Dr. Dollar, who also heads a mega-church on the other side of metropolitan Atlanta from Long’s New Birth, created a YouTube video admonishing members who are looking for new church homes to return to the Lithonia, Ga.-based church.
“That [Long] is my friend, that is my brother in the Lord. If you came from there, you get on back over there where you’re supposed to be, and do what you need to be doing because he got insurance, and Jesus paid the premium,” says Dollar, whose church is in College Park, Ga.
Also in the video, Dollar compares Long’s legal “troubles” to a “wreck” and mentioned the fact that the bishop has “insurance in Jesus.”
Some former members and observers have trouble with the fact that Long did not address his legal situation in any capacity, nor offered an explanation or mea culpa during the first Sunday service after he settled his sexual coercion lawsuit with four young men. The four men claimed that Long used his spiritual position and lavish gifts, trips, cars and living quarters to lure them into homosexual encounters.
The issue also appeared hypocritical to some since Long held a much publicized anti-homosexual march seven years ago on Auburn Avenue, the site of Dr. Martin Luther King’s resting place in Atlanta.
–terry shropshire
