The Greatest Story Never Told: Black Clergy Sexual Abuse

What does James H. Bell, Tyrone Forbes, Edwin House, Bruce Curtis Leon Dupree, Clarence Garrison and Willie L. Jefferson all have in common? They are pastors that have been arrested for sexual abuses against their parishioners. And in some of the cases, several have been convicted.

It is a fact that sexual abuse goes under-reported in communities of color. Now let's take that fact and apply it when it comes to outing a pastor, deacon, bishop, or other clergymen and women who serve as high power figures in black communities. Not only is it complicated, but in some instances it can be dangerous.

The recent Eddie Long church scandal has magnified an oft-overlooked flaw in the black community. We exempt our "leaders", and more readily, our religious leaders from moral or ethical scrutiny. And when this happens, we participate in our own oppression.

With the past 10 years of sexual abuse cover-ups, lawsuits and scandals becoming a mainstay in the Catholic church and among white clergymen, there is a notion among some black church members that their black pastors are absolved from this sin. It is as if their pastors' erections are somehow different, more divine, thus are stuck in the right orifices.

And in some instances, the victim at the church becomes the predator or the enemy in the eyes of church members---resulting in a collective exile, or one that is self-imposed due to the rejection from people they thought loved them as children of Christ.

It is no wonder why George H. Bush sought out leaders of predominately black mega-churches during election time. Not only do they hold the purse-strings of parishoners, but they control the consciousness of a powerful voting bloc. And just like the teabaggers, these folks vote for someone who is totally against their interest, all in the name of not passing out condoms at schools.

Though some black church-goers refuse to acknowledge that rampant sexual abuse goes on in black churches, it is as alive-and-well as Sunday morning sermons. So much so, that an organization was formed in 2003 to report sexual abuse in the largest black church in the U.S., Church of God in Christ or COGIC.

Sexual abuse doesn't start or stop at COGIC or at Eddie Long's New Birth Missionary Baptist.

Other prominent churches have been hit in the past. In April 2009, Pastor Patrick Jerome Whitehead of the famous Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was arrested for forcing sexual actions such as sodomy on a teen he taught at a local high school.

The list does not stop there. Some of these cases may make those who doubt sexual abuse by black clergy become quiet as a church mouse.

In Jackson, Ms, Rev. Freddie Parker was arrested in 2009 for impregnating a 14-year old parishioner who claims they had sex in the church building and at her home.

Harry Benson of United Methodist Church in Delaware was arrested for numerous counts of molesting a boy he had abused from ages 12 to 18.

In 2005, Pastor Leonard Ray Owens of Prayer House of Faith was arrested for raping a woman he said he was raping the "lesbian demon" out of her. WTF?

In Harlem in 2008, the Catholic Archdiocese suspended, Monsignor Wallace Harris for sexual abusing students in his high school in the 1980s; 10 men and 4 women came out to talk against him.

In 2007, Charles Dickerson out of Fresno, Ca. was arrested for molested two girls in his family, one of them were pregnant.

Since the reports of what is called "Black Collar Crimes" or sexual abuse by clergy members, there have been some clergy who have spoken out. Nevertheless, this is far and few between.

Some people may think that my mission is to destroy the black church; but as a great-grand-niece of a black clergyman from Mississippi who was killed due to his political agitation, I hope the recent expose pushes a needed restructuring of the black church from the top down.



Information regarding COGIC retrieved from: Report COGIC Abuse: http://www.reportcogicabuse.com/about.html ; thank all y'all for being in the struggle.

Thank you Valerie Shaw for giving me another site dedicated to stopping clergy abuse: Stopped Baptist Predators.

The 800 Pound Dick in the Black Church

by Eco.Soul.Intellectual

Finally, the unchecked, cultish, pimp-like dominion that pastors have had on black churches since MLK was known for plugging a deaconess-a-day is finally being exposed.

It has been the big black open secret that overshadows pulpits since abolition. It is the horrible truth. Nobody dares talk about it. Er'bdy turns a blinds eye to it.

And at this point, no holy oil, scripture verses or a slick $7,000 tailored suit can hide a known fact that has been an ugly thread in the history of black churches for a minute. And in my opinion, a huge contributor the diminishing of black church's political power politically, economic communalism and spiritual leadership.

It seems these days that the last incentive for a crook to go legit is to open up a damn church. Sheeit, pimps gotta eat too. That whole profit

Oh, and that goes for black mosques---the Nation of Islam and Orthodox mosques that toss sisters up like shot glassed; And I will not leave out Hebrew Israelites who "discipline" women by putting them in homes with other women who have violated policy; the Nuwabian nation with Malachi York who was known to sleep with a man's bride the night before the wedding; Or the Santeros, and Orisha community in which the priests run through the women like loose bowels.

Let's put it all on the table tonight! Sexual exploitation and black religion goes hand in hand.

But let's get back to Christian churches since they hold the bulk of black folk in the States.

Black pastors, mainly males, have a sordid history of abusing their power through sexually exploiting the congregation members. And largely, much of them refuse to deal with the visible gay population in their churches.

Conveniently, some pastors sex parishoners while hiding behind bible quotes to skirt the issue of homosexuality in the black community. Little be known that the most sexually free person is the pimp at the pulpit.

Now you know why black churches are filled with women and down-low choir directors that everyone know is gay because he uhh, flames like nobody's business. Welp, now you have it, the head of the church is fucking them all in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah.

Ahh, power can make a dick hard.

Hence long-dong, Eddie Long. Or should I say Dick Tracey Long (his alias according to court documents). A man who is alleged to use the little power that the black community yields to turn out young men.

Bishop Long, I promise you will make more money if you fall on the sword of God and admit your flaws.

Unfortunately, these god-like pastors have raised themselves up so much that they have provided little room to be human and be honest about their woes. Not just on a Sunday morning feel-good session (not with Jaheim I mean); but real, day-to-day issues where they go and get some help. And not from another lascivious pastor.

Pastor-on-pastor counsel does not help. Look what it did to Juanita Bynun and Thomas Weeks. A 2-million-dollar divorce, oodles of cosmetic surgery, an ass whooping, and a nasty divorce later, they are back ministering to whom I might ask? Probably folk who don't have the luxury to hide behind money, gospel books, and fish fries.

Right now, I bet Long's dire-hard church members are holding vigils in front of the church, crying and singing to the Lord. Some of these people are probably facing foreclosure, or a dime away from hunger, but sure enough will throw themselves in front of a bus to save their profit, oh, I mean prophet. That means they will hush those accusations even if they are true, in the name of their love for Long. Unfortunate, but true.

Sadly, people are flipping backwards as if this shit is new. This is not new. It is actually so old it is intertwined in the DNA of black church cultre.

Right after paying tithes comes the pastor swinging his dick at lonely women, married women, young girls, and ahem, a chip off the old Catholic block---young boys.

All those years, young women were secreted away to have babies by bishops; or women are counseled by their pastors between the bible and sweaty jukes in his office might finally get some justice.

And for the lack of addressing the visible black gay population, I hope this is a wake up call to bible thumpers that those so-called "faggots" you diss are Christians too. And in this case, it might be the head of a mega-church.

Maybe, just maybe, the son of TD Jakes, you know Jermaine Jakes, the one who was arrested for soliciting sex in a gay park in Dallas. Maybe, just maybe, he can be comfortable out of the closet.

By the way, where the fuck is Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Creflo Dollar, TD Jakes and all those pastors? Crickets.

Blog On EcoSoul