I know it's probably wrong of me, but I find this *really* funny...

[ednbarby]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061103/ap_on_re_us/haggard_sex_allegations

Evangelist steps down amid gay sex claim

By CATHERINE TSAI, Associated Press Writer

A leading evangelist and outspoken opponent of gay marriage has given up his post as president of the National Association of Evangelicals while a church panel investigates allegations he paid a man for sex.

The Rev. Ted Haggard resigned as head of the 30 million-member association Thursday and also gave up leadership of his New Life Church pending the investigation into allegations he had monthly trysts with a gay prostitute over the past three years.

Haggard, a married father of five, denied the allegations, but the acting pastor of his church later said that Haggard had acknowledged some of the accusations were true.

"I just know that there has been some admission of indiscretion, not admission to all of the material that has been discussed, but there is an admission of some guilt," Ross Parsley told KKTV-TV of Colorado Springs.

Parlsey did not elaborate, but in an e-mail addressed to congregants, he wrote that the church's four-member board of overseers had since met with Haggard.

"It is important for you to know that he confessed to the overseers that some of the accusations against him are true. He has willingly and humbly submitted to the authority of the board of overseers, and will remain on administrative leave during the course of the investigation," the e-mail stated. A copy was obtained by KMGH-TV in Denver.

Late Wednesday, Haggard told KUSA-TV: "I've never had a gay relationship with anybody, and I'm steady with my wife, I'm faithful to my wife."

The allegations surfaced as voters in Colorado and seven other states get ready to decide Tuesday on amendments banning gay marriage. Besides the proposed ban on the Colorado ballot, a separate measure would establish the legality of domestic partnerships providing same-sex couples with many of the rights of married couples.

Members of Haggard's 14,000-member megachurch were stunned.

"It's political, right before the elections," said Brian Boals, a New Life member for 17 years.

Church member E.J. Cox, 25, called the claims "ridiculous."

"People are always saying stuff about Pastor Ted," she said. "You just sort of blow it off. He's just like anyone else in the public eye."

The accusations were made by Mike Jones, 49, of Denver, who said he decided to go public because of the political fight over the amendments.

"I just want people to step back and take a look and say, 'Look, we're all sinners, we all have faults, but if two people want to get married, just let them, and let them have a happy life,'" said Jones, who added that he isn't working for any political group.

Jones, who said he is gay, said he was also upset when he discovered Haggard and the New Life Church had publicly opposed same-sex marriage.

"It made me angry that here's someone preaching about gay marriage and going behind the scenes having gay sex," he said.

Jones claimed Haggard paid him to have sex nearly every month over three years. He said he advertised himself as an escort on the Internet and was contacted by a man who called himself Art, who snorted methamphetamine before their sexual encounters to heighten his experience.

Jones said he later saw the man on television identified as Haggard and that the two last had sex in August.

He said he has voice mail messages from Haggard, as well as an envelope he said Haggard used to mail him cash. He declined to make the voice mails available to the AP, but KUSA-TV reported what it said were excerpts late Thursday that referred to methamphetamine.

"Hi Mike, this is Art," one call began, according to the station. "Hey, I was just calling to see if we could get any more. Either $100 or $200 supply."

A second message, left a few hours later, began: "Hi Mike, this is Art, I am here in Denver and sorry that I missed you. But as I said, if you want to go ahead and get the stuff, then that would be great. And I'll get it sometime next week or the week after or whenever."

Haggard, 50, was appointed president of the evangelicals association in March 2003. He has participated in conservative Christian leaders' conference calls with White House staffers and lobbied members of Congress last year on U.S. Supreme Court appointees after Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement.

After Massachusetts legalized gay marriage in 2004, Haggard and others began organizing state-by-state opposition. Last year, Haggard and officials from the nearby Christian ministry Focus on the Family announced plans to push Colorado's gay marriage ban for the 2006 ballot.

At the time, Haggard said that he believed marriage is a union between a man and woman rooted in centuries of tradition, and that research shows it's the best family unit for children.

___

Associated Press Writer Dan Elliott contributed to this report from Denver.

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

______________________________________________-


Howzat, RouxB?   
 

[coffeecat33]

"People are always saying stuff about Pastor Ted," she said. "You just sort of blow it off.  He's just like anyone else in the public eye."

HUHN?  

[ednbarby]

"People are always saying stuff about Pastor Ted," she said. "You just sort of blow it off.  He's just like anyone else in the public eye."

