Pastor, Mentor, or Father? The Contested Intimacies of the Eddie Long Sex Abuse Scandal

Bibliographic Data

ID13047098
AuthorsTodne Thomas Chipumuro (University of Vermont, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume2
Issue1
Pages1-30
Publication date2014-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Africana Religions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2165-5405 • E-ISSN: 2165-5413
PublisherThe Pennsylvania State University Press (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5325/jafrireli.2.1.0001
OpenAlexW1545798979
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited13

In September 2010, four young African American men filed lawsuits against Bishop Eddie Long and New Birth Missionary Baptist Church alleging that Long had sexually abused them as teens. Though the case generated a number of discussions about the institutional politics underwriting clerical privilege, missing was detailed attention to the interior social dynamics that connected the religious participants. Informed by an examination of the case's legal texts and related local and electronic media, this article examines how the relationships between Long and his accusers were differentially constructed as pastoral relationships, mentorship ties, and spiritual kinship bonds. Applying anthropological frameworks that demonstrate how different forms of sociality can intersect to reinforce social structures, I use this timely investigation to argue that despite the variegated and contested character of the relationships, all are mutually organized by the social logic of patriarchy and the complex intimacies mediating contemporary Afro-Protestant religious belonging

Confession (law · Criminology · Kinship · Patriarchy · Political science · Politics · Privilege (computing · Protestantism · Remarriage · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Religion, Society, and Development · Theological Perspectives and Practices

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