Ted Haggard, head of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of a 14, 000 member church in Colorado Springs, has quit both. A gay prostitute, Mike Jones, says he has been having sex regularly with Haggard for three years. And, just to make it perfect, Jones says Haggard took meth to make the sex better.
Haggard has been one of the leading opponents of gay marriage. Jones says when he saw Haggard on t.v., he realized that the "Art" who was his regular John and Ted Haggard were the same guy.
Haggard denies all of it, and I will presume him innocent until proven guilty. It is a little suspicious that he quit both of his jobs, but that may be standard procedure in evangelical sex scandals. There will be an investigation, which I hope will be quick. And I hope he is cleared, if only so that I can maintain my faith that some leaders tell the truth.
Jon Stewart says the rule is simple: everyone who makes a big deal about opposing homosexuality is a homosexual. In the wake of Foleygate, this seems too believable.
Heavy sigh.
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I think this story will keep getting worse. I am dreading what sound bite Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson is about to provide.
When Fr. Bruce Ritter, the head of Covenant House for runaway kids was exposed for fooling around with some of them, he just disappeared into the Catholic penance and rehabilitation apparatus. Evangelical Protestantism doesn't really have such a place.
It is an interesting question, though, whether Haggard would have committed adultery if he had been in a gay marriage.
If Haggard could not be restrained from adultery by marriage, five kids, writing a book with his wife about how deep and spiritual their union was, his public opposition to all infidelity, and the disastrous scandal and opprobrium that did befall him, I don't think gay marriage would have stopped him.
I also don't think his having sex with a man, if he really did, settles the question of his sexual orientation or not.
Haggard is a self-loathing gay man who desperately tried to pretend to be straight to the extent of marrying a woman and having five children. If he had married someone he was actually attracted to (a man) then perhaps he would have been truly happy. Or not -- some people just like risk and excitement. But until orientation is unremarkable, then there will always be men who hurt other people by pretending to be something they are not.
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