Eddy Long apologizes for being crowned king

This news has gone full circle, and now Eddy Long apologizes for being a clown. CNN reports.

"The ceremony was not my suggestion, nor was it my intent, to participate in any ritual that is offensive in any manner to the Jewish community, or any group. Furthermore, I sincerely denounce any action that depicts me as a King, for I am merely just a servant of the Lord," Long wrote in a letter dated Saturday.The letter was addressed to Bill Nigut, southeast regional director of the Anti-Defamation League -- a Jewish group that fights anti-Semitism."While I believe that Rabbi Ralph Messer has good intentions during his message at New Birth, I understand that the ceremony he performed on Sunday, January 29th, caused harm to the Jewish community, for which I am deeply sorry," Long wrote.

I am willing to accept that he didn't know what was going to happen. Apparently, Messer has been crowning or pretending to surround people with the Torah for some time, and particularly those who have had some sort of ministry scandal.

Rabbi Hillel Norry of Congregation Shearith Israel in Atlanta said last week the ceremony was "ridiculous." There's no Jewish coronation ceremony where someone is wrapped in a Torah and made a king, he said. 

"We just don't do that. We treat it with deference," Norry said of the Torah. "It's not a shawl, not a crown. Don't treat it that way."

As I said in my previous post, there's no such ritual in Judaism. But I guess, now all the flak is coming Messer's way.

Norry said Messer doesn't appear to be an ordained rabbi in the Jewish faith. He also doubts that the Torah scroll that Long was wrapped in is actually 312 years old, and had somehow escaped detection in a concentration camp.

 I doubt that he knows anything about Judaism, and is just taking advantage of the ignorance of his gullible audience.

But like I said, Messer seems to always target those leaders who are in need of a boost.

Two years ago, Long's public image took a hit when four young men accused him of misusing his spiritual authority to coerce them into sexual relations. He settled out of court. Long's wife, Vanessa, filed for divorce last year.

In my next post, I will also mention another of Messer's victims, who needed a boost after her divorce.