Bishop Long and his wife, Vanessa, have been married for 21 years and have three children. They built the New Missionary Baptist Church which became a megachurch in Lithonia, Georgia.
In a statement released on Friday Vanessa Long had told her lawyers to file for divorce.
In the statement Long said she decided to "terminate my marriage" after "a great deal of deliberation and prayer."
The statement also said, "It is my sincere hope that this matter can be resolved expeditiously, harmoniously, and fairly. I ask that you respect my privacy and that of my family, as my attorneys and I have agreed that we will not try this case in the media, and I do not intend to make any further statements concerning this matter. I also ask that the public pray for my entire family during this difficult period of transition." reports usnews.msnbc.msn.com.
Charismanews.com reported in a matter of hours Long changed her mind about the divorce and issued this statement, "Upon prayerful reflection, I have reconsidered and plan to withdraw my petition for divorce from my husband, Bishop Eddie L. Long. I love my husband. I believe in him and admire his strength and courage."
Late Friday Long's lawyers said the divorce was on again. A statement issued late Friday by one of Vanessa Long's lawyers said, "she has determined that dismissal of her divorce petition is not appropriate at this time." as reported by msn.com.
Four men now in their 20s accused Bishop Long of used gifts, trips and money to coerce them into engaging in sex acts with him. At the time they were members of his church and were 17 and 18-years-old. Because Georgia's age of consent is 16 there was no criminal investigation of the allegations.
The suits were settled out of court.
Huffingtonpost.com quoted Bishop Long's New Birth Missionary Baptist Church issued a statement saying, "After a series of discussions, all parties involved have decided to resolve the civil cases out of court. This decision was made to bring closure to this matter and to allow us to move forward with the plans God has for this ministry."
The adaptation of Vanessa and Eddie Long didn't accomplish it through the day, as the wife of the absorbing New Birth Missionary Baptist pastor has absitively adjoin abandoning her address for annulment filed backward Thursday afternoon."Mrs. Long continues to achievement that this amount may be bound expeditiously, accordingly and fairly; however, she has bent that adjournment of her annulment address is not adapted at this time," Kilpatrick Townsend accomplice Michael W. Tyler said in a able statement.
"To abstain any disproportionate confusion, Mrs. Long's approaching statements, if any, will be issued through her attorneys," he said. A agent for Kilpatrick Townsend banned added comment.
Vanessa Long appear three statements to the media Friday. Aboriginal she appear she was gluttonous to end her 21-year-marriage afterward "a abundant accord of application and prayer."
Then, about lunchtime, in a account beatific through New Birth's accessible relations firm, Vanessa Long said, aloft added "prayerful reflection," she was abandoning the annulment petition.
"I adulation my husband," she said in the additional columnist release. "I accept in him and adore his backbone and courage."
Long, a New Birth elder, said her accommodation to seek a annulment was apprenticed by "years of attacks in the media that balked and afflicted me." She and her bedmate "mutually agreed to acquisition healing," Vanessa Long said.
Six hours later, her attorneys appear she was proceeding with the annulment "consistent with her aboriginal [statement] fabricated this morning."
In the annulment filing, Vanessa Long, 53, said her alliance to the New Birth pastor was "irretrievably broken" and there was "no achievement of reconciliation." The brace has been in a "state of separation," according to the petition.
"Vanessa is, and has consistently been, a loving, committed and committed wife and mother," Abbey Long said in a account Friday night. "My adulation for her is abysmal and unwavering. It charcoal our aboveboard admiration to abide alive calm in gluttonous God’s will in these circumstances."
Vanessa Long has kept a low contour back the September 2010 accusation filed adjoin her bedmate by above New Birth associates Anthony Flagg, Spencer LeGrande, Jamal Parris and Maurice Robinson alleging the abbey acclimated his influence, trips, ability and jobs to beset them into animal relationships.
Though she has never announced about about the allegations, she provided her bedmate with a allegorical lift back she appeared by his ancillary at New Birth the Sunday afterwards the accusation was filed. The bishop, who told his aggregation that day he planned to "vigorously" action the allegations adjoin him, accomplished a adjustment with his accusers in backward May afterwards months of mediation.
A bio on New Birth's website describes Vanessa Long as "the quiet backbone in the Long ancestors ... an alarming woman of God in her own right. She is an afflatus to abounding of the women at New Birth as they watch her acquiescently and agilely abutment her bedmate in every faculty of the word."
This would be Abbey Long's additional divorce. His aboriginal wife, Dabara S. Houston, declared she was the victim of "cruel treatment" and claimed she was abashed of her husband's "violent and abandoned temper," according to Fulton County Superior Court records. She and her son "had to abscond [the couple's Fairburn home] in adjustment to ensure their safety," the abstracts say.
The brace was affiliated in 1981 and afar afterwards a brace years, according to the documents. Long's aboriginal wife fabricated the corruption accusation in a acknowledgment afterwards he petitioned for divorce, citation clashing differences.
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