An Open Letter to Bishop Eddie Long
Bishop Long,
As my pastor I sincerely pray for your strength and your inner-peace during this most tumultuous time in your personal life and in your ministry. I know that you must be hurting and feel betrayed; yet you and I know that God Specializes in these particular types of circumstances; he will give you the peace that surpasses all understanding of this crisis.
If there is blameworthiness or virtue to be shared between you and your accusers; so be it for we all have sinned and have been falsely accused at various points in our lives. For it was only our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who walked this earth blameless. He was falsely accused many times over, on a much greater level and magnitude; he was even murdered, falsely accused.
I am a firm believer that goodness, truth and mercy will prevail and that your innocence or your culpability will raise the standard of responsible honesty and authenticity in the body of Christ (the church) and in your personal life.
Many readers of this posting will be surprised that I for the 1st time have publicly acknowledged you as my pastor in this forum; I have refrained from publicizing that fact since starting this forum in early 2007 due to the respect of our opposing viewpoints on innate sexuality and it's treatment in the holy scriptures.
Many of my close friends and associates have been troubled for quite some time of the fact that I have been a faithful member of New Birth for many years attending most early Sunday and weekday empowerment services. There is a reason.
Bishop, you have spoken so much truth and life into my heart over the years; you have taught me to study God's word for myself and to become spiritually independent relying on God and God alone; I've fallen in love with Jesus over and over again under your teaching.
Your giving nature and your compassionate desire to see your members and the African American Community at large excel spiritually and naturally overrides our opposing viewpoints on sexuality. Furthermore I would never abandon my natural parents (who are ministers) for our differences of opinions on sexuality no more than I would abandon my spiritual parents for those same differences. We all share unconditional love.
I've often said to my close friends that I sincerely feel that you have and could offer a positive and greater revelation on the subject matter of homosexuality in the church-world however, I've felt that you were too concerned and afraid of the masses and your traditional Christian Fundamentalist peers. I've also mentioned to my close friends that I share each blog post that I write for this blog site; I share them with you, your wife and other New Birth staffers via email and I hope and trust that my sharing has had a little something to do with the respect that you have been displaying in recent years to the many same gender loving members in your congregation.
I'll leave you with these words from a song that my father would ask my mother to sing before approaching the pulpit to preach:
Have you any river that seems uncrossable? Have you any mountain that you cannot tunnel through and have you any situation that seems impossible? I tell you that God Specializes and he can do what no other power can do.
My prayers and support are with you.
Samuel Marcus Brown aka Son of a Bishop
