Sad "Stuff" (Gay Suicide)

Student's apparent suicide linked to webcast of sexual encounter

From Kristen Hamill and Logan Burruss, CNN


Rutgers student Tyler Clementi committed suicide last week, his family says
Two other students are charged with broadcasting Clementi in a sexual encounter
The president of Rutgers says, "We don't have all the facts in this case"
If true, the actions "gravely violate the university's standards of decency and humanity"


Suicide
(CNN) -- A Rutgers University student who apparently committed suicide was the unknowing target of an internet broadcast showing him in a sexual encounter, New Jersey authorities said Wednesday.
Two other Rutgers students have been charged with invasion of privacy after they allegedly placed a camera in 18-year-old Tyler Clementi's dorm room without his knowledge and then broadcast Clementi's sexual enounter, according to the Middlesex County prosecutor's office.
"If the charges are true, these actions gravely violate the university's standards of decency and humanity," Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick said in a statement Wednesday.
Although Clementi's body has not been found, an attorney for the Ridgewood, New Jersey, family said Wednesday, "On behalf of the family of Tyler Clementi, I can confirm that Tyler committed suicide last week by jumping from the George Washington Bridge."
"The family and their representatives are cooperating fully with the ongoing criminal investigations of two Rutgers University students," attorney Paul Mainardi added.
A law enforcement source confirmed with CNN that while a body has not yet been recovered, Clementi's wallet and cell phone were found on the bridge that spans the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York.
Dharun Ravi, 18, of Plainsboro, New Jersey, and Molly Wei, 18, of Princeton, New Jersey, are each charged with two counts of invasion of privacy for the September 19 broadcast, according to the prosecutor's office. Two more counts of invasion of privacy were leveled against Ravi for an attempt to videotape another encounter involving Clementi on September 21, the prosecutor's office said.
It is unclear exactly how Rutgers campus police learned that a camera had been placed in Clementi's room and used to broadcast his encounter.
Both Wei and Ravi surrendered to campus police -- Wei surrendered on Monday and was released on her own recognizance; Ravi surrendered Tuesday and was released on $25,000 bail.
Ravi's attorney did not return phone calls from CNN.
According to the Middlesex County prosecutor's office, Wei apparently had not retained an attorney as of Wednesday.
If convicted, both could face up to five years in prison.
Police at the university, which has its main campus in New Brunswick, are investigating the case, university president McCormick said in his statement Wednesday.
"I deeply regret that today we learned from the family of one of our students that they believe their son has committed suicide. We are profoundly saddened by this report, and our hearts and prayers are with the parents, family, and friends of this young man, who had started at Rutgers this semester as a first-year student on the New Brunswick campus," McCormick said in the statement.
He added, "While there is a lot of information being communicated, we don't have all the facts in this case."

Church "Stuff" (Eddie Long)

Pastor accuser: Sex encounters on church grounds
Published September 29, 2010 Associated Press



One of four men accusing megachurch Bishop Eddie Long of coercing them into inappropriate sexual relationships said in a TV interview that aired Wednesday that he and the pastor would have encounters before and after worship services on church grounds.

Jamal Parris, 22, told Fox TV affiliate WAGA that they engaged in sexual acts at Long's home, in his car and his office at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in surburban Atlanta, similar to claims he made in his lawsuit last week.

The Atlanta station is airing its interview with Parris, done outside a convenience store in Colorado, over several days.

In the segment Tuesday, Parris said he loved the pastor and considered him a father figure, but still called him a "predator" and a "monster." The four men, all former members of New Birth, say they were teenagers when Long enticed them with clothes, cars, cash and lavish trips to lure them into sexual relationships.

"You can't believe the place you are at in your life and the things you are doing and the cars you are driving, and the people you are meeting," Parris said. "So, it becomes, if I want to continue to feel this love and this power, I'll do whatever my dad wants me to."

Long's spokesman Art Franklin had no comment on the latest interview.

In a statement responding to the earlier segment, Long's attorney, Craig Gillen said, "Unfortunately the plaintiffs and counsel are attempting to try their lawsuits in the media. The appropriate place to try lawsuits is in the courtroom. There are rules on how civil litigation is to take place and how counsel should conduct themselves, we intend to follow those rules."

Parris said he and the others tried to deal with the situation outside of court. In June, he said he reached out to other "spiritual sons" about the alleged abuse.

"All we wanted to do was talk and just say, 'Help me with this hurt that you caused,'" Parris said. "And he had no sense of reverence, guilt, or remorse. So if you are not going to deal with us privately, then you are going to have to sit down publicly, one way or the other. But you are not going to hurt another young man another day in our lives."

Also Wednesday, Spencer LeGrande told WSB-TV in Atlanta that he has been free since filing his lawsuit against Long. He says he has no hate for anyone and is praying for Long whom he says "knows the truth" about what happened.

During services at his church Sunday, Long turned to biblical terms to portray himself as an underdog but didn't outright deny the allegations.

"I feel like David against Goliath. But I got five rocks, and I haven't thrown one yet," said Long, who added that while he doesn't claim to be perfect, "I am not the man that's being portrayed on the television."

LeGrande, Parris, Maurice Robinson and Anthony Flagg are suing Long in state court. The Associated Press has tried to reach the men but calls have not been returned.

