On the outside this appears to be another sad attempt to get the approval of man. Bishop Eddie Long recently brought in a guest Rabbi who crowned him King. Elevating him from a commoner to a kinship.
Many are analyzing the video but you’ll have to see it for yourself to determine whether or not you believe this is kingship in a spiritual sense or a worldly sense.
Long has recently returned to preaching church services again after briefly stepping down as head pastor from the church due to a sex scandal and subsequent divorce from his wife. This Sunday however, he invited a special guest, Rabbi Ralph Messer. The church televised a very special edition of worship service as the rabbi crowned the bishop as “king”.In this 14 minute-long video clip, Messer reveals to church members a priceless 312-year-old scroll apparently recovered from Auschwitz after World War II. After introducing Long, he says, “He was brought through the slaves, raised up in a city, and God now wants to release a new anointing.”
At around the five-minute mark, Messer wraps an emotional Eddie Long in the scroll. After more prayer and being fully wrapped in the scroll, which is said to be done for kings in Israel as a Jewish ritual, four men from the church proceed to “raise him up from a commoner to a kinship.” Long is paraded around the church stage so that members are able to applaud their new king. The demonstration seemed to excite the crowd.
Is this word? Or worldly? You decide.
BISHOP EDDIE LONG APOLOGIZES FOR KINGSHIP VIDEO
“The ceremony was not my suggestion, nor was it my intent, to participate in any ritual that is offensive in any manner to the Jewish community, or any group. Furthermore, I sincerely denounce any action that depicts me as a King, for I am merely just a servant of the Lord,” Long wrote in a letter dated Saturday.
The letter was addressed to Bill Nigut, southeast regional director of the Anti-Defamation League — a Jewish group that fights anti-Semitism.
“While I believe that Rabbi Ralph Messer has good intentions during his message at New Birth, I understand that the ceremony he performed on Sunday, January 29th, caused harm to the Jewish community, for which I am deeply sorry,” Long wrote.
Bill Nigut accepted Long’s apology saying he felt it was sincere.
Rabbi Hillel Norry of Congregation Shearith Israel in Atlanta said last week the ceremony was “ridiculous.” There’s no Jewish coronation ceremony where someone is wrapped in a Torah and made a king, he said.”We just don’t do that. We treat it with deference,” Norry said of the Torah. “It’s not a shawl, not a crown. Don’t treat it that way.”
