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An Algerian court on Tuesday acquitted two Christian men of eating during Ramadan in spite of a prosecutor’s demand that they be punished for “insulting Islam.”
Authorities arrested Salem Fellak and Hocine Hocini on Aug. 12 for eating lunch on a private construction site where they were working. Ramadan, Islam’s month of fasting during daylight hours, started this year on Aug. 11.
The incident took place in Ain El-Hammam, a town in the province of Tizi Ouzou about 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of the Algerian capital. Tizi Ouzou is part of Kabylie, an area of Algeria where the country’s Protestant church has grown with relative freedom in recent years.
Officers at a nearby police station saw the two men eating and confronted them for not fasting. When police realized the two men were Christians, they accused them of insulting Islam, according to local French-language press reports.
“I do not apologize for anything, and I regret nothing,” Fellak said before the verdict, according to Dernieres Nouvelles d’Algerie. “I have the right to not fast. I am a Christian, and until found guilty, the Algerian constitution guarantees respect for individual freedoms.”
The Algerian Constitution gives the right to all citizens to practice their faith, although it declares Islam the state religion and prohibits institutions from behavior incompatible with Islamic morality. Proposing other faiths to Muslims is also forbidden.
After police arrested Hocini and Fellak, authorities interrogated them for two hours and “admonished” them, according to a French-language news site. Authorities took them to court, where a state prosecutor questioned them. When the men explained to her that they were Christians, she said that Algeria was a Muslim country with no room for Christians and that they should leave the country, according to a local news site.
On Tuesday, however, the judge at the court in Ain El Hamman dismissed the case since “no article [of law] provided for a legal pursuit” against the two Christians, according to the BBC.
A small group of Christians standing on the steps of the courthouse reportedly shouted “Hallelujah!” when they heard the outcome of the case. After the verdict, Fellak said he was happy and that he had done nothing wrong, according to Reuters.
Local media also reported cases of Muslim Algerians arrested for eating during Ramadan.
Famed worship leader Martha Munizzi is gearing up for next live recording. The session takes place at City of Life Church in Kissimee, FL on October 22, 2010. Martha burst on the scene with hit songs like “Glorious” and “Because of who you are.” Special guests for event include Michael Gungor, William McDowell, Jonathan Stockstill, and Mary Alessi. Munizzi won the 2005 Stellar award for New Artist of the Year.
Last Sunday Bishop T.D. Jakes said he has been asked what he thought about the Bishop Eddie Long sex scandal. So he took the liberty Sunday to speak to the congregation and the world on how we should be handling the allegations as Christians.
Jamal Parris, one of the four accusers in Bishop Eddie Long sex scandal said, “That the Bishop turned his back on them when he had no more need for them.” “This was our father and we loved him.” His presence alone is seduction to a boy without a father.”
When asked why he didn’t say no this is wrong? Parris Says he was “Afraid to loose a father.” “You finally have a father that you’ve always wanted for and always dreamed of,” Parris said. “He would just walk away from you if you don’t give him what he wants. So you end up turning into something you never thought you would be, which is now a slave to a man that you love.”
Recalling the details of nights spent with Bishop Long, Parris said, “I cannot get the sound of his voice out of my head,” “I cannot forget the smell of his cologne. And I cannot forget the way that he made me cry many nights when I drove in his car on the way home, not able to take enough showers to wipe the smell of him off of my body.” Jamal Parris spoke to Atlanta’s Fox 5 and told the station, “that man can not look me in my eye and tell me we did not live this pain,” Parris said. “Why you can sit in front of the church and tell them that you categorically deny it. You can’t say that to our face. And you know this. You are not a man, you are a monster.”
Bishop Eddie Long (left) Poses with Jamal Parris (right)
President Barack Obama in an Albuquerque, NM, backyard. President Obama is trying to reconnect with the American people, and he is using the simple setting of everyday citizens backyard, to do it. In one of the questions a woman threw the president a unscripted question — “Why are you a Christian? she asked. This gave Obama an opportunity to speak on his Christian faith, and once again dispel the rumors that he’s a Muslim. Obama said:
You know, I’m a Christian by choice. My family didn’t — frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn’t raise me in the church.
So I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead — being my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me.
And I think also understanding that Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility we all have to have as human beings, that we’re sinful and we’re flawed and we make mistakes, and that we achieve salvation through the grace of God. But what we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people and do our best to help them find their own grace.
And so that’s what I strive to do. That’s what I pray to do every day. I think my public service is part of that effort to express my Christian faith. And it’s — but the one thing I want to emphasize, having spoken about something that obviously relates to me very personally, as President of the United States, I’m also somebody who deeply believes that the — part of the bedrock strength of this company is that it embraces people of many faiths and of no faith — that this is a country that is still predominantly Christian. But we have Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, and that their own path to grace is one that we have to revere and respect as much as our own. And that’s part of what makes this country what it is.
