From the Phoenix Preacher Blog:
“I was on the phone with Saeed 6-8 hours a day. Saeed admitted to having a phone in prison. I knew exactly how he was doing every single day. I was told by the ACLJ that I could not share about Saeed having a smuggled (smart phone) as it might cost his life. He admitted to congressman Pittinger that he had a phone and was on social media and websites and on skype and phone hours and hours each day and knew exactly what was happening…”
On her prior claims that she went weeks without communicating with Saeed;
“I was told by ACLJ to say that. That if there was ANY indication that I had communication with Saeed outside of the weekly visits of the family, Saeed’s life would be in danger. I admit that I obeyed man other than God and idolatry and lie are sins I have to owe up to. It was freeing to not lie any more in October and to be free of having to keep secrets. It was displeasing to God and I have repented of that.”
Saeed Abedini is under Matt 18 church discipline;
“There is not a pastor that Saeed had worked with that approves his character or that he has submitted to. He had ignored every discipline and and authority. He got his pastoral certificate not by the way God ordained it, but by paying money to an organization and having them send him his pastoral certificate. He was never ordained.”
“He caught pastor Bob off guard when he came to church and pastor Bob said there would be more commotion if he did not have him come up and thank people for praying. That’s it. There will be no more done with Saeed at the church. And no. Saeed is not ordained in any denomination (Calvary Chapel or Assemblies of God). HE received his pastoral card by paying an organization and receiving it in the mail.”
On Saeed being abusive in prison and why she cut off communication;
“Because most of it was very abusive and controlling. This is why in end of October 2015 I told Saeed no more. I felt bad and could not cut off the abuse. Who does that to someone in prison? So I kept answering his phone calls and trying to encourage using scripture and worship. I was either being on the phone with Saeed or traveling or doing media. All the while the phone calls and the continued emotional and verbal abuse and the control was destroying me. I said no more because I could no longer take it and could not understand why the abuse while I was fighting for him so hard. I took so much for my eyes to be opened. It took 3 years of Saeed’s imprisonment and much prayer and fasting for the veil to be lifted and for me to find my strength in the Lord to say no more to the abuse. It was truly God’s Grace.”
On her marriage;
“No one wants reconciliation more than me. For the sake of the kids I have wanted it more than anything. But God showed me that for the sake of Saeed I had to stop enabling and if there was a chance for repentance I had to say no more. God also showed me that absolute obedience to my husband was not right. That God is the one with absolute authority. That if I did not stand in truth and light and if I continued in the way that I was, I would be judged as ananias and sapphira. Sapphira followed her husbands deception and lies and God judged her the same. This is the hardest thing I have ever done and the most loving thing I can do for Saeed. God is more concerned about the spiritual chains than the physical. The battle has changed from traveling to my knees and praying. By His Grace I am standing and for the love of my husband. Every fiber of my being wants this to work out.”
Link to blog article here: http://michaelnewnham.com/?p=24837