Bishop Eddie Long's Resignation Means Leaving $3 Million Salary, Mansion, and Bentley?

Bishop Eddie Long stands his ground and refuses to step down from his position in the church, according to the San Diego County News. He will not even do this temporarily at least until the allegations of sexual abuse brought against him are addressed in a court of law.

Long is getting the requests to vacate his position from people outside of the church, such as Bishop Walker and Reuben Armstrong. They are publicly calling for his resignation in a rally and on the nightly news. Armstrong recently asked for Long to step down on Atlanta's WSBTV nightly news, which can be seen HERE.

Then there are his own church members, who have a petition circulating wanting Bishop Long to step down, at least until these sex abuse allegations are addressed in a court, according to Get Religion.org.

Why would he want to subject the New Birth Church to all of this negative publicity and not do what is best for the church and its members, at least until things are worked out in a court?

One reason may be that if Bishop Long were to remove himself from his position of the church, he is no longer in charge of the money that has provided him the lifestyle he is accustomed to living. This may mean that there are no more big bucks for the luxuries that apparently come along with this position.

According to the website Get Religion.org, Bishop Long received a $1.4 million mansion and a Bentley from the church. Between the years of 1997 and 2000, Bishop Long's collected a salary and benefits of more than $3 million, including the mansion and the Bentley.

This information came out of an investigated report done by reporter John Blake. He did this when he was reporting for AJC, before his days at CNN.

This was 10 years ago, so there is no telling what he has accumulated since that time, and it appears that Long has created a very comfortable world for himself with the Church footing the bill. This may be why he does not want to step down from his position.

Does Long consider this more of a business than he does a church of God? Apparently he does, because Long's reaction to Blake's report that came out detailing his massive salary and benefits he said:

"We're not just a church, we're an international corporation. We are not a bumbling bunch of preachers who can't talk and all we are doing is baptizing babies. I deal with the White House, I deal with Tony Blair, I deal with presidents all around the world. I pastor a multimillion dollar congregation."

Long also said that he needs to be "put on a different scale" than the "little black preacher." This was Long's response to Blake, according to Get Religion.org.

The first thing that Bishop Long has said that I agree with is that he is not among a bunch of bumbling preachers. He appears to be much more than that. This business appears to be too sinister and there appears to be too much greed for it to come under the heading of "religion."

Give me the bumbling preacher any day, the ones who use every last dime their church collects to run the soup kitchens or the homeless shelters across this nation. Can you image what a grand homeless shelter his million dollar mansion would make? Or how many meals for the homeless the price of a Bentley will get the church?

Reference: San Diego News, Get Religion.org, WSBTV