White House aides says ithe backyard discussions are a good way for the president to get out of the “white house bubble,” and hear the needs of everyday people. It’s also a strong point for the president which keeps him in campaign mode. The President is scheduled for future backyard stops in Iowa and Wisconsin.
What do you think? Do you think the President is doing a good job expressing the beliefs of the Christian faith? Is the backyard talks helping his approval rating?
In Black in America’s third year, CNN will focus on the church. Spiritual and gospel music has always been at the heart of the black church. To honor this rich tradition, CNN is inviting choirs around the world of all denominations to sing as one.
How to participate: Gather your choir and sing a very special hymn, “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” by Andrae Crouch — commonly referred to as “The Blood.” Then upload your video here. CNN will blend all the videos together to create a unique global version.
Tips and guidelines:
– Please sing in the key of F.
– We encourage you to sing a cappella, but minimal instrumentation like percussion is welcome.
– Audio is key, we encourage you to use microphones in order to capture the best possible audio.
– You’re welcome to sing in your place of worship, but we encourage you to sing someplace that best represents your hometown. Someplace significant to your community.
– Don’t have a choir? That’s fine – sing by yourself, or with members of your congregation.
Upload your videos below before Sunday, October 10, 2010. Please be sure to include the name of your church and choir and please keep video files under 600MB. After you’ve uploaded your videos, CNN will put them together to make a global choir of voices.
Baptist televangelist Eddie Long said Sunday he will fight allegations that he coerced young male church members into having sex with him.”I am not the man that has been portrayed on television,” he told his congregation.
This after a fourth lawsuit has been filed against Atlanta-area pastor Eddie Long, alleging he coerced a 17-year-old into a sexual relationship during a 2005 trip the two took to Africa.
The suit — filed, like the others, in DeKalb County, Georgia, State Court — claims Long invited Spencer LeGrande, now 22, on a trip to Kenya.
On the first night in Nairobi, Long asked LeGrande to come to his room, where the youth told the pastor he was having difficulty going to sleep, the suit states. Long provided Ambien, a sleep aid, and they both took the drug, according to the suit.
Long then gave LeGrande a hug, kissed and licked the youth’s lips and rubbed the teen’s chest, according to the lawsuit. They slept in bed together that evening and during the rest of the Kenya trip, the lawsuit states, adding they went on shopping sprees.
In a statement released by his spokesman, Long denied these allegations along with the other three.
Speaking publicly about the accusations for the first time, Long did not address the specific allegations contained in four lawsuits filed against him earlier this week.
“I’ve been accused, I’m under attack,” he said, lowering his head and softening his voice behind the pulpit at the New Birth Baptist Church in suburban Atlanta.
“I want you to know, as I said earlier, that I am not a perfect man. But this thing, I’m going to fight,” he said. “I feel like David against Goliath, but I’ve got five rocks and I haven’t thrown one yet.”
With that, the 57-year-old pastor put down his microphone and walked off stage, receiving deafening applause from the thousands who had come to hear him.
The lawsuits accuse Long of using his power and influence within the 25,000-member church to lure young male church members into sexual relationships. The suits allege that the relationships, which began when the men were in their teens, lasted over many months.
Long took the young men — all of them teens at the time — on trips, including to Kenya, according to the suits. Long allegedly paid for their hotel rooms, and gave the young men gifts, including a car, cash and jewelry — all in exchange for sexual favors such as massaging, masturbation and oral sex.
The accusations were particularly controversial because Long, who is married, has preached passionately against homosexuality over the years.
In 2004, he led a march to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s grave in Atlanta in support of defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. He once declared that his church had created a ministry that “delivered” people from homosexuality. He has a national presence, has been invited to the White House, runs a popular television ministry, and oversees a worship campus that includes a school.
In the parking lot after the services Sunday, church member Juan Davis told CNN affiliate WXIA that he was “very satisfied with what I heard.”
“It’s a very difficult moment for the church, for the pastor, but I know for sure they’re going to overcome it — overcome it in a big way,” Davis said.
Gabrielle Richards, 21, who has attended New Birth for nearly eight years, told CNN that after hearing Long’s sermon, “nothing has changed.”
“My love for the ministry, my love for [the] bishop and his family has not changed,” she said.
Richards also said she was proud of Long for “the way he came out with his head up. … He showed the strength that I’m accustomed to.”
On Saturday, New Birth members also voiced support. “I stand behind the bishop because of the leader that he is. He is a true leader. The word that he gives is so rich, it is so life-changing,” church member Gary Foster Jr. told CNN.
