Yesterday, Bishop Eddie Long's wife said she was filing for divorce from her husband, accused Bishop Eddie Long.
And many said it was about time. Vanessa Long was rumored to have moved out in June of this year, a rumor that Bishop Long's Church denies. In May of this year, Long reached an undisclosed financial settlement with four men who accused Long of being a sexual predator and child molester.
Not many observers, even the most conservative African American Christians, could justify Vanessa Long's decision to stand by a man accused of preying on boys. In a few short hours after Vanessa Long declared she was filing divorce papers against her husband, she withdrew her petition. Vanessa Long stated that she loves her husband and they plan to work together to find healing from the "attacks."
Divorce certainly isn't easy, but many are wondering why Vanessa Long changed her mind. The complaints against Bishop Long and the entire fiasco had died down somewhat with the settlement. Bishop Long's reputation was scarred, but his ministry lived on. Long found himself, in some places, in a Christian community far from short on forgiveness.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported Vanessa Long's statement yesterday, Dec. 1, 2011 in which Vanessa Long had authorized her attorneys to file for divorce. Vanessa Long referred to the four young men who accused Long and whom Long settled with in court. She also stated that after the settlement, the case against Eddie Long was dismissed.
But today Vanessa Long has changed her mind. She's not filing for divorce which opened up a broad band of speculation that perhaps Eddie Long paid off his wife, or that her rescinded the divorce is a public relations stunt. Writers at the Root.com pondered openly why, so long after the allegations surfaced of Eddie Long's deviant behavior, was his wife filing now? Perhaps more foolishness cropped up, the website suggests.
So many wives, particularly political wives, have stood by their husbands during tumultuous allegations of infidelity, but those wives aren't typically the wives of men in gay scandals or accused of pedophilia or child molestation.
The list of men, politicians, pastors, and athletic coaches accused of sexual deviance with boys, pedophilia or gay relationships as extramarital affairs is long:
Ted Haggard
Larry Craig
Mark Foley
Bob Allen
Glen Murphy, Jr.
Bishop Eddie Long
Phillip Hinkle
Jerry Sandusky
Bernie Fine
Men caught in extramarital affairs from Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer are also public shockers and generally, the more important the man, the more likely the wife is to stay. John Edwards' wife didn't stay with her husband, despite being gravely ill with cancer. More recently, New York Representative Anthony Weiner's wife, pregnant witht heir first child also left her husband. Weiner was asked to resign. DC Mayor Marion Barry's wife, Effi, resigned her relationship as the Mayor's wife, although not immediately after his affair with another woman and his addiction to crack cocaine were disclosed by federal agents.
The day is still long for Herman Cain who plans to meet face to face with his wife today. The Cain's will discuss Ginger White and Herman Cain's alleged 13-year-relationship with Ginger White, a woman who says the relationship she had with Herman Cain over the past 13 years was a sexual one.
Cain, like Clinton and to a degree Spitzer, is one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the country.
Vanessa Long has been married to Eddie Long since 1990. The couple have three children. Long's church is in Lithonia, Ga.
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