"Love's In Need of Love Today"

"Good morn or evening friends

Here's your friendly announcer

I have serious news to pass on to every-body

What I'm about to say

Could mean the world's disaster

Could change your joy and laughter to tears and pain

It's that 

Love's in need of love today

Don't delay

Send yours in right away

Hate's goin' round

Breaking many hearts

Stop it please

Before it's gone too far"

It has been just over a week since the news broke about lawsuits filed against Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, alleging sexual abuse of young men recruited into his Long Fellows Academy.  Among other allegations, the lawsuits allege that while they were above the age of consent, but still in their teenage years, Eddie Long violated his "fiduciary duty as their spiritual adviser by pushing them into sex."  Since that time, the media, the internet and the telephone committee has spread the word near and far.  I have received and delivered text messages, emails, voice messages and if by chance someone did not have access to any of the new technology, I have no doubt we would have strung together two empty cans of chicken noodle soup to get the latest update.  I have watched videos, read article after article, and even had a brief conversation with a homeless person in the park about it.  It has been ev-er-ywhere!  The responses to the controversy seem to have developed into three discernible categories: 1) Pray 2) Vilify and 3) The Bully Pulpit.  Oh, and the occasional opportunistic "ambulance chaser."  Individuals - be they private citizens or preachers - who aren't on anyone's radar but their own, trying to take advantage of this unfortunate moment to propel themselves into the spotlight.  Needless to say, I won't bother with the "ambulance chasers."  I'll leave them to chase after their own tail or the next story they think they should lasso on to.   

Let's begin with the first category; "Let's pray."  That's right, "God's got it!"  From corner to corner, street to street, church to church, state to state, preacher to teacher, choir to pew, dog to cat, "Prayer" is going to make it all go away, or at the very least, better.  Prayers have gone forth, in the mighty name of Jesus to "fix it."  I shudder to think what or who it is that God's got or exactly what Jesus is supposed to fix.  It's oddly peculiar to me that members of a church, whose leader preaches prosperity at all cost would call on the name of a Mediterranean Jewish peasant to "fix" something for him.  Would that not be the "functional equivalent" of a homeless person being asked to give a man with a private jet and a Bentley a ride to the bank on their back?  I'm jes saying...  And, did the thought ever occur to you all in the "Praying" category that maybe, just maybe, indeed, "God's got it," and that's why this is here with us now?  Again, I'm jes saying...

Category number two, "vilify," is one that I initially found myself drawn towards.  In September of 2004, Like many same-and-both-gender loving people, I watched in utter disbelief, as Eddie Long and Bernice King, (the co-organizer and the youngest daughter of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), led a march of more than 20 thousand people through the streets of Atlanta, GA in support of a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage.  So upon hearing of a "ceremony," he allegedly conducted between himself and the young boys - complete with candles, the reading of scripture, the exchange of promises/vows and jewelry - I felt like shouting louder than the recorded voices of those who wanted Jesus put to death - CRUCIFY HIM, CRUCIFY HIM, CRUCIFY HIM!  I've read the commentaries written by kindred souls who appear to have been waiting with bated breath for the chance to give this man a piece of our collective mind.  I was saddened by what came across as a "na, na - na, na, na" moment, an obscene lust for revenge, and calls for nothing short of Long's head brought before us on a silver platter.  As a woman of God, I am ashamed of feeling this way - "For what will it profit [us]  if [we] gain the whole world, but lose [our] soul?  Or what will [we] give in return for [our] soul (KJV Matthew 16:26; Mark 8:36,37)?   It doesn't make me, or us any better.  Ironically, we have a rare opportunity to stand in the gap.  Rather than allow this to turn into another, "The homosexual bogeyman made me do it" episode, we should make ourselves available to reach across both lines with Love, understanding and compassion, to help to bring about some manner of reconciliation, healing and transformation.  

Bringing up the rear is the third category of the "Bully Pulpit."  This category encompasses the previous two categories.  Each of them, the Prayer warriors, and vitriolic vilifiers of both accused and accuser, have stepped up to the proverbial mic, cleared their throats of any physical resistance to this moment of righteous indignation and claimed the victory over a soon to be fallen foe.  Herein lies the problem.  There is no fallen foe.  There is no victory - none!  No one wins.  For if there is one who has fallen, doesn't the foundation of our faith require us to forgive and be merciful as God has forgiven and shown us mercy?  I don't know, I could be wrong, but somewhere I read, "Forgive us our trespass, as we forgive those who trespass against us."  If, there is Love; If, there is compassion; If there is forgiveness; THEN there is redemption, we may all be changed.  I'm going to stop and retire here because I feel my help coming and I don't want to sound too preachy.  ;)

One parting thought.  In the midst of all the noise and spectacle surrounding this controversy, through all of the praying, the vilifying, and pulpit bullying, one guiding principle is precariously missing.  "Love thy neighbor as thyself," is yet to find a resting place among the scores of casually thrown about scriptural passages.  What happened to Love?  Where did it go?  How did it get lost?  How did it get left out of a conversation that has as its backdrop America's moral compass, the  institutional Black Church?  Have we forgotten what Love looks like - what it feels like?  Is Love only good in times of comfort and convenience?  Is it true what the Spinners sang about Love - that "Love don't Love nobody?"  Or, was Stevie Wonder on to something more profound, warning us that in times like these, even "Love is in need of Love today?"   If this is the case, ev-er-ybody, please, just take a moment, pause and remember Love...  It's feeling a little neglected.  And where Love is absent; Hate triumphs.

"The force of evil plans

To make you its possession 

And it will if we let it

Destroy ev-er-y-body

We all must take 

Precautionary measures

If Love and peace you treasure

Then you'll hear me when I say

Oh that 

Love's in need of love today

Don't delay

Send yours in right away

Hate's goin' round

Breaking many hearts

Stop it please

Before it's gone too far"

               (Stevie Wonder)
© Dorinda G. Henry, 2010

THEOLOGIA HABITUS EST!