A former New Birth employee, Kevin Bond, said he hopes the allegations are not true. “The evidence … all of that is very troubling to many of us in the gospel community, the Christian community,” said Bond.
Long gave 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. sermons on Sunday. They were essentially the same. Eliciting chuckles from the audience, Long began both by joking, “I gotta talk to my family” of worshippers before addressing what other “folk” — meaning media — were there to hear.
Both sermons focused on “understanding painful situations.”
He quoted Isaiah: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”
Long encouraged congregants to think about natural disasters — tornadoes and floods. He specifically named Hurricane Katrina and other “painful situations.”
“Bishop Eddie Long will have painful situations,” he said.
Shouts of affirmation came from the audience.
“We will walk through this painful situation,” he continued.
Then, the bishop quoted the 23rd Psalm.
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death …”
Worshippers were on their feet.
He urged them to stay committed to being “prayerful,” then briefly reminded them that it’s nearly election time in Georgia, that it was important to vote and be involved.
He then went back to speaking about himself. “Some people think I’m lost,” he said. It is those people, he said, who “will have an opportunity to come down to the altar.”
New Birth will continue to worship and thrive, he said.
“We ain’t gonna stop it,” he said.
More cheers. The camera panned to the pastor’s wife Vanessa Long. She smiled.
Each sermon ran approximately 20 minutes.
Between sermons, Long spoke briefly to reporters. “I want this to be dealt in the court of justice and not by public opinion,” he said. “I will say that I am going to fight, fight very vigorously against these charges.”
Bishop Eddie Long scandal photos (pictures below), on a cellphone, in his bathroom, were released by plaintiff’s attorney. Bishop Eddie Long’s scandal pictures don’t depict much, showing the Bishop fully clothed, and not validating any of the claims of the plaintiffs.
Plaintiff’s attorney released the two pictures in which the Bishop is dressing in a muscle shirt holding his phone up in the bathroom. One bathroom, while not verified by the attorney, appears to be a hotel bathroom. The attorney representing the plaintiffs is referred to by local news as a “prominent Atlanta” attorney, B.J. Bernstein. In releasing the pictures, Bernstein said the pictures were taken by Long and sent to young teen males who attended Longfellows Youth Academy. She would not specify who specifically received the photos or where the photos were taken.
In a statement read on a syndicated radio show earlier Thursday morning, Atlanta-based megachurch pastor Eddie Long denied he had coerced young male church members into sex, as alleged in three lawsuits filed against him.
“I have been through storms and my faith has always sustained me,” Long, pastor of the 25,000-member New Birth Missionary Baptist Church said in the statement, read by attorney Craig Gillen on the “Tom Joyner Morning Show.” “I am anxious to respond directly to these false allegations, and I will do so. However, my lawyers counseled patience at this time.”
“Let me be clear: The charges against me and New Birth are false,” the statement said. “I have devoted my life to helping others and these false allegations hurt me deeply, but my faith is strong and the truth will emerge.”
Long asked for patience “as we continue to categorically deny each and every one of these ugly charges” and requested prayers for himself, his family and the church. He said he will respond to his congregation from the pulpit on Sunday.
“These false allegations are an attack on Bishop Long personally,” Gillen said. “They are an attack on New Birth, the entire church and all of its 25,000 good people who attend that church, and it’s an attack on the mentoring program that has helped thousands of young men. It is deeply, deeply unfortunate that these allegations have been made. They will be met.”
In a statement read on a syndicated radio show Thursday, Atlanta-based megachurch pastor Eddie Long denied he had coerced young male church members into sex, as alleged in three lawsuits filed against him.
“I have been through storms and my faith has always sustained me,” Long, pastor of the 25,000-member New Birth Missionary Baptist Church said in the statement, read by attorney Craig Gillen on the “Tom Joyner Morning Show.” “I am anxious to respond directly to these false allegations, and I will do so. However, my lawyers counseled patience at this time.”
“Let me be clear: The charges against me and New Birth are false,” the statement said. “I have devoted my life to helping others and these false allegations hurt me deeply, but my faith is strong and the truth will emerge.”
Long asked for patience “as we continue to categorically deny each and every one of these ugly charges” and requested prayers for himself, his family and the church. He said he will respond to his congregation from the pulpit on Sunday.
“These false allegations are an attack on Bishop Long personally,” Gillen said. “They are an attack on New Birth, the entire church and all of its 25,000 good people who attend that church, and it’s an attack on the mentoring program that has helped thousands of young men. It is deeply, deeply unfortunate that these allegations have been made. They will be met.”
