Here’s part 2 of Jamal Parris’s interview with Fox 5 (who ran him down in a Colorado grocery store
parking lot). He explains the story behind the camera phone photos of Bishop Eddie Long and also revealed that they had sex in the church among other places.
“Bishop Long is in the pulpit, Eddie Long is in the private, And we know Eddie Long. That’s a whole other man. “Enough is enough,” said Parris. “This man is– he’s done too much damage to the lives of young men and it’s time it stops.
In an exclusive interview in Colorado, where he now lives, Jamal Parris painted a picture of a bishop who is adored in public, but in private preys on young, impressionable men, looking for a father figure and love.
“Being around him is almost like a drug,” Parris explained. “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. So, it becomes, if I want to continue to feel this love and this power, I’ll do whatever my dad wants me to.”
Jamal says that what the bishop wanted was sex. He said it began after he became of age, and he said it was constant.
“His house. The hotels. His condos. In the church,” Parris said. “In the church, before and after service.”
“Did you receive those pictures?” FOX 5′s Dale Russell asked Parris.
“I received those pictures,” Parris said.
“Did he ask for pictures like that from you?” Russell asked Parris.
“Yeah,” Parris replied.
Parris says the bishop exchanged pictures as he coached them on building up their bodies, and improving their physical appearance for him.
“The pictures speak for themselves,” said Parris. “A man in his underwear talking. Sending pictures from a bathroom, and it ain’t to his wife. It’s to us. They speak for themselves. You be the judge of that.”
Parris claims in his lawsuit the jewelry, the cash, the gifts, the trips in the bishop’s private plane came at times from church coffers, and that top church officials knew what was going on.
“Was some of the money that was spent on you and the others church money?” Russell asked.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Parris replied.
“No doubt about it?” Russell said.
“No,” said Parris.
He says he was surprised to find out other young men claimed they too were sexually involved with the bishop.
“All we wanted to do was talk and just say, ‘Help me with this hurt that you caused.’ 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.”
“I want my pain to stop,” said Parris. “I want the pain of the other sons to stop. I want to make sure this pain never starts for another young man that goes to this church. And I actually want his pain to stop.”
No matter how you look at it, the relationship these boys/men had with Bishop Eddie Long was not right. “Spiritual Sons”, “Sex Before and After Service”? Appalling. In both interviews Jamal almost sounds like a scorned ex-lover.
I am sure this is going on in many churches and organizations. I applaud them for coming out and trying to put a stop to it and save other young men. This Sunday at New Birth Is gonna be something else…
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