Bishop Eddie Long Video: 'This Thing, I'm Going to Fight'

By
We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Bishop Eddie Long's much anticipated Sunday news conference after four days of silence turned out to be anticlimactic. A spokesman came out with Long to declare that the minister would not answer questions. Standing before some 40 reporters and camera operators at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., he declared that "on the advice of counsel, I am not going to address the allegations and attacks against me. I want this to be dealt with in a court of justice and not in the court of public opinion."

He listed the church's good works  — churches in Nigeria and Kenya, a hospice in South Africa and work in Honduras. He insisted the church would continue to work with youth, the focus that has led to the accusations against him.

Earlier he said essentially the same thing to about 10,000 members of his congregation: "I have never in my life portrayed myself as a perfect man, but I am not the man being portrayed on television. That's not me. That is not me." This was the closest Long has come to flatly denying the charges, and many in his congregation rose to their feet to cheer.

Casting himself as a beleaguered victim, the pastor of one of the largest churches in the U.S. declared: "But this thing I’m going to fight. I feel like David against Goliath, but I’ve got five rocks, and I haven’t thrown one yet."

See an eight-minute video clip of his sermon below. He addresses the allegations against him at the five-minute mark.