Gillen was interviewed by Roland Martin, a syndicated columnist and CNN political analyst, during Martin’s segment on the Joyner show. Gillen said he is to blame for Long’s failure to appear on the radio show as scheduled. Asked about a Thursday press conference that was also canceled, Gillen said he thought the matter was a misunderstanding, as he had never committed to a press conference.
“That’s my call,” he told Martin regarding the interview and press conferences being canceled. “In assessing the situation, no lawyer likes to have his client in a situation where … charges are made and the lawyer doesn’t have control.”
The third lawsuit joined two that were filed on Tuesday, all of them in DeKalb County, Georgia. It was brought on behalf of Jamal Parris, now 23, who like the others was a teenager when he joined Long’s church.
The suit, which claims Long encouraged Parris to call him “Daddy,” also names the church and Long’s LongFellows Youth Academy as defendants.
The new lawsuit gives intimate details about Parris and his alleged relationship with Long.
Parris joined New Birth in 2001, when he was 14. Long counseled Parris when the latter talked about his strained relationship with his father and got him a job as a summer camp counselor at the church, the suit states.
The suit, which like the others was filed by Atlanta attorney B.J. Bernstein, claims Long engaged in sexual acts with Parris. The young man eventually became a church employee and served as personal assistant to Long and traveled with him, the suit says. The pastor continued to engage in sexual activity with Parris and gave him money, trips and gifts, the suit says.
It says Parris left the church in late 2009, “disillusioned, confused and angry about his relationship with Defendant Long.” The bishop manipulated and deceived Parris into thinking that the acts were a “healthy component of his spiritual life,” the suit states.
The allegations are similar to those contained in the Tuesday suits, filed on behalf of Anthony Flagg, now 21, and Maurice Murray Robinson, now 20. All three contend the LongFellows Youth Academy and New Birth knew or should have known of Long’s behavior and that they failed to warn the young men. The lawsuits describe LongFellows as an offshoot of New Birth.
Bernstein has alleged Long had a pattern of using his position as a spiritual authority and bishop to coerce young male members and employees of the church into sex. CNN was the first to report on the lawsuits.
But “this church and this bishop have been devoted to giving to the community and giving back to young men,” Gillen said Thursday.
Long is considered one of the nation’s top African-American preachers. His church was the site of Coretta Scott King’s 2006 funeral, attended by then-President George W. Bush and three former presidents. King was the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The three men claim Long took them on overnight trips to various locations within the United States and beyond, sharing a room and engaging in sexual contact with them, including massaging, masturbation and oral sex.
Bernstein, who represents Parris, Flagg and Robinson, said Wednesday that the youths’ accounts are “really strong.”
She said she has worked with sexual abuse victims and finds the two believable because of “the emotion. The intensity. The very strong description of what sexual acts occurred. … This is not just someone giving a vague thing, ‘Oh, yeah, one time he did this,’ or a couple of times.”
Gillen noted that Robinson was charged in connection with a June burglary of Long’s office, and said he is attempting to get tapes that have been turned over to the district attorney’s office.
Bernstein said Wednesday that about $100,000 worth of items were taken, including black diamonds. She said the theft stemmed from Robinson’s anger at Long and was an attempt to retaliate against him.
Asked the motive for the suits, Gillen said, “Let me put it this way. What is the motive of someone putting a ski mask over their face and breaking into your office to steal things? Money.”
He said the suits, “without a single piece of corroborating evidence, (have) ignited a firestorm against this good man.”
Long spokesman Art Franklin told CNN Wednesday the church employs many young people, and numerous people travel with Long. Gillen said the young men are taken on such trips to expose them to cultures and diversity they might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience.
Asked how she can prove that sexual contact took place, Bernstein said Wednesday, “I am ready to put them under oath. Bishop Long can spend money on the best attorneys in this world, and they can question those young men, and then I’ll get to question the bishop, and then we’ll really see what’s going on.”
Long frequently denounces homosexual behavior. A 2007 article in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s magazine called him “one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders in the religiously based anti-gay movement.”
The suits allege that Long chose the plaintiffs to be his “Spiritual Sons,” a program that allegedly includes other young men from the church.
“Spiritual Sons are taken on public and private jets to U.S. and international destinations, housed in luxury hotels and given access to numerous celebrities including entertainment stars and politicians,” the suit alleges.
Flagg’s suit says that Long presided over a spiritual “covenant” ceremony between the two of them. Bernstein described it as “essentially a marriage ceremony, with candles, exchange of jewelry and biblical quotes.”
The lawsuits are seeking unspecified amounts of punitive damages from Long on various counts, ranging from negligence to breach of fiduciary duty.
Bishop Eddie Long (left) Poses with Jamal Parris (right)
