The Other Shoe Drops: “The First Lady” Vanessa Griffin Long Files For Divorce From Bishop Eddie Long (w/Update)

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UPDATE (12/2/11, 12:25 p.m.): This is from Dale Russell of FOX 5 News:

FOX 5 News received a statement from Vanessa Long that states “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 my him and admire his strength, and courage. My filing followed years of attacks in the media that frustrated and overwhelmed me. I love my family and church family, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. Therefore, my husband and I have mutually agreed to find healing from these attacks.”

So when all else fails, blame attacks from the media for what happened to those young men?

This woman is more brainwashed than I thought.  SMDH.  They were up all night together.  In prayer?  I can just imagine what really transpired.  He talked her out of walking away with the rest of the money.

More as it comes, people.

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UPDATE (12/2/11, 12:05 p.m.): Vanessa Long has withdrawn her petition for divorce.

Hours after announcing she had filed for divorce from megachurch pastor Bishop Eddie Long, his wife, Vanessa, issued a statement saying she had withdrawn her petition.

More on this later.

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I saw all the traffic to this other article I wrote six months ago about the state of the Longs’ marriage, and I laughed.

Well, well, well.  What I knew in the dark of June has finally come out into the light of December.

This is Vanessa Long’s official statement:

After a great deal of deliberation and prayer, I have decided to terminate my marriage to Bishop Eddie L. Long. Accordingly, I authorized my attorneys to file for divorce on December 1, 2011.

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.

Thank you, and may God continue to bless and keep each of you.

Again, that beseeching:  let’s not try this case in the media.  Which really means: please don’t show my ass up to further embarrassment.   The moment Eddie Long doesn’t come across, watch that agreement go up in flames, as with the rest of Long’s transactions since this juggernaut began.  However, it just could be that the couple are finally ready to agree to divorce, having separated for a time, and that the settlement would be quietly forthcoming.  Both would then move on.

I said this in June, when I first learned that Mrs. Long had left the bishop:

Maybe Eddie Long is still trying to coax Vanessa home; therefore, they are not really “separated.”   Would you believe that or the semantics behind it?  What wife who is a semi-public figure would disappear from view for five months, not only from her husband’s ministry, but from the neighborhood where they live during such a time, unless they were AWOL?  Or worse, dead.

But I think Vanessa Griffin Long is very much alive, just very much to herself at this moment, probably not living at the Longs’ house and/or even sharing his bed.   As with political wives, if the religious wives don’t show up beside their husbands during some scandal or if they don’t respond with an immediate statement of support, you know for sure that marriage is trashed.  And Vanessa Long has not said word one.  Huma Abedin is the latest political wife to deal with the fallout regarding her errant husband (and that’s yet another story).   Some think that her staying with Hillary Clinton rather than taking a quick flight home when  Congressman Anthony Weiner‘s troubles began is proof that it’s going to take more than two weeks to get that relationship up and running.  I digress, but the logic has worth.

[…]

No wife in the world could face such a scandal, such a reproof to what she and her husband built up over the years, no matter what their reputation. Additionally,she must see that the settlement to the young men as well as the dwindling coffers will get in the way of her living in high style. The longer she stays in the marriage may prevent her from getting a reasonable settlement herself when the time comes. I’m sure Vanessa Long is weighing this as well as other options, and also grieving what is possibly the end of her marriage.  Her marriage may have ended long ago, without her knowledge, when Bishop Long began to stray with these and no doubt other young men, keeping his activities sub rosa  from her, his other intimates, ministers and the church.  As with many others who have been closely watching this case, I think she took his settling with the four young men and the private apology he gave them as an admission of guilt and responsibility despite protestations and chest-beating to the contrary.

I feel more for Long’s children than I do for their parents at this moment.  Imagine the reception they are going to get in any social milieu or situation.  The stigma of being a son or daughter of such people.  It’s far better to be famous than infamous.   Dare I say that Mrs. Long’s decision may have to do with the fact that this divorce and subsequent settlement might show up as a loss in any tax report filed next year?  Yes, they are like that.

More from HuffPo:

According to WSB-TV, Vanessa has no plans to elaborate on the details of her decision to file for the divorce.

The couple married in 1990 and have three children.

Last year, the infamously anti-gay preacher was accused of coercing four men into having sexual relations with him. Long settled the suits out of court in May.

This isn’t the preacher’s first failed marriage.

Long’s previous wife, Dabara Houson, filed for divorce in 1985 and accused Long of beating her while she was pregnant with their son, according to ABC News. Long’s attorney did not speak to the claims.

I have no doubt that this news will contribute to more parishioner exits from New Birth.  No word on whether the Bronners indeed helped Vanessa Long spiritually in coming to her decision to divorce as they were rumored to be.

The long death of the ministry of Bishop Eddie Long continues.

~ by blksista on December 2, 2011.