WARNING: SEXUALLY GRAPHIC IMAGES ARE CONTAINED WITHIN THIS POST!
Now most of you who know my style of expressing myself know that I try to explain myself as thoroughly as I possibly can to the point where a ROCK would know what I meant in my words!
Being human, whenever one writes passionately about an issue that happens to be current, controversial or very emotional in nature, many who choose to plunge their face deep in the sands of denial and refuse to deal with the events as they unfurl, do so because they realize that everything that they thought was written in stone wasn’t and their illusion of reality must be reconstructed once again.
…….a very uncomfortable prospect indeed and one that most do not ever have to endure in their lifetime.
But when the winds of change blow at your door and knock it down you have no choice but to deal with it immediately!
I find myself with each advancing day of this incredible life a little less tolerant on anything that is not the raw naked truth.
Why waste your time with anything else?
I was in a spirited conversation with a friend of mine recently and she asked me if I were Mr. Eddie Long what would I do and how would I have handled it if it were me standing in his shoes. I believe she was very upset with me for the “shoot from the hip” blog that I wrote mere hours after the Eddie Long scandal broke. As a matter of fact, I received plenty of angry responses afterward but those were totally overshadowed by the e-mail full of agreement and respect that I received for speaking my mind immediately without taking the time to carefully choose my fiery words.
Wow!
You know I just have to be funny and say that thankfully my weaknesses/fetishes are of a completely different variety and would not fall under that particular category! Lol!
But on a serious note, we have two scenarios here as far as I am concerned, one, if he is guilty of the charges and the other if he is not. In the case of a certain guilt, here is my personal prescription for the beginnings of his vindication.
If I were Eddie Long, I would contact every available media outlet, print, broadcast and online to arrange a press conference at the church. While the world watches, as the cameras record my every movement, I would step strongly to that pulpit and say:
“I AM guilty of the charges put on me, I did it. It may seem insincere for me to apologize at this time because I was quite honestly busted. I am not going to sit up here and lie to you and say that I am sorry when I would probably have continued to indulge in something that I have been doing for a long time.”
“But because of the public revelations of the young men involved, I must now deal with these issues head on and man up in the manner in which I have always projected in my ministry. If there is ever an aspect in this travesty that you could respect me for, it will be in this area of confession and handling everything truthfully at this point.”
“No, I am not going to put on a dramatic display of “onion on the fingertip” crocodile tears in front of this congregation and to the world to beg for your forgiveness at this point because as a man that is used to speaking in front of huge audiences, you know that my tears would come off as fake.”
“All I ask from you at this point is to pray for the healing of my victims and pray for all of the people that have been affected by my wayward actions while acting fraudulently as a man of God.”
“I am also quite sure most of you would agree that the noble thing to do is to compensate financially those young men for the lifelong scars that I have caused them to suffer and make sure that they never have to struggle in this life for material survival while they walk with this burden that I have so selfishly put on their lives…….”
“I will also supply unlimited counseling at the facility of their choice at MY expense for the rest of their lives, this care will extend to all of their family members who without a doubt were also affected severely by my actions.”
“And while it has been selfish and arrogant in the beginning to say I would fight the charges when in fact I knew that they were right all along, I will say to them everyday for the rest off my life that I am SORRY for what I have done to you.”
“I will now step down from this pulpit forever as I deal with my predatory ways and will make sure to never do anything that will even look like a wrong deed and only ask that you hold me accountable for my actions as well as watching me like a hawk!”
“I will ask the State of Georgia to accept my application to be registered as a sex offender and will carry myself as one even if the state rejects it because in actuality that is what I am.”
“If you hate me, I can understand why.”
“If you pray for me to burn in the pits of hell I can also understand that too. So know that while I was exposed to the world by my victims and not by any desire to stop what I was doing at least respect how I will handle it from this point on and do know that this probably is the best thing that could have happened to me before anything more transpired because of my devious deviant heart.”
“Thank you…….”
Now if he is innocent he should STILL STEP DOWN and undeniably proclaim his innocence without a shadow of a doubt and remain OUT of the pulpit until the courts have decided who is telling the truth………
To remain in the pulpit at this sensitive time only reeks of arrogance…….
But yes, that is what I believe Eddie Long should do in either scenario. If he executed what I just laid out he would win back at least a portion of the respect that he had over time because of the way in which he handled it.
But what will happen in reality? Only he knows what is in his heart.
Whatever is in Mr. Long’s heart, he surely knows the content and HE has to live with it whether the truth comes out in full view or not. Hey, we may never know what truly transpired behind the various closed doors with those young men as there are so many smokescreens to wade through. But one thing we do know is that something had to happen and I don’t believe all of these allegations are a total fabrication.
It’s funny, deep in my thoughts earlier I began to think about the nature of sin and how it can literally sneak up on an individual, we are ALL vulnerable to this phenomenon as it can start out so small and almost undetectable until it becomes a full blown situation that we have been blinded to as we indulge in it’s substitute sweetness.
Substitute sweetness?
Yes, I didn’t bite my tongue! That is exactly what I said! SWEETNESS!
But it is a false sweetness.
Sin at first possesses an allure that is terribly strong and we all need to understand this because too many of us are falling to the various “traps” put out for us and we just feel as though we can out muscle these spiritual diversions on our own and we are totally mistaken!
I mean, when you realize that satan was second in command behind God and was influential enough to lure one third of the angels OUT of Heaven and turn against God, that has GOT to be one slick dude! Now don’t take that as some type of admiration for the devil because I despise what he has done across the face of God’s creation with all of my heart. I am just trying to make you understand that this evil entity can pick his teeth with us at will if we do not protect ourselves in the bosom of our God.
We are no match for satan and his tricks and I have personally experienced his attempts and temporary mini victories in my life in the past when I fell victim to his various coercions.
Now how many people do you know admit THIS much?
Now don’t get it twisted, my weakness has always come in the form of a woman. Eddie Long and I have VERY different weaknesses. But sin is sin and it permeates us in the same manner no matter WHAT the perversion, desire or stronghold. Let me give you an analogy…….for those of you who enjoy going to the beach, do you remember the time when you thought to yourself that you just might “get your feet wet” or go out into the water but not to far?
Well, remember how to slowly went out into the water with others around you but you continue to wade outward ever so slowly thinking that you weren’t out to far only to be shocked how far out and away from the shore and everybody else that was previously near you?
You almost panicked when you saw how far out you were…….
Sin can sneak up on you the same way.
Sin is sin. My particular indulgence may not be yours but it ALL boils down to the same result. DEATH.
That being said, there is ONE more statement that I feel I have to repeat and for those of you who insist that I am “judging” Mr. Long or ANYONE else that I write passionately about in the various situations portrayed in my articles.
But BEFORE I make my statement on this confusing (It won’t be after today!) issue, I went to Dictionary.com to see what THEIR definition of the word “judge” was, I had to do this because we don’t have the luxury and blessing of having Judge Joe Brown, Judge Glenda Hatchett or Judge Judy Sheindlin in our presence today so here it is:
Your Honor, I have NOTHING FURTHER…….