Don Lemon interviews YOUNG members of Eddie Long’s New Birth Church. I’m not in to religion and church bashing., because it’s not about either. It is about the human state of consciousness and how it uses these tools to build or destroy other humans lives.
Don Lemon makes a courageous confession of being molested as a young boy. Now I don’t have all the details of what happened in that church, but I do have a vested interest in our youth.
They are the vulnerable and impressionable ones. As I listened to the youth in the interview, I heard the naiveté and devotion to Bishop Long.
3Chics appreciates Mr. Lemon giving the youth a national platform to address their concerns, and your bravery for sharing a very painful secret with them and other youth. your act of courage just might save countless other youth from the atrocities of pedophilia.
Thank you Don!
I enjoyed watching don lemon reports. and would like to see the young man back on the air. iam agrandmother of both a girl and boy, i’ve constantly advocated that we should wath our son has much has our daughters. His statement brought home to a lot of ypung parents to be careful of our young sons. I look forward to seeing Don back on the air.
Excerpt from of CNN transcript
Interview with Gabrielle Richards/Don Lemon 9-26-10
LEMON: So, we invited all three New Birth members to be back with us tonight. Two of them declined, but Gabrielle Richards is back.
And, Gabrielle, I want to hear your thoughts on Bishop Long on his message this morning. But, first, let’s play some of what he had to say to our audience and I’ll get your response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LONG: My first responsibility was to my family and —
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)
LONG: And then my next responsibility is not to address the world before I address my family New Birth.
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)
LONG: There have been allegations and attacks made on me. I have never, in my life, portrayed myself as a perfect man. But I am not the man that’s being portrayed on the television.
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)
LONG: That’s not me. That is not me.
By the counsel of my lawyers, they advised me not to try this case in the media. I am not going to try this case in the media. It will be tried in the court of justice and dealt with in the court of justice.
And, please understand, because that’s the only place I think I’ll get justice. But being in the hands of God — please hear this, please hear this — I’ve been accused. I’m under attack. I want you to know — as I said earlier — I am not a perfect man. But this thing, I’m going to fight.
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)
LONG: And I want you to know one other thing — I feel like David against Goliath.
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)
LONG: But I’ve got five rocks and I haven’t thrown one yet.
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So, Gabrielle, what do you think?
RICHARDS: Well, after hearing Bishop Long this morning, I was so proud of him, the way that he came out with his head up and with his fabulous wife and he showed the strength that I’m accustomed to, and this is the Bishop Long that I know.
LEMON: Yes. Did you want to hear it earlier? I mean, be honest. It’s good, you said, it’s good. But did you want to hear that earlier?
RICHARDS: Earlier, you mean as soon as the allegations came out?
LEMON: Well, sooner, didn’t have to be as soon. But did you want to hear from him earlier than from today?
RICHARDS: I respected his decision to wait and speak to his family, his New Birth family, and that’s a very respectable thing.
LEMON: What was it like being the congregation this morning? Which service did you go to?
RICHARDS: I went to the 8:00 service.
LEMON: And it was — I think it was like 10,000 people you said there?
RICHARDS: It was packed. It was awesome. And everyone was there to hear bishop say what he had to say. And Bishop Long did a great job assuring us that he’s still — he’s still Bishop Long.
LEMON: Did he say, for people who are not used to seeing him, you know him, some people might think that was an angry act of him throwing down the mike and what he said at the end, “I’m going to fight this,” rather than being — it may have come off as a bit arrogant rather than humility. RICHARDS: So, people are saying that it’s coming off arrogant and rather than humility?
LEMON: I’m asking for people who don’t know him, because he may, in his — in his sermons on Sunday, this may be the way that he preaches. And so, if you’re not used to the way that he preaches, this may come off as arrogant or angry. Was this in, in the sense of the way bishop preaches on Sunday, usually?
RICHARDS: Would it be in the sense — well, Bishop Long, he — he said what he had to say and, at the end, he put down the microphone. I don’t feel that it was aggressive or in any way different.
LEMON: OK. I want to play a clip of when he spoke to some of his members and he said what his members may be going through. So, let’s listen to that and then we’ll talk about it.
RICHARDS: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LONG: It’s extremely difficult time for you because many who have called you and asked you questions and all of these kind of things, you ain’t they have got this many phone calls in your life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Are you getting phone calls besides from CNN? Are people calling you?
RICHARDS: Definitely. People want to know. They want to know what’s going on with the bishop and I say, you can wait until Sunday and hear, and they heard today.
LEMON: Yes. Anything changed for you about the bishop, about the church, or whatever, you can — can you continue to be a member of the church? Has anything changed for you at all?
RICHARDS: Nothing has changed. My love for ministry, my love for bishop and his family has not changed.
LEMON: Gabrielle, thank you. It’s, again, very brave to come on. We had two other members who were supposed to come and they didn’t. But I applaud you for coming on and taking on for the bishop because no one is — we don’t hear his side.
