It’s a story with everything: sex, secrets, religion, money, and an empire hanging in the balance. So it’s no surprise that the allegations against Atlanta Bishop Eddie Long have quickly sparked a media frenzy. (Three lawsuits filed in DeKalb County allege that the pastor used his “spiritual authority” to coerce male church members “into engaging in sexual acts and relationships for his own personal sexual gratification.”) 
 
 It doesn’t hurt that the allegations of improper conduct focus on the pastor of a 25,000-member megachurch who is one of the most outspoken homophobes in the black church. He galvanized his followers in 2004 to support an amendment to Georgia’s state constitution to ban same-sex marriage. 
 
 As I am a member of Atlanta’s large black gay community, this story is also a personal one. It raises the question, why is the black church so hostile to gay men and women? Will we ever be accepted as we are? 
 
 Atlanta boasts, at least anecdotally, the nation’s largest black gay population. (The city is roughly 55 percent black, and according to The Advocate, the gayest city in America, so it’s not unreasonable to extrapolate.) This past Labor Day weekend, as is tradition, black gay men and women from around the country descended on the city to celebrate gay pride. But even here, there are spaces within the black community where we don’t feel welcome, and the church is chief among them. Gay men and lesbians have always been present in the black church, actively engaged at that. The prevalence of gay men in black church choirs and bands, for example, is accepted but not widely discussed. The unspoken agreement is that gay men get to act as Seraphim, so long as they are willing to shout in agreement as they are being flagellated from the pulpit. It’s an indignity some gay men subject themselves to each and every Sunday. Why should they have to live this way? 
 
 My hope is that these questions will be asked during the media frenzy around these lawsuits against Long. 
 
 According to the lawsuit, at least one of Long’s accusers was employed by the church as a “Spiritual Son.” He began spending time with the pastor between 2004 and 2005. During this time when the alleged abuse took place, Long would encourage the teen to call him “Daddy,” states the suit. Long’s accusers never allegedly worked for him in any official capacity, and if sexual activity did take place, it’s acknowledged that the young men were past the legal age of consent in Georgia when it happened. But the legality of Long’s actions seems not to be the issue. If Long’s accuser were a woman, even if her allegations were found to be true, I think he could weather the storm—everyone loves a story of a man’s redemption after a moment of relaxed vigilance allows Satan to find a toehold. Long’s predicament is bringing back to the surface the endless debate over whether or not homosexuality is fundamentally moral or acceptable, a debate that preachers like Long have prolonged with their bigoted teachings. 
 
 I fear though, that this will become yet another sex scandal, and that people will get so bogged down on the specifics of Long’s case that the larger implications will be ignored. We watched the same thing play out last summer when Henry Louis Gates was arrested for breaking into his own Cambridge, Mass., home. America mired in the details—did Gates’s neighbor say he was black while calling 911? Did Gates really drop a “yo mama” insult on an officer?—such that the more interesting and more valuable dialogue over why incidents like this one take place to begin with fell by the wayside. 
 
 If Long did indeed use his influence, charisma, and biblical chicanery to bed impressionable young men whose spiritual development he was responsible for, that is truly reprehensible. But this is a conversation bigger than this case, this church, or this man. It’s about the black community on the whole and whether or not gay men and lesbians are going to be considered full citizens in it. I recently visited Tabernacle Baptist, a small church here in Atlanta. Dennis Meredith, the pastor there since 1994, went from railing against gays and lesbians to preaching acceptance of them after his son Micah came out to him. Since making that choice, Meredith has watched his congregation wax and wane, as parishioners choose to leave for other churches out of protest, and they’re replaced by gays and lesbians looking for safe haven after being shunned by churches like Long’s. It’s devastating that Meredith has had to choose between rejecting gays and lesbians and accepting membership attrition. There’s simply no excuse, no justification for black gay men and lesbians to be treated the way they’re treated in our houses of worship. As tempting as it is to get swept away by the tabloidy drama of the case against Eddie Long, it’s not the man that deserves all the scrutiny. It’s his message. ||||| The pastor of a nationally known Atlanta-area megachurch took other young men on trips as part of a mentoring program but stands by his denial of claims that he had sex with three of them, a lawyer for the religious leader said Thursday. 
 
