we are learning who will be speaking and singing at the funeral on saturday. we ll have a live report from outside the church. her ex-husband bobby brown will be attending. he plans to perform a few hours later at a casino in connecticut. dr. drew joins us with more on the drug angle. first, jason is outside the new hope baptist church with more late details. there s new information about who is going to be at the funeral saturday. what do you know? reporter: i can tell you earlier, i spoke to a woman named kim berrell. it may not be familiar to some people. those in the gospel community, she was well known. she was friends with whitney houston for 13 years. they were extremely close. she will perform. the song is called i believe in you and me. it was a song whitney loved and was chosen by her family. i asked kim what will be in her mind when she sings that song on saturday? i feel strong because i have to represent what i know she would want me to say and feel and mak
the black church is very loyal even sometimes to a fault. but at the same time many of them came to christ under bishop long s ministry so they will definitely be loyal and trust, that he s innocent and hope that he s charges can be proven to not be true. and what about your feelings about this? i asked you about them. how do you feel about this? well, without a shadow of the doubt, the information is certainly damaging. the evidence and all of the things that are coming out slowly one piece at a time, all of that is very troubling to many of us in the gospel community and the christian community and it is also my hope that these things are not true and that he ll be able to prove his innocence. okay. so, john, why do you stand behind the bishop? i personally stand behind the bishop because he s my leader and as members of the body of christ it is our duty to stand behind and licht the arms of our prophet and that s what i will continue to do until he gives me
to ask what it also says about the faith of the black community, but faith in the black community. mark lemont shal columbia university professor and the host of the syndicated tv show it s called our world in black enterprise. gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us. so mark, is there a tendency in the black community to elevate church leaders to the level of superstars? oh absolutely. we ve seen that since the very beginning of black people s journey here at mark for a long time preachers are one of the few people who had access to education. they re one the few people who could exercise true leadership and so long the black church has been a centerpiece of not just black religious life but black cultural and black political life so preachers are superstars. before we had presidents and senators we had celebrity preachers. so shane lee is that necessarily a bad thing? it depends. it can be good because i think
know the other one and the fourth one doesn t know any of them. when i look at different pedophiles, as said, i don t see bishop as one. you look at the various things that he s done for the community and for young people in general, none of it boils down to him looking like a pedophile. so does this mean and i m not saying that the bishop a pedophile, i m not saying that the bishop is guilty. but no one is perfect. and so far you know, i ve heard members of the congregation, some people say that, but many people have not even put into their mind the possibility that this man is not perfect and maybe in some way, even if it wasn t the behavior didn t go as far as what the men were saying, that something there was inappropriate. kevin, and as i was saying, kevin, you re older than these guys. i ve never admitted that on television and i never told my mom until i was 30 years.
have to look at this on a bigger scale and say if this is happening to the point that it s going on with young men, what makes me think this is not happening on a bigger scale. if this comes out to be true, it s going to be an eye of scrutiny from believers, which i believe when it comes down to it is depending on your relationship with god. your independent relationship of god independent of what your relationship with bishop is. it s going to shake things up, and it s going to be a shaken membership and a lot of people are going to question a lot of leaders, and that s why i believe it s the responsibility for future leaders like myself and other preachers to uphold the integrity and moral and ethical standards that were set in the new testament with jesus. i m thinking of other really well known, tone, the gospel singers. he sold out at mega churches, huge within the black churches and the gospel community, and,