Anti-gay Bishop Eddie Long, who has tried and failed to put a gay sex scandal behind him, is recovering from “a health challenge” that has sparked rumors that he's battling cancer or HIV.

Just last month, Long tried to explain away a dramatic weight loss that left him emaciated as the result of giving up a “slave menu” and turning to a diet of raw vegetables. (Watch below)

But on Tuesday, Long issued a brief statement confirming reports that he was facing a serious health problem. Long said the health problems aren't related to his recent diet change.

I am recovering from a health challenge that I trust God to deliver me from. It is unrelated to the eating for life diet consisting of mostly raw vegetables that I am continuing., as part of a holistic approach to good health.

At this time my family and I are requesting that you respect our privacy.

I truly appreciate your prayers and support for me, my loved ones and me beloved New Birth Church Family.

The statement did not address a report from Obnoxioustv's Blog that Long was hospitalized last week with cancer or HIV. An unidentified member of Long's New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia told the blog that Long has been sideline from appearing at the church for months due to his illness.

The person very close to Bishop Long said he had to say something, which is why he made the viedo due to his not preaching for close to three months and wasting away before the church’s eyes.  He has required assistance from his wife Vanessa to walk in and out of the services.  Bishop Long has been doing everything he can to live spiritually as well as naturally.  He is on a totally liquid diet because he cannot digest food at all and even went to see Prophet E. Vernard Jordan for prayer and Spritual Guideness.  While at Jordan’s house an African Prophet was called to pray and cast out the demonic spirit onBishop Eddie Long and prophet according to the source called the name of a man that was said to have been very close to Bishop Long and may have infected him with a dreadful disease.  

Bishop Long has been admitted to an Atlanta hospital this week where he has been since Monday and not yet discharged.  The Reliable Source went on to say the doctors have give Bishop Long up and their is nothing they can do, but try to make him comfortable.  Although, Bishop Long is not willing to accept that he is ill and quoting the scripture that life and death lies in the power of the tongue.  With that same tongue he was doing all kind of sexually explicit stuff with it according to the lawsuits filed by four of the five guys that came forward to say he was sexually involved with them.  

Church officials, meanwhile, refused to address Long's health. Via Christian Post:

Officials at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, stonewalled questions Tuesday about the health of their controversial pastor Bishop Eddie Long, 63, after a new report claimed he was hospitalized last week with a grave illness.

When asked if Long was in church on Sunday she said: “I can't tell you anything. I'm sorry. I can't give you any information and if he was here or if he was not here it doesn't mean he was in the hospital. He could have been out of the country if he was not here.”

In May, Long appeared on “The Steve Harvey Show” to play victim, blame everyone but himself and try to recast a 2010 scandal in which the pastor was sued by four men who alleged that Long coerced them into sexual relationships. The appearance was to help pitch Long's new book.

“It's been five years and I'm not really trying to talk about what happened five years ago but in retrospect I'm trying to get across that in everybody's life, you are going to hit a wall and there's life when you think everything is gone and I want to be a living testimony of that versus trying to make people believe I'm this or that,” Long told Harvey in the 30-minute interview.

In 2010 four men – Jamal Parris, Anthony Flagg, Maurice Murray Robinson and Spencer LeGrande – said Long started having sex with them when they were as young as 16. The intimate contact – which included kissing, massaging, masturbating and oral sex – sometimes took place at Long’s residence and in hotels during trips across the U.S. and the globe, according to their lawsuits.

A fifth man, Centino Kemp, came forward later to lash out at Long and described his sexual relationship with the pastor as “getting fucked by the devil.” He also took the media on a tour of his love nest and delivered a tell-all book in which he said he was Long's First Lady. Kemp received a $94,000 settlement from Long.

But when Harvey asked Long about the accusations that he had sex with young men, Long refused to discuss the details. He claimed that the legal settlements with the men prevented him from commenting publicly about the cases. 

“It's very little I can talk about that and I want to say that I'm not trying to skirt. It's written, it's part of the agreement and I can't do that, ” Long said. 

Harvey then bluntly asked Long if he ever had sex with any of his accusers.

“I am bound by court that I can't answer, I can't make any statements about that,” Long said.