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VIA: MyPraiseATL.com

I know that there are a few people that have been anticipating my response to the Bishop Eddie Long scandal as a former Praise and Worship Leader at New Birth.

It took me a few days to gather my thoughts because I was truly devastated by the accusations. He is “My Bishop” and his ministry has changed my life. This man is anointed by God. So to hear His named associated with such descriptive accusations left me completely confounded. My husband and I lost a lot of sleep, because we know that the reason that we were able to sustain our ministry, our careers, our family and our marriage has a lot to do with what we have been taught by Bishop Eddie Long.

He is more than a pastor but a world leader and a leading voice that has undoubtedly played a major role in changing the way we do church across the nation. I know Bishop Long to be extremely generous, full of integrity and character. He has sown seed into my ministry; his words from a spiritual father to a spiritual daughter have carried tremendous weight in my life and have given me the courage to be the woman of God I have become. So one can only imagine the level of devastation I’ve felt.

To look in the faces of 4 young men who have become alleged victims, one of which I have endeared as “my play son” since he was a young teen overwhelmed me. As a former abuse victim, my heart hurt for them and their mothers. Robert and I have a sixteen year old son that we are training and covering and preparing for manhood.

I cannot imagine what the parents of these young men must have felt like to have trusted this great man of God with their sons to teach them and prepare them for life and for them to come home with this type of news. The fear, the rage, and the disappointment they must feel. This is truly an emotional time to endure with no answers.

I learned early in my Christian walk that in these times to become like David and say to the Lord “When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that’s higher than I.” I reached beyond my uncertainty, anguish, and pain and asked the Lord to allow me to view this situation as He sees it. I then realized that this is neither the time to defend either the plaintiffs’ in this case nor the defendant. This is the time to defend the Faith.

This is an incredible time for the Body of Christ to become witnesses for really who He is and why He came. This is our chance to show an ailing society that the LOVE of Christ covers a multitude of sin. If Christ has ever forgiven us in our lives, this is the time to testify about it. If any of us has ever lived a lifestyle that deserved to be judged but received mercy in stead, this is the time to express it. Let’s face it; it’s very rare that we have so much media attention in the religious community, what a great opportunity to “Lift the Savior up for the world to see” that His love and His power be reflected in the way we handle this situation.

No one knows the truth and can only speculate according to what has been communicated in the media about this case. However anyone that knows Christ knows that HE is the Way the Truth and the Life. It’s not our position as believers to judge this case, this situation, none of the parties involved, but our responsibility to uphold a principle from Galatians 6:1 that if we find a brother or sister in a fault, we who are spiritual restore such one in love because quite simply we could b next.

It is our time to speak to victims of abuse publicly and tell them that He is a Father to the Fatherless, and a healer to the ones who have been abused and brokenhearted. We should position ourselves to uphold the same characteristics Jesus held when He faced the adulterous woman at the well, forgave her and simply told her to “Go and Sin No More.” Take on that personality Christ had when the sinful woman came to dinner at the home of the Pharisee Simeon Peter, and made her way to Christ and washed his feet with her tears and anointed his feet with her most precious oil, when Christ said that because her sins were many her value in the kingdom is greater.

We forgot about the power if His Grace, His forgiveness and His Love. Please let’s not get distracted, but refocus ourselves on Whom we STAND for. My brother Coco Brother couldn’t have positioned this STAND campaign at a greater time and bring the Body of Christ Back together as ONE with Jesus as the Celebrity. I am encouraged and well able to face this situation knowing that it is a set up for revival in the Body of Christ.

We’d lost our focus from Christ for a long time. We have been speaking and proclaiming “It’s my time, it’s my season,” in all of this I proclaim that “its Christ’s turn, it’s His time, and it is His season” to be the celebrity, the one celebrated in the midst of this.

I encourage every reader to take the time to shift your focus to the Rock of our Salvation, our Alpha and Omega.

–Darlene McCoy

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