I plainly see and hear, this off-the-reservation un-Christlike posture of the traditional black pastor. I want to see some love in these men. I want to see some humility in these men. Even more than that, I want us, all of us, to stop being so ridiculous, so lazy, that we not only follow men like this but we actively seek them out.
