Centino Kemp, the mysterious fifth man to accuse Bishop Eddie L. Long of sexual coercion, has just completed a book, The First Lady, an account of his alleged six-year relationship with the mega-church pastor in suburban Atlanta. Kemp is also reportedly working on a screenplay that he intends to shop to studios for either big or small screen.
The First Lady details the life story of Kemp, a Bahamian-born and bred boy who was reared in a troubled Christian family devoid of strong male figures. Kemp’s says the adversarial relationships with male figures, who made infrequent appearances in his life, coupled with a disinterested mother during adolescence, led to overpowering pangs of loneliness, abandonment and struggles with his own sexuality. The volatile emotional mix set the stage for what he encountered later in his life.
“My loss of innocence might be the most poignant description I can give in my story. It showed me how when cultivated by evil intentions, a young boy can be forever scarred during his quest to manhood, and I will probably never regain the trust and purity I once had,” says Kemp.
This is not the first report of a book coming out about the sex scandal that rocked New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga. Of the four other accusers — Spencer LeGrande, Jamal Parris, Maurice Robinson and Anthony Flagg — two are reportedly collaborating on an expose of their relationships with Long as well. As been reported extensively, Long settled out of court with his four male accusers for many millions of dollars.
Precocious and talented, Kemp discusses in The First Lady that he headed to the United States to attend a university in Florida at age 16. Alone and overwhelmed by his new surroundings and absent of guidance or a nurturing figure, Kemp relays that he was particularly susceptible to manipulation and seduction by a powerful religious figure, Long, who becomes the substitution for a fatherly figure he was deprived of during his formative years in the Bahamas. –terry shropshire
