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Third lawsuit filed against Atlanta pastor; news conference planned

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Another civil suit has been filed against Atlanta-based megachurch pastor Eddie Long, alleging coercion, negligence and fraud that involved a sexual relationship with a third young male.

Wednesday's lawsuit, filed in DeKalb County, Georgia, State Court, was brought on behalf of Jamal Parris, now 23, who was a teenager at the time he joined Long's church.

The suit, which claims Long encouraged Parris to call him "Daddy," also names the church and a youth academy as defendants.

Allegations that Long coerced young male church members and employees into sex are "a case of retaliation and a shakedown for money by men with some serious credibility issues," Art Franklin, the pastor's spokesman, said Wednesday.source

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Accused pastor crusaded against homosexuals

Editor's note: CNN's John Blake first covered Bishop Eddie Long as a religion reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- As Bishop Eddie Long poked through a salad in his church office one summer day in 1999, he shot a weary look at a person ticking off his ministry's successes.

His Atlanta megachurch had already reached 25,000 members. He had been invited to the White House, built a global television ministry and drove around town in a luxury automobile.

But Long told the visitor who had come to write about him that the pressures of being a high-profile pastor could be brutal. source

I find it funny that people seem to think it only happens in the Catholic church. Oh well.