 FILE - In this Jan. 18 2007 file photo, Bishop Eddie Long, of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, in Lithonia, Ga. gestures during an interview in Lithonia. Two men on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010 filed... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE -In this Monday, Aug. 3, 2009 file photo, Bishop Eddie Long speaks during a funeral service at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga. Long, the pastor of a nationally known Atlanta-area... (Associated Press) 
 
 Bishop Eddie Long plans his first public response to the allegations Sunday during services at his 25,000-member church, attorney Craig Gillen said on the Tom Joyner Morning Show after Long canceled an interview with the nationally syndicated radio program. 
 
 In lawsuits filed this week, three men who were members of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church claimed Long coerced them into sexual relations with gifts including cars, cash and travel when they were 17 or 18 years old. The sprawling church in suburban Lithonia counts politicians, celebrities and the county sheriff among its members and hosted four U.S. presidents during the 2006 funeral of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow, Coretta Scott King. 
 
 Long, a married father of four, built one of the country's best-known black megachurches by being an outspoken religious leader who campaigned against same-sex marriage. In 2004, he led a march with Bernice King to her father's Atlanta grave to support a national constitutional amendment to protect marriage "between one man and one woman." 
 
 One of the claims in the lawsuits is that Long had sexual contact with the young men, who were enrolled in New Birth's ministry for teen boys, during trips he took them on in the U.S. and abroad. Gillen said the travel was part of a mentoring program that other young men also participated in. 
 
 "The mentoring process involving travel is not exclusive to the three plaintiffs making these allegations," Gillen said. 
 
 Gillen also read a statement from Long in which the pastor said he's anxious to respond to the allegations but that his lawyer has advised him not to yet. 
 
 "Let me be clear. The charges against me and New Birth are false," Long's statement said. 
 
 Gillen also said the three making the allegations were motivated by money, adding that one of them is accused of breaking into Long's office. 
 
 In addition to canceling the radio show appearance, an expected Thursday news conference with Long was also called off. 
 
 Gillen said Long will speak directly about the allegations to his church congregation Sunday. 
 
 B.J. Bernstein, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said she opened her investigation after getting a call from one of the men. The Associated Press normally does not name people who claim they are victims of sexual impropriety, but Bernstein said all three _ Maurice Robinson, 20, Anthony Flagg, 21, and Jamal Parris, 23 _ have consented to making their identities public. 
 
 Bernstein said she didn't trust local authorities to investigate the claims. 
 
 "This is a really large church that's incredibly politically powerful," Bernstein said. "There are pictures of this guy with every politician around. With something this important, how can I trust that word didn't get back to the bishop?" 
 
 DeKalb County Sheriff Thomas Brown has been a member of New Birth for more than 15 years and sits on the advisory board for Long's Longfellows Youth Academy. He said he would stand by the bishop and bristled at Bernstein's suggestion that local authorities couldn't be trusted. 
 
 "I take offense to that," he said. "It does not merit a dignified response." 
 
 Bernstein said that her case hinges on her three clients' testimony and that she doesn't have much physical evidence backing up her complaint. Long sent dozens of e-mails and phone calls to her clients, though they weren't "overly sexual," she said. Bernstein said she plans to subpoena records from Long that will show he traveled with the young men to New York, Las Vegas, New Zealand and elsewhere. 
 
 Long was appointed pastor of New Birth in 1987 and built it up into a complex on 250 acres with a $50 million, 10,000-seat cathedral and more than 40 ministries. 
 
 Their pastor has been silent and so are most at Long's 25,000-strong church. But those who will speak say they are supporting him. 
 
 Lance Robertson, who joined New Birth nearly two decades ago and has coached youth basketball there, said Wednesday that members were hurting. 
 
 "I support and will stand with my bishop, but right now in the court of public opinion, it does not look good," Robertson said. "This affects too many people. As the bishop goes, New Birth goes. He built New Birth."
– Bishop Eddie Long’s sex scandal has predictably generated a media firestorm. After all, Long “is one of the most outspoken homophobes in the black church,” writes Joshua Alston in Newsweek. But Alston hopes the community takes the time to skip past the tawdry details of Long’s alleged homosexual dalliances and focus on the bigger issue: “Why is the black church so hostile to gay men and women? Will we ever be accepted as we are?” Yes, Alston is a black, gay Atlanta resident, which is fairly common—Atlanta is 55% black, and has been named "Gayest City in America" by the Advocate. Yet in many black churches, gay congregants are forced “to shout in agreement as they are being flagellated from the pulpit. Why should they have to live this way?” That’s what we should be asking, not who allegedly fondled who when. (Though if you’re curious, this AP story has more details). “It’s not the man that deserves all the scrutiny. It’s his message.”