{"id":2916,"date":"2012-02-03T10:36:43","date_gmt":"2012-02-03T15:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/W3\/?p=2916"},"modified":"2012-02-03T10:36:43","modified_gmt":"2012-02-03T15:36:43","slug":"bishop-eddie-long-crowned-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/bishop-eddie-long-crowned-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Bishop Eddie Long crowned &#8216;king&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AVkoQHCXSK8\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Bishop Eddie Long has been called anointed, but he was recently awarded another title, as shown in a video that\u2019s gone viral. He\u2019s now a king.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Long was wrapped in a \u201cHolocaust Torah\u201d and crowned a king during a recent Sunday ceremony at New Birth Missionary Church, his suburban Atlanta congregation.<\/p>\n<p>A visiting rabbi wrapped Long in the Torah, which he said was recovered during the Holocaust. The rabbi then directed four men to lift a seated Long in his chair and parade him before the New Birth congregation.<\/p>\n<p>Long wiped tears away as he looked over his cheering congregation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is a king. God\u2019s blessed him. He\u2019s a humble man, but in him is kingship, royalty,\u201d Rabbi Ralph Messer shouted.<\/p>\n<p>Word of the pastor&#8217;s crowning ceremony spread across the Web. Last year, Long settled out of court with four young men who accused him of coercing them into sexual relationships.<\/p>\n<p>A rabbi and Christian scholar questioned Long and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.torah.tv\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=56&amp;Itemid=84\">Messer, <\/a>the man who led Long\u2019s crowning ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>Messer said during the ceremony that the Torah was a \u201cpriceless\u201d 312-year-old scroll that had been recovered from the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. He said he wanted to honor Long \u201con behalf of Jewish people, and the land of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shearithisrael.com\/mc\/page.do?sitePageId=12805\">Rabbi Hillel Norry<\/a> of Congregation Shearith Israel in Georgia said the ceremony was \u201cridiculous.\u201d There\u2019s no Jewish coronation ceremony where someone is wrapped in a Torah and made a king, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just don\u2019t do that. We treat it with deference,\u201d Norry said of the Torah. \u201cIt\u2019s a shawl, not a crown. Don\u2019t treat it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Norry said Messer doesn\u2019t appear to be an ordained rabbi in the Jewish faith. He also doubts that the Torah that Long was wrapped in is actually 312 years old, and had somehow escaped detection in a concentration camp.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Torah is the size of a person. It\u2019s not like you can hide one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Brent Strawn, an associate professor at Emory University\u2019s Candler School of Theology, said Christian pastors are not treated as kings in the New Testament.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are almost always spoken of as servants,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is exemplified by Jesus in the New Testament, when he wears the garment of a servant and washes his disciples\u2019 feet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Long declined to speak, but his spokesman released a statement from the rabbi who led the ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>Messer leads the Simchat Torah Beit Midrash congregation in Colorado, which describes itself as a community of Jewish and non-Jewish believers in \u201cYeshua,\u201d or Jesus Christ. He said the ceremony was held to honor and encourage Long because the pastor had given so much to his church, and the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was not to make Bishop Eddie L. Long a king,\u201d Messer said in the statement. \u201cLifting him on the chair was to acknowledge and honor him. It is done all the time at Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Long is one of the most well-known televangelists in America. At its peak, New Birth had around 25,000 members, and Long\u2019s sermons were broadcast around the globe.<\/p>\n<p>Two years ago, Long\u2019s public image took a hit when four young men accused him of misusing his spiritual authority to coerce them into sexual relations. Long\u2019s wife, Vanessa, filed for divorce last year.<\/p>\n<p>By<strong> John Blake<\/strong>, CNN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bishop Eddie Long has been called anointed, but he was recently awarded another title, as shown in a video that\u2019s gone viral. He\u2019s now a king.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2916"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}