Bishop Eddie Long King Crowning Called ridiculous by Rabi upset over use of Torah

A rabbi and Christian scholar questioned Long and Messer, the man who led Long's crowning ceremony. Messer said during the ceremony that the Torah was a "priceless" 312-year-old scroll that had been recovered from the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. He said he wanted to honor Long "on behalf of Jewish people, and the land of Israel." Rabbi Hillel Norry of Congregation Shearith Israel in Georgia said the ceremony was "ridiculous." There's no Jewish coronation ceremony where someone is wrapped in a Torah and made a king, he said. "We just don't do that. We treat it with deference," Norry said of the Torah. "It's not a shawl, not a crown. Don't treat it that way." Norry said Messer doesn't appear to be an ordained rabbi in the Jewish faith. He also doubts that the Torah that Long was wrapped in is actually 312 years old, and had somehow escaped detection in a concentration camp. "The Torah is the size of a person. It's not like you can hide one," he said. Brent Strawn, an associate professor at Emory University's Candler School of Theology, said Christian pastors are not treated as kings in the New Testament. "They are almost always spoken of as servants," he said. "This is exemplified by Jesus in the New Testament, when he wears the garment of a servant and washes his disciples' feet."
Bishop Eddie Long King Crowning Called ridiculous by Rabi upset over use of Torah