Parris was 14 and his father had not been a good figure in his life when he joined New Birth in 2001. Within two weeks, Long gave him his personal cell phone number, the lawsuit said. On many Sundays after church, Parris would visit Long's private office at the pastor's request.

Parris said Long encouraged the young man to call him "Daddy," and that they eventually engaged in sexual acts. Long "would discuss the Holy Scripture to justify and support the sexual activity," the lawsuit said.

Parris in Tuesday's segment described an ongoing emotional struggle.

"I cannot get the sound of his voice out of my head and I cannot forget the smell of his cologne and I cannot forget the way he made me cry many nights when I drove in his cars on the way home," Parris said. "I'm not able to take enough showers to wipe the smell of him off my body."
LeGrande was 15 when he joined New Birth Charlotte during the church's first service in 2003 at North Mecklenburg High School, Long's alma mater. In 2005, LeGrande saw Long deliver a sermon with the theme of forgiving absentee fathers and "was personally moved by Defendant Long's sermon, as his father had not been a part of his life."

LeGrande met Long after the sermon and began to cry when the pastor hugged him. Long responded, "I got you. I will be your dad."

Long and LeGrande began talking on the telephone and he also was encouraged to call the preacher dad. LeGrande accompanied Long on a trip to Nairobi, Kenya, where he said Long kissed him and rubbed his chest.

Church "Stuff" (Eddie Long victim)

Jamal Parris EXPOSED Eddie Long

Church "Stuff" (Eddie Long)

ATLANTA, Sept. 24, 2010

Eddie Long to Preach Sunday; Mum on Gay Sex Suit

Bishop Who Built an African-American Megachurch Empire In Ga., accused of Coercing 3 Male Teens into Sex

Bishop Long Scraps Interview, Repeats Denial
Bishop Eddie Long Faces 3rd Sex Coercion Lawsuit


(AP) 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.

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.

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, a married father of four, 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."

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."

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.

Robertson, the church's youth basketball coach, said he wants to hear Long respond to the accusations. 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. President George W. Bush and three former presidents attended the church's 2006 funeral service for Coretta Scott King. Long introduced the speakers and the Rev. Bernice King, the Kings' younger daughter, delivered the eulogy. She is also a pastor there. The church was among those named in 2007 in a Senate committee's investigation into a half-dozen Christian ministries over their financing. Long has called for a national ban on 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."

This isn't the first allegation against a religious leader who has crusaded against gay marriage. Ted Haggard left New Life Church of Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2006 after a male prostitute said Haggard paid him for sex. Haggard denied the allegations but later admitted to "sexual immorality" and launched a new church in June 2010.

Church "Stuff" (The Catholic priest fornicates with...)

Ok, the issue with this is not that he fell in love and was fornicating. The main issue is the sneaking and lying and having someone in sin with you when you know better. People leave the nunnery & priesthood everyday. If he decided that it was not for him, he should have quit.
People need to stop making excuses for others bad behavior.
Bill Clinton was almost impeached not for sex but for LYING under oath.

Fri May 29, 12:25 PM

MIAMI (Reuters) - A popular U.S. Roman Catholic priest photographed frolicking with a woman on a Florida beach announced Thursday he had joined the Episcopal Church to pursue the priesthood in a faith that allows married clergy.
"I've seen with my own eyes how many brothers of mine serve God as married men and with the blessing of having their own families," said Father Alberto Cutie, whose removal from his Miami Beach parish prompted public debate about the Catholic Church's celibacy requirement for priests.
The charismatic 40-year-old is a well-known religious leader in Miami who dispensed relationship advice on Spanish-language television shows, church radio programs and newspaper columns.
He was relieved of his duties at St. Francis de Sales parish in Miami Beach earlier this month after the entertainment magazine TVnotas published photos of him in swim trunks, snuggling and kissing a woman on the sands of a beach in Florida.
Cutie later said he had fallen in love with the woman and broken his vow of celibacy. He apologized for his behavior, but told the Univision Spanish-language television network, "I didn't stop being a man just because I put on a cassock. There are trousers under this cassock."
The woman in the photographs, identified in media reports as Ruhama Canellis, stood at Cutie's side as he held a news conference at Trinity Cathedral, where the couple underwent a ceremony to join the Episcopalians.
The Episcopalian church is part of the Anglican Communion, which traces its roots to the Church of England, formed when King Henry VIII split from the Roman Catholic Church in order to divorce and remarry.
The Episcopal church ordains men and women as priests, married or single, and has seen controversy within its own ranks for ordaining gay priests.
At his news conference, Cutie described his move as "going into a new family" and said he would continue to proclaim God's word. "I will always love the Catholic Church and all its members who are committed in their faith and have enriched my life in so many ways," he said.
Some Catholics expressed sympathy for Cutie and said it was time to end the celibacy rule. Others said that, given the recent scandals involving U.S. priests sexually abusing young boys, and Irish priests raping, flogging and enslaving children in Catholic schools, they were relieved that Cutie had merely become involved with an adult woman.
(Reporting by Jane Sutton and Tom Brown; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Patricia Zengerle)



POSTED BY: Palm Leaf on SUN, MAY 31, 2009 11:20 PM -0500