throughout the book but this morning when kiran asked him, he said it is not redistribution. you make up your own mind. wants to take money from the rich an give it to lower income people. in many books, that is redistribution. and he says it is not controversial. no. this book s going to sell. that s definitely the case. thanks, john. that s the goal. yeah. all right. well, this next story is about the leader of one of the largest churches in the country. this morning, bishop eddie long is accused of betraying the trust of those who follow him. two men have filed lawsuits claiming that he coerced them into sexual relationships when they were teenagers. long is a nationally known minister and the claims are in shocking contrast to his public image. he passionately crusade against homosexuality. long s success as a pastor is undeniable. two decades after taking over a small church, the followers
for the bishop to tell him i will always have your back and you will always have mine. in the name of jesus. reporter: he built a spiritual empire by sheer force of personality. new birth church had 300 members some 20 years ago. today, it has more than 25,000 members. when coretta scott king died, her funeral was held in his church. as the prestige has grown, so has his conservative voice in social politics. he once led an anti-gay marriage march through atlanta. we are not marching against folk. we are marching for folk. and if they don t understand it now they ll understand it better as the old preacher says by and by. reporter: bishop eddie long often refers to himself as god s scarred leader, those that followed the career say bishop long never shied away from talking about his own personal
life to his spiritual flock. getting back to the spokesperson talking about the accusations. one of the interesting twists to the story is back in june there was a break-in in eddie long s office at new birth church. $100,000 in jewelry was stolen. one of the people arrested is maurice robinson, one of those making the accusations. they are saying this young man was going after money. what you hear his attorney saying is at the time this was when he was finding out object the other relationships going on between eddie long and some others and this was his way of lashing out. obviously people have to make up their own minds but that s what we hear now. we are hearing more young men will come forward and file as well. new twist in the foreclosure crisis could mean a break for thousands of home owners and a big headache for some of the nation s largest lenders.
you are now under me? or i am your we re married and i m in charge of you? explain that to me. it was an exchange of jewelry and reading the bishop reads biblical scripture to them and talks to him about how i have your back and you have mine. that is young man with no father in his life that at 14 years old he his family moved both of the families moved to georgia to be in this church and he immediately reaches out and finds out their innermost details. i want a father. nothing more than a father. i will be your father, son. you can tell me everything. how did the sexual abuse happened? sounds like mentorship. they were groomed for it. this is part of thegaalons as well. from 14 to 1 years old, the age of consent for sexual consent, it s 16 years old. from 14 he gets to know them and gets the trust and then bit
and the bishop then made a move on him. and that created a frenzy inside of him. it awoken him to how far this man didn t care about him and just was using him. all right. let s talk more about who bishop eddie long is and why he has had such a huge impact. and for that, we re bringing in josh levs. josh? and a lot of us reporters in this region who have covered this before have followed the story. and for some of you not familiar, i ll talk to you about the basics of him. there are repercussions here. i know we have a little bit of video of the church. the first thing to understand here is that new missionary baptist church isn t just a huge mega church. it s a leader in a religious movement in america. the mega church phenomenon particularly in the african-american community and particularly with prosperity gospel. that has groan exponentially over the last couple of decades. and new missionary baptist church is sprawling. this church has a $50 million