Embattled megachurch leader Bishop Eddie Long is taking an unspecified sabbatical from his church duties to try to mend his marriage after his wife filed for divorce.
Long, who transformed New Birth Missionary Baptist Church from a congregation of 150 to more than 25,000 members, will continue to serve as senior pastor of the Lithonia church, according to a statement by Long’s spokesman, Art Franklin.
The sabbatical comes days after a Long’s wife, Vanessa, filed for divorce, stating that the marriage is “irretrievably broken” with “no hope of reconciliation.” The couple is “living in a bona fide state of separation,” according to the documents filed by Vanessa Long on Dec. 1.
The next day, Vanessa Long had an apparent change of heart.
“Upon prayerful reflection, I have reconsidered and plan to withdraw my petition for divorce,” Vanessa Long said in the statement. “I love my husband. I believe in him and admire his strength and courage.”
In the statement, Vanessa Long said that she filed for divorce after “years of attacks in the media that frustrated and overwhelmed me.” Her petition to the court requested temporary and permanent alimony, attorneys’ fees and an equitable division of marital and non-marital property.
The couple has “mutually agreed to find healing from these attacks,” according to the statement.
Later that evening, Bishop Long released a statement saying that his love for his wife is “deep and unwavering.”
“It remains our sincere desire to continue working together in seeking God's will in these circumstances,” Eddie Long stated. “We will do so as privately as possible and with a spirit of love and sensitivity to our family. We ask that you be in prayer for our family and that we be allowed to privately pursue this important path without need, or request from the media, for further comment.”
The Longs, who have been married for 21 years, have three children together and another child from Eddie Long’s previous marriage.
The divorce filing comes nearly seven months after Eddie Long settled lawsuits alleging that he used lavish gifts and his position to entice four young men into sexual relationships. The cases were settled without Long admitting any wrongdoing. The details of the settlement were not released.
Secondly, if Vanessa had suspicions about his behavior, I am sure she would have been under the scrutiny of Eddie's handlers and may have been intimidated about the consequences of anything she may have been inclined to do and perhaps threatened about loss of anything she had been accustomed to. The report that she filed for divorce and in a few hours decided she would retract the filing and shortly afterwards and asserted she would not go thru the divorce probably illustrates the pressure she has been subjected to as a consequence of her actions. News reports indicate that after notification of her action to divorce was reported, her intentions where subsequently contradicted by New Birth officials. This does not prove that she was the author of such claims to retract divorce proceedings, but rather, that the "officials from New Birth rendered that statement, perhaps as a power-play to further intimidate her and prove that whatever they said had more power to confuse the masses in their favor,were designed as a power-play to put her in check. Vanessa did not capitulate and went forward with her plan in spite of that. By virtue of the fact all of this was done, Vanessa went on record to say that she planned to follow through with the divorce. She is not backing down and I applaud her for her courage to follow through in spite of that kind of intimidation.
Furthermore, it is reprehensible that members of the church do not give credence to the fact that these young men are not telling the truth.As a young woman, I was approached by the minister of my church, did not submit and did not tell my parents of his attempts out of fear that my dad would take matters into his own hands. Ministers, pastors, bishops, teachers or others who have access and power over adolescents are human and are subject to the same demented, perverse, demonic pressure we all are faced with. Being attracted to an adolescent does not give me the right to exercise and act upon my deviant drives, even when I do not consciously acknowledge those perverse drives reside within me..Some fail to live up the moral provisions incumbent upon us to live up to the moral warrant to do no harm.
Shame on the congregants of the church who, for some unknown reason, refuse to give even lip service to the probability that Bishop Long has deviant issues which can not be addressed until he confesses, first to the true and living God, and then to the people he has offended and abused. What does Vanessa know and how is she attempting to extricate herself from the legal and financial devastation she will inherit simply because she is his wife. But more importantly, understand that she has found her strength and integrity to no longer be an enabler.
Smh please use google.
Peace
The worst kind and he ain't the only one !
He should not return to the pulpit until he has gone through counseling to be restored by church leaders, overseer, and mentor.