Granted, this is an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article. The AJC is not the most loved newspaper. But Long will get a lot of attention.
Registration is needed.
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Bishop's charity generous to bishop
New Birth's Eddie Long got $3 million
By JOHN BLAKE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/28/05
In 1995, Bishop Eddie Long established a nonprofit, tax-exempt charity to help the needy and spread the gospel.
But it was Long, leader of the largest church congregation in Georgia, who became the charity's biggest beneficiary.
The charity, Bishop Eddie Long Ministries Inc., provided him with at least $3.07 million in salary, benefits and the use of property between 1997 and 2000 ? nearly as much as it gave to all other recipients combined during those years, tax records show.
It is one of at least 20 nonprofit and for-profit corporations that Long founded after becoming pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in 1987. Long's businesses include a music publishing company and a transportation service.
.....
"We're not just a church, we're an international corporation," Long said. "We're not just a bumbling bunch of preachers who can't talk and all we're doing is baptizing babies. I deal with the White House. I deal with Tony Blair. I deal with presidents around this world. I pastor a multimillion-dollar congregation.
"You've got to put me on a different scale than the little black preacher sitting over there that's supposed to be just getting by because the people are suffering."
.....
Long said he represented a "paradigm shift" in the black church. He said he won't be like other pastors who died broke while giving everything to congregations that "wanted them to live in poverty and preach to them about prosperity."
Any problem people may have with his charity, Long said, was rooted in some people's expectations that pastors should be poor.
"I would love to sit with you and walk with you through the Bible to show that Jesus wasn't poor," he said.
His congregation is inspired by seeing its pastor do well, Long said.
"I'm not going to apologize for anything. ... "
Registration is needed.
-----
Bishop's charity generous to bishop
New Birth's Eddie Long got $3 million
By JOHN BLAKE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/28/05
In 1995, Bishop Eddie Long established a nonprofit, tax-exempt charity to help the needy and spread the gospel.
But it was Long, leader of the largest church congregation in Georgia, who became the charity's biggest beneficiary.
The charity, Bishop Eddie Long Ministries Inc., provided him with at least $3.07 million in salary, benefits and the use of property between 1997 and 2000 ? nearly as much as it gave to all other recipients combined during those years, tax records show.
It is one of at least 20 nonprofit and for-profit corporations that Long founded after becoming pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in 1987. Long's businesses include a music publishing company and a transportation service.
.....
"We're not just a church, we're an international corporation," Long said. "We're not just a bumbling bunch of preachers who can't talk and all we're doing is baptizing babies. I deal with the White House. I deal with Tony Blair. I deal with presidents around this world. I pastor a multimillion-dollar congregation.
"You've got to put me on a different scale than the little black preacher sitting over there that's supposed to be just getting by because the people are suffering."
.....
Long said he represented a "paradigm shift" in the black church. He said he won't be like other pastors who died broke while giving everything to congregations that "wanted them to live in poverty and preach to them about prosperity."
Any problem people may have with his charity, Long said, was rooted in some people's expectations that pastors should be poor.
"I would love to sit with you and walk with you through the Bible to show that Jesus wasn't poor," he said.
His congregation is inspired by seeing its pastor do well, Long said.
"I'm not going to apologize for anything. ... "