People in Richmond churches and around the world are still talking about a ceremony held for Bishop Eddie Long at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church on Sunday, January 29, 2012.
In fact, religious leaders have called it "repulsive" and "inappropriate."
A video taken at a service shows Long being crowned “king” in an elaborate ceremony. (See VIDEO on the left).
A Messianic preacher Rabbi Ralph Messer instructed men to wrap Long in a ritual shawl, which Jews call a tallis.
Messer said:
“He's a king. God’s blessed him. He’s a humble man. But in him is kingship. In him is royalty. In him was a land of Israel.”
Long is then raised up on a throne to the ecstatic applause of the parishioners. “He now is raised up from a commoner to a kingship,” said Messer.
What People Are Saying:
- Rev. Morris Tipton, director of media relations at the National Baptist Convention, told black news site The Grio that he is not impressed by the video. “God has called us to be serving leaders and not celebrities.”
- Rev. Wil Gafney, an associate professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, wrote a lengthy, negative assessment of the ceremony in the Huffington Post. Gafney details “misrepresentations of the Torah and other Jewish sancta” by Messer.
- Rabbi David Shiff of Congregation Beth Hallel, a Messianic Jewish synagogue in Roswell, also condemned the ceremony and Messner’s claim that he was a Messianic Jew.
- Rev. Margaret Minnicks, ordained minister of Christian Education and founder of The Way of Life Bible Institute in Richmond, Virginia believes this is a misrepresentation of what God wants Christian leaders to be. "Bishop Eddie Long is no king. Only Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Something is seriously wrong with the world and with the parishioners of New Birth when they accept this as God ordained."
The ceremony, in most opinions, was a disgrace to Christianity.
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