If you haven't seen the video yet of Eddie Long, the self-proclaimed bishop of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, being anointed "King" by a self-proclaimed rabbi, it's religious theater that competes with the likes of, God, I don't even know.

Long is wrapped in Holocaust scrolls, lifted up in a chair, and has to wipe away tears because he is so filled with ... with something. The act he puts on during these dramatics is, simply, sickening.

We all know Long well as the anti-gay preacher who was accused of coercing young teen males in his congregation into sexual relationships, promising to vigorously defend himself  against the charges and then timidly settling with them for a bunch of money so they would hopefully keep their mouths shut. 

Well, that didn't work out too well for him — some have spoken out already. And it seems like at least one is ready to write a book about what happened between the sheets with the "bishop." 

Anyway, on Jan. 29 this guy named Ralph Messer, claiming to be a rabbi, came to New Birth, wrapped Long in Holocaust scrolls and anointed him a king. Really. The 14:40 video is already going viral.

Today, an excellent article by Wil Gafney, associate professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia who is also an Episcopal priest, reads Long and Messer down on their religious dramatics. Way down.

Just from the first few minutes of the video, Gafney points out these outlandish lies:

• The claim that Holocaust Torahs cannot be insured “because there are no more” is patently false. They are regularly insured as are other one of a kind objects d’art, i.e. the works of Picasso.

• The Torah cover is not a “foreskin.” Hyper-masculine, hyper-sexualization of the Torah reduces the holy Torah to a problematic phallic symbol – God’s? or Long’s? – and categorizes the most destructive behaviors associated with New Birth ministries in recent years. Grammatically and symbolically, the Torah is feminine in Hebrew and is personified as “She,” as in “She is a Tree of Life,” in Prov. 3:18.

"It is unfortunate that the speaker chose to plunder the sacred traditions of Judaism as he invented novel interpretations of biblical texts and imagery to affirm and elevate an individual who had admittedly broken the sacred trust between pastor and congregant," Gafney writes.

Amen.