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Georgia televangelist Eddie Long told his congregation Sunday that he is “taking time off” from the church to work on his family. His announcement came just three days after his wife filed for divorce.
Long is senior pastor and bishop of the New Birth Missionary Church, which has more than 25,000 members, according to its website.
Last spring, he settled a lawsuit filed by four young men who accused him of pressuring them into sexual relationships while they were teenagers and members of Long’s congregation at the church, in an Atlanta suburb.
That suit alleged that Long “uses monetary funds from the accounts of New Birth and other corporate and non-profit corporate accounts to entice the young men with cars, clothes, jewelry, and electronics.” [Quote:CNN]
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The View – Sherri Shepherd blasts Bishop Eddie Long (6-07-11)
[Please pardon chat about wedding dress]
In this double focus on past and future, Advent also symbolizes the spiritual journey of individuals and a congregation, as they affirm that Christ has come, that He is present in the world today, and that He will come again in power. That acknowledgment provides a basis for Kingdom ethics, for holy living arising from a profound sense that we live “between the times” and are called to be faithful stewards of what is entrusted to us as God’s people. So, as the church celebrates God’s inbreaking into history in the Incarnation, and anticipates a future consummation to that history for which “all creation is groaning awaiting its redemption,” it also confesses its own responsibility as a people commissioned to “love the Lord your God with all your heart” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
