Every Knee Shall Bow and Every Tongue Confess

The title of this posting, recited by Bishop Eddie Long during his 11 a.m. message this morning, was fitting since he neither bowed nor confessed any wrongdoing to the congregation of New Birth Baptist Church where he is pastor and spiritual leader. This to the chagrin of visiting newscasters and reporters who were present at his church just outside of Atlanta, GA. to hear just such a confession.

I confess that I too wondered how Bishop Long was going to handle this thing. In the words of Bishop Long, I wanted to “Watch this, watch this.” However, the Sunday worship service took its regular form and structure with prayer, praise and offering coming before the message.

When Bishop Long did take the pulpit, he was escorted by his wife Vanessa, who is also a church elder. Bishop Long acknowledged his wife, Elder Long, and their four children and thanked each of them by name for their support. His daughter Taylor, he said, had been especially loving all week. He praised the strength of his wife in the face of what he acknowledged as the hardest trial of his life.

No fool to public sentiment, Bishop Long recognized that the molestation topic was no doubt the discussion of the week and the platform of every beauty shop and barber shop across the nation. He vowed to vigorously fight all of the attacks on him. He likened himself to the psalmist David in a fight with Goliath. “I’ve got five rocks,” he said, ” and I haven’t thrown one yet.

I have been a fan of Bishop Long for many years and so I watched with interest to see if the minister would confess to struggling with this demon of the flesh while directing his congregation to denounce same sex marriage and while running a ministry to counsel gay people to become straight.

Bishop Long’s message was about how to make it through painful times. “Focus on something bigger and better than you,” he said. “Allow the situation to cause you to get better.”