Leading Evangelical Paid for Gay Sex
Yet another conservative, anti-gay, religious hypocrite bites the … dust:
Ted Haggard, one of the most prominent evangelical pastors in the nation, resigned today as president of the National Association of Evangelicals amid allegations that he carried on a three-year sexual relationship with a male prostitute.
Haggard, founder of the 14,000-member New Life Church, has denied the accusations but said in a statement released by the church today that he could "not continue to minister under the cloud created by accusations made on Denver talk radio this morning."
He has placed himself on administrative leave pending investigation, spiritual counsel and a decision by the church's board of overseers, the church's legal counsel said. Haggard founded the church in 1985.
[excerpt from Eric Gorski, Felisa Cardona and Manny Gonzales, "Haggard steps down amid gay affair inquiry", Denver Post, 2 November 2006.]
In: All, Current Events, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
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To thwart spam, comments by new people are held for moderation; give me a bit of time and your comment will show up.
I welcome comments -- even dissent -- but I will delete without notice irrelevant, rude, psychotic, or incomprehensible comments, particularly those that I deem homophobic, unless they are amusing. The same goes for commercial comments and trackbacks. Sorry, but it's my blog and my decisions are final.
on Friday, 3 November 2006 at 02.06
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This story is plenty murky, with more details sure to emerge.
Some day, someone is going to make sense of the frequent coincidence of strong or extreme religious views and serious probalems with one's own sexuality.
on Friday, 3 November 2006 at 13.03
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Evangelical Hypocrite Confesses
What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, noted evangelical "pastor" Ted Haggard claimed
I've never had a gay relationship with anybody. … I am steady with my wife. I'm faithful to my wife. I don't know if this is election-year politics or if…
on Friday, 3 November 2006 at 17.30
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In some circles familiar to me, it's common wisdom that the worst homophobes are generally deeply closeted homosexuals. The understood reason is that their attempts at denial of their own sexuality require extra-credit work. Many will do virtually anything if only they could be changed into "normal". Very often, they look for salvation with religious organizations both for the religion's absolute views on what they see as their abhorrent sexual nature — the religion understands the "problem" and it knows what's "right" and what to do about it — and because they hope that a strong and large religious community can keep them from "sinning".
Shakespeare, of course, recognized the "doth protest too much" phenomenon; modern lawmakers who obsess about passing anti-gay laws are recognized as looking for something that will "stop them before it's too late".
on Saturday, 4 November 2006 at 00.01
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Jeff, I'm sure you know whereof you write. What a shame so many lives are so damaged and tormented over something like this. I can't accept the notion this is what any god worthy of others' unquestioning acceptance and worship would want for his children.
on Saturday, 4 November 2006 at 00.34
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It is a horrible shame, and so unnecessary. I'm sure hoping this is just a "phase" that this country is going through and that it gets over it very soon. The best personal strategy that I've been able to come up with is to live openly and get on with a normal life. I learned years ago that one cannot really coax people out of their closet before they're ready, but I've long thought it helps just to get on with leading a normal life to help them shed their fears and anxieties, and maybe integrate their sexuality into their life sooner rather than later.