Scandals At The Altar: 10 Black Church Leaders Who’ve Incited Controversy and Doubt

October 1st, 2010 - By TheEditor

The Black Church is back in the spotlight; unfortunately, it’s not for reasons related to sound doctrine. Controversy has once again pushed the organization to the forefront in popular culture. But it’s not the first time. African-American congregations have endured controversy and scandal for decades. Here’s a short list of the stories that made headlines.

Bishop Eddie Long

"Eddie Long"

Bishop Eddie Long’s case is one of the most damaging scandals to hit the Black church.  He’s currently being accused for coercing four young men into sexual relationships. While Bishop Long is fighting those charges, he has since become a media sensation and the newest poster child for “what is wrong with the black church”. As pastor of the 25,000 member New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, he has also endured criticism from fellow clergy who challenged his teachings which pushed that homosexually is “spiritual abortion”.

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  • Guest

    Many Christians need to actually read the bible and not take second hand information. What a shock it was to hear the Producers of the Bible Miniseries on the History Channel proclaim it as totally accurate and to say they consulted with bible scholars. If they had just read the real bible they could have seen they disrespected the Word of God by changing key scenes of the bible and that is the problem in Christendom, second hand information passes as truth!

  • Guest

    Church folks are gullible clones of celebrity preachers based on these reasons:

    1 They confuse the one bringing a good message with the one who is using the vessel to preach the message.

    2 Research on religion showed only 10 percent of church goers have read their whole bible word for word cover to cover beginning to end. These bible illiterates who have never read their bible from Genesis to Revelation cover to cover are prone to see their pastor priest or clergy as equal to a little god or King and they are the subjects.

    3. The use of touch not God’s anointed is misapplied because many church goers think this means to enable bad behavior or give their preacher a pass cause he preaches great sermons.

    4). Clones and robots need to wake up and hold their Pastors accountable to be ethical, upright moral character and to lead by example but they generally offer up excuses and keep right on tithing and following wolves in sheep clothing. I was in a church where the pastor stole large sums of money, admitted to a 2yr .affair on his wife and split the church when he refused to resign and his clones still followed him when he was kicked out of the denomination and when he did it again these enablers still supported him as their leader.

    • Guest

      I need to amend this to say some church folks are clones but if you stay in a church too long you have to conform…that is just the nature of that beast.

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  • http://sarfrazmanzoor.co.uk/index.php/member/51001/ katrina kaif hot image

    This is truly a great article. You make a lot of sense in your viewpoints and I agree with you, mostly. Your content is obviously written for thinkers. Please keep up the good quality writing.

  • TAN

    Well said by all our commentators. May I ask one question, if we are to be the light of the world and salt of the earth and it turned out that the shepherds are feeding fat on the flock is it not the duty of the people to talk about it. My only concern is that gain has been turned into godliness and the bible has warned us against it. GAIN IS NOT GODLINESS BUT GODLINESS WITH CONTENTMENT IS GREAT GAIN. This is what Paul teaches us in the book of Timothy.
    Some of us minister have become too blotted with greed and pleasure. It must be said to save the church. It is written " Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them. Eph 5:11

  • faith

    Many of the pro-preacher, "only god can judge" comments here prove that black women are stupid and sick when it comes to black men. The pathological need to say "he ain't do it" is only slightly LESS sad than the fact that black men do nothing but blame, accuse, and judge black women for setting them up, raising them wrong, and undermining them!
    Look up Stockholm Syndrome Black women! That is you. And try remembering that "only god can judge" crap when a black woman accused a black man of wrong doing or a white (or cop) is accused of doing something to a brotha.

  • John Richards

    Saddens me to see this happening, but I caution against speaking harsh words about the Megachurch movement….

    Scandals in the Megachurch: Are They Worth Attending? http://bit.ly/gwyTl2

    Blessings to you all.

  • Xaviere

    As I look at the state of the black man in America, I am bewildered at the fact that we have lost so much. We have lost our pride, our sense of dignity, our ability to sustain a prosperous future. We have become lethargic in our quest for a better tomorrow. Sure, some have moved out of the ghettos and dirty city streets, but far too many remain. The fact that we still have Crips and Bloods fighting in California and countless other street gangs is a sad testament to the failure of the Black Church, the black woman, and the black family. I don't know when we are going to wake up. The time has come to be more responsible for ourselves and more accountable for our destiny.

    If Barack Obama has shown us anything it is not that "we" can be president; it is that we can be more than just a stereotypical Negro. Grant it, I am one that believes when you have a African father and a white mother, as the President has, you are not necessarily a Black Man in the struggle. For I don't believe Barack has any clue of what the struggle is or was. How could he? He was not raised in a home of parents nor grandparents that endured the dogs of the Civil Rights Movement? Nevertheless, we continue to place onus on him that I believe he is not capable of understanding or bearing. Additionally, to my utter chagrin, we perennially ascribe to him some tour de force because he was elected to be President of the United States of America. Grant it, it is a wonderful accomplishment. But President Obama cannot and will not change the current state of affairs in Black America. That is up to us.

    We must begin to hold our so-called leaders feet to the fire. Actually, we need to stop allowing them to lead us and allowing media to call them our leaders. As they are not leading but only following the devil to Hell and taking all of us with them. Black America is not better off because of them. In fact, if you look at the HIV statistics, High School dropout rates, and prison population numbers, it is unarguable that they are failures! Utter and complete failures!!! We must fight for our futures and futures of our families.

    We must not allow ourselves to aspire to be incompetent criminals, incorrigible thugs, pandering preachers, and Dolemite wanna-be pimps that idolize fools like Kanye West, Jessie Jackson, Al, Sharpton, and Tiger Woods, who wasn't even a black person until he cheated on his wife then he got a dose of the OJ Simpson media medicine. Yes, I think he killed that white woman. I beg of the Black Man to rise from the ashes of degradation and think more, do more, be more. The world is changing and the fade to black is not looking promising.

  • miamac

    this scandal really is nothing new in the church. as a child i was rinsed in religion and remember this going on even back. every thing clothed in God is not the truth and people need to pay attention to where they worship and where they seed their offerings.

    if you've ever been forced fed religion as a child then you'll enjoy reading SAVED. check it out! http://saved-miamac.blogspot.com/

  • donnaa1960

    It is an utterly disgrace and disrespect to the deity of Christ, and the church in which he gave himself for it. That some of these so called pastor, preachers take the ministry in vain, and make a mockery of it. This is too why some people will not come into the church house to worship with others. Some say, go to the club, it is no different from the church people.

  • donnaa1960

    As for Prophetess and televangelist Juanita Bynum, she was already married to the ministry. She didn't need to get married again. Thats why she fell into a deep spiritual depression.

  • donnaa1960

    Alot of this is about politics too. But….there is always another side to the saga. The U.S. Senate Finance Commity, Sen. Grassley called for the financial records of a lot of the T.V. evangelist in 2007 thru. 2008. Seems that every since, some of these mega pastors have had serious problems. Especially the ones that argued with the request of their records.

  • donnaa1960

    Ok people…..what the hell about this terry jones so called pastor in Florida somewhere that was threatening to bon fire the "Karon" on the church property. This buffoon was about to start a holy war here in the U.S. He was about to cause even more casualties in Afganistan and Iraq!!! This thing was about to get a lot of people hurt. So……no one was scared of this???

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