RICHARDS: And thank you. And I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to come on and show the positive side and our point of view. So, thank you.
LEMON: There’s more than one side to every story. Which side did you get? That’s in my first newsroom, they said that.
So, thank you very much. We want all sides here on CNN.
RICHARDS: Thanks.
LEMON: Gabrielle, we appreciate it.
JOURNALISM majors, Don Lemon, Anchor of CNN Newsroom will be speaking today at the UC(ballroom) today!! 7-8pm!… Anyone else find CNN’s Don Lemon annoying? Ugh actually they are all annoying. What kind of name is Wolf Blitzer? WHO NAMES THEIR KID THAT?.
Don is a true survivor. I’ve followed the Eddie Long fiasco via the internet until this morning/afternoon. I allowed CNN a bit of air time in my home today and caught Don’s subsequent interview with the one female New Birth member who agreed to come back after this morning’s sermon.
I don’t mean to be blunt or disrespectful. Hold up. Yes, I do. These three youngsters (God bless them for they are young) sound so caught up in the Bishop Long is not delusion. Not giving pause and at least entertaining the idea that something…something was inappropriate is careless.
“Bishop Long doesn’t fit the pedophile profile that I know.” Oh, little girl. Who does?
The guest who wasn’t in the studio made an eery point. Long brought many of his followers to Christ. So, their allegiance is with him.
What about Christ?
Hi Roschelle. I know. The youth are so naive. That is the influence of Bishop Long, who wears the mantle of the authority figure and thus holds the mantle of responsibility for not only his message, but his actions.
Excellent point about where the allegiances lie with these young folks. This is very telling, isn’t it?
I have to admit Ametia, if someone were to tell me that my pastor was tapping young boys, I would first tell them they were lieing. Then I would have to take to the bed from the hurt. That’s a lot of pain for that congregation to have to handle at one time, so it’s easier to go into denial.
I might sound like a broken record here, but I don’t give a rat’s ass about the adult congregation.NONE.WHAT.SO.EVER. I care about the youth.
Who was looking out for our youth through all of this fuckery? Folks had to know what was going down with Bishop Long.
They weren’t that blind and brain-washed in believing this man wasn’t tapping young boy’s asses.
Got a video of the exchange? If you find it, can you please frop a link here? Thanks!
I saw her too Roschelle. She was totally naieve and the one Long needed to defend him. The others didnt show up because they have doubts. Long has not, did not deny the allegations, his people have serious problems with that whether they say it or not.
exactly. they have their doubts, fears, side eyed glances. but feel it would be an unforgivable act of betrayal to ever speak it which is an ever bigger issue.
was any of this circulating around the sprawling church property. did someone “know” “speculate” or “whisper” it prior to the shish hitting the fan?
Yeah, I’m with you Ametia. As hard as it is, Long’s statment today that “I’m not perfect” is as much of an admission of guilt as you are ever going to get from the black men. He who knows how bad the stigma is on black men, by black men about not only being gay but also peodophilia. The epidemic is greater than we will ever know. I have never once heard a black gay man say that there was a shortage of black men for them to have sex with.
“A tap tap here, a tap tap there, here a tap, there a tap, everywhere a tap tap.” And they prey on young boys because they think its safe and they wont get HIV/AIDS. Also they think that fatherless boys are vulnerable. But we learned in the Michael Jackson case that young, vulnerable boys have parents who will go after them. I will take it futher and say that young AA boys have AAmothers, sisters, grandmothers, aunts and uncles whose rage will be even worse than a fathers would.
So what has been the fate of prominent, high profile, deep-pocketed men accused of tap-tapping young men: It was the true demise of Michael Jackson, after driving around the country in a truck for years Ted Haggard has finally gotten a congregation again. Then there is non-peodiphile scandals like Tiger Woods where the emotional effect has totally taken him out of his own game. I am sorry that Long is going to drag this to the courts. My personal opinion is that – as we speak, the MSM is dangling big bucks in front of those young men for interviews who clearly want and need money. Someone has a text/voice message just as Tigers wimmen did. The Court of Public Opinion is now open for testimony in light of Eddie Long’s non-admission. I just don’t want him showing up for court in pajamas cause this hotmess will run him crazy.
LOL@ “I just don’t want him showing up for court in pajamas cause this hotmess will run him crazy.’
Vette, your’e so right. This Bishop Long stuff is no worse than the Ted Haggard scandal. I will not buy the witch hunt, out to get me, Goliath and David nonsense. You do the crime, ya do the time. THE.FREAKING.END. I don’t give a flying fuck if you’re purple.
So if Bishop Long thinks he has a case and is not confessing innocense or complicity, let him go before the courts and seek justice. It’s the American way…
This aint our first rodeo: We went thru this with MJ. And although he was found not guilty, he could never sing in these United States of Angst ever again.
Thus far, I have yet to hear Bishop Long say he is “INNOCENT” of the alleged charges against him. This does not bode well. I am unequivocably supporting the young boys in this debacle.