Bishop Eddie Long preached Easter services at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church amid reports that mediation sessions could be close to an agreement in his sexual misconduct cases. Long spoke on the importance of prayer and emphasized that the Christian message is aimed at sinners.
“There’s always somebody going to be yakking at you … you don’t have to answer to anybody but God,” Long said. The resurrection “was not for perfect folk … but for the least, those who thought they failed,” Long said. Concluding, Long said, “This ain’t going to be no bad Friday for me, it’s going to be a Good Friday.”
Channel 2 Action News reports that Sunday Bishop Eddie Long seemed to have embedded messages in his sermons that referenced his accusers.
“You ain’t messin’ with me. I shall rise again and I ain’t going through this,” Long said.
His sermon comes just days after reports came in that the mega-church pastor was close to reaching a settlement with four former church members who accused him of using his spiritual powers to engage in sexual activity.
Long never directly addressed the lawsuit or any possible settlement. Instead, he imparted apparent cryptic commentary about his accusers.
“You have to go down there and let the devil know that what they thought was gonna kill you, didn’t kill you. What they thought was gonna bring terror to you, didn’t bring terror to you and you made the enemy a public spectacle,” Long said during one sermon.
On Friday, Dekalb County Magistrate Judge Johnny Panos told our Channel 2’s Tom Jones he jump started mediation between Long and the accusers and that they were close to an agreement.
“Why wait to the summer? Why wait to the fall? Get it done now and what better time to do it than Holy week,” Panos said.
If an agreement isn’t reached, the case could go to trial this summer. Channel 2 also reported there was apparently one major obstacle preventing a resolution, but that appears to have been settled and the two sides are working on resolving the remaining issues.
As apart of the settlement legal experts predict each of the four young men would get large sums of money, with a clause that prevents them from speaking publicly about the case or settlement. If that happens, we may never know the whole truth.