Yeah, kinda like how you just kinda blow it off every time someone says George W. Bush is an incompetent idiot, right?

 

Well, that explains a lot, doesn't it?

[Ellemeno]

The accusations were made by Mike Jones, 49, of Denver, who said he decided to go public because of the political fight over the amendments.

"I just want people to step back and take a look and say, 'Look, we're all sinners, we all have faults, but if two people want to get married, just let them, and let them have a happy life,'" said Jones, who added that he isn't working for any political group.

Jones, who said he is gay, said he was also upset when he discovered Haggard and the New Life Church had publicly opposed same-sex marriage.

Mike Jones has a lot of courage to come forward like this.  Really, this is the kind of whistle blower needed in this kind of situation - the person who actually was there while the public homophobe has gay sex.  And drugs.  Maybe he'll encourage other people to come forward, because it sure seems like scratch a homophobe, find a closeted gay.

Does anyone remember the article that we used to post as replies to homophobic trolls at IMDb, about the corellation between gay-hating and being gay-repressed?  I'd love to send that to all of these rightwing religious public gay-bashers.

[Mikaela]

scratch a homophobe, find a closeted gay.

That point is what makes me profoundly sad in reading this newest story, rather than just angry and annoyed. The fear, shame and anger that probably must be behind behaving so dishonestly, - deliberately hurting himself and many, many others in the process, continuing the ugly cycle of prejudice and hatred by means of his preaching and how it impacts others....

[ednbarby]

I agree, Mikaela.  And that's exactly what I meant in saying that it's probably very wrong of me to find it funny.  You're absolutely right - the hate that these folks propagate by behaving in such a manner is something to feel angy and sad about, indeed.

Do you know what also makes me angry?  Is when the Republicans inevitably (and they already have) come out and say about such things, "The timing is suspect."  Well, no DUH.  In this case, the whistleblower deliberately did it when he did for political reasons and says so.  But the thing is THIS IS NOT THE POINT.  The point is that the right wing is the biggest bunch of hypocrites that ever walked the face of this planet.  Doesn't matter when someone blows the whistle - what matters is that there is reason to at all.  Sheesh.

And besides, the Republican Party wrote the friggin' book on dropping 11th hour bombshells.  How they *dare* to say one word about a member from the other side doing the same is beyond mind-blowing.

I'll say it again.  7 November cannot get here fast enough.

[JennyC]

Barb, I don’t think it’s wrong to ridicule/laugh at people who are hypocrites.  Hypocrite is what Ted Haggard is, who denounced others for their “sins” when he was engaging in it.  Let that be having a gay relationship or using methamphetamine.

Whether everything Mike Jones said is true still needs to be proved, but at least there is some truth in the allegation since “the church's Acting Senior Pastor, Ross Parsley said that Pastor Haggard has admitted to some of the indiscretions claimed by Mike Jones, but not all of them. “  The question that people wonder now is what those indiscretions were.

I tried to post the link of the video that he denied the allegation before words getting out that he admitted some guilt, but the link won’t work.  You can check out the video via the CNN story ( http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/03/haggard.allegations/index.html).  Again, what a hypocrite!

Some past video of Ted Haggard preaching on homosexuality:
http://www.kktv.com/news/headlines/4557411.html

A friend forwarded me more comments on the blog of a gay columnist.  I was laughing out loud reading some of comments.
http://www.thestranger.com/blog/2006/11/better_and_better.php
http://www.thestranger.com/blog/2006/11/stiff_upper_lip_or_c.php
http://www.thestranger.com/blog/2006/11/some_of_the_allegati.php

[nakymaton]

NPR had a story about Haggard this morning. One of the church members talked about how Haggard would be "exonerated." Like it's a crime to be gay. Like being gay is worse than being a hypocritical bigot.

The saddest part is that, somewhere, there is a kid who goes to the New Life Church, and he/she is sitting there listening to his or her parents rant about the people accusing their pastor of being gay, and the kid is just dying inside, because he/she is just coming to realize that he/she is attracted to men/women. (Maybe it's a boy who has been fantasizing about the art on the church walls that the blogger linked to.) And whatever happens with the election, that kid is going to bear the scars of all this hatred.

I know people who have relatives who go to that church. I get fliers in the mail from them. Those poor kids.

[ednbarby]

I hear that, Naky.  The issue here of course is not that he *is* gay, but that he preