Did Paula White Lie?

On Sunday, an attorney for Pastor Paula White, leader of the New Destiny Christian Center (NDCC), categorically denied that Ralph Messer would be coming to Orlando to crown the televangelist queen or that he had ever performed such a ritual.

In an interview with the Florida Courier, White’s attorney, Daniel Beirute, denied there would be any coronation of White, as Bishop Eddie Long had recently been crowned by Messer, a self-proclaimed Jew.

Beirute also denied to the paper that Messer had ever previously wrapped White in a Jewish Torah scroll, as Rabbi Ira Michaelson, of Beth Tefillah, in Clermont, said on The Don Miller Show, last Friday.

“I don’t know where Rabbi Michaelson gets his information, but my client (White) categorically and unequivocally denies that that ever happened,” Beirute wrote in an e-mail to flcourier.com.

But a video posted on YouTube on November 7, 2011 (which has since been removed), appears to contradict Beirute’s claim that White was never wapped in a Jewish Torah scroll by Messer.

Last week, the coronation of troubled pastor Bishop Eddie Long, of Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, sparked an uproar among the local Jewish community and other religious groups.

Michaelson described Messer’s actions with Long as desecration of the Holy Scroll.

“What Ralph Messer did is desecration of the Holy Scroll, the Torah,” he told West Orlando News Online. ”No Jewish person would do something like this–target a particular group of people, namely, African-Americans.” After the tears and abomination I saw, I felt straight outrage, Michaelson added.

Michaelson also said the traditional Jewish community is in an uproar over Messer’s actions which could reverberate as far as Israel.

United Methodist pastor Keith Johnson of the Biblical Foundations Academy and Rev. Wil Gafney, Associate Professor and Biblical scholar at The Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, also weighed in and have harshly condemned Messer and Long.

Preaching on Super Bowl Sunday at Cathedral Of Power International Church in Clermont, Johnson, a former chaplain of the Minnesota Vikings took sometime to respond to the firestorm surrounding Messer’s crowning of Long.

“It is my position that Pastor Long was unaware of the planned “ceremony” and was another high profile African-American used to promote Messer’s agenda,” he said. “I am calling for Ralph Messer to cease and desist from the dangerous and unbiblical teaching that he is directing toward African-American congregations around this country.”

See the Video of pastor Keith Johnson preaching at the Cathedral of Power International Church on Sunday, February 5, 2012.

Johnson said Messer has apologized to the Jewish and Messianic communities, but not to the African-American community.

“It is also my hope and prayer that he will add the African-American community to his list of those whom he has offended and will sincerely ask for forgiveness for the damage he has caused,” said Johnson.