Bishop Eddie Long addressed the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church

Bishop Eddie Long, the famed pastor of the church in Georgia announced on Sunday in the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church that he’ll fight the sexual allegations his name has been tainted with.

Pastor Eddie Long was allegedly luring four young men into sexual relationships. The bishop didn’t discuss the details of the lawsuit in front of the thousands of people gathered to hear his speech. He didn’t deny the accusations but he drew applause when he addressed his flock.

The Megachurch founder has compared himself to David fighting a huge Goliath in the battle against sexual accusations. The bishop is a vigorous advocate of sexual abstinence and leads one of America’s largest and most powerful black churches: the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Georgia. The 57-year-old pastor described homosexuality as a spiritual abortion.

The pastor is famous not only for his strong opinions but also for his expensive lifestyle and his many connections in the celebrity world. The sexual scandal broke lose a few days ago when the he was called in lawsuits claiming he was luring his teenage male victims with jewelery, money and even electronics. Also, to prove the allegations are real, the media got its hands on some photos depicting the bishop in front of a bathroom mirror in cycling shorts and a tight-fitting muscle shirt (see photo left above taken from facebook.com). According to the allegations, the teenagers were aged 17 and 18 and one is accusing Long of giving him a sleeping pill and abusing him during a trip to Kenya.

During his Sunday speech at the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church he told the audience that he never one thought or portrayed himself as a perfect man but he also says he is not the evil men he’s been portrayed in the media.

Bishop Eddie Long is married and during the speech to his parishioners she was next to him, giving him her support in this dreadful scandal. The pastor announced the 10.000 crowd gathered in his church that he is going to fight this and although he feels like he is David with five rocks, he haven’t threw one yet.

The sexual accusations have compared bishop Eddie Long with Ted Haggard, the leader of a evangelical church in Colorado who quit the church in 2006 after a male prostitute claimed the priest had many amphetamine-fuelled sex sessions with him.

Eddie Long’s church, The New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Georgia has reached a number of 25,000 members since 1987 and his church near Atlanta hosted the funeral of Martin Luther King’s widow, Coretta Scott King in 2006.

The people are in doubt: is Eddie Long guilty or not since he didn’t deny the accusations in his speech at the church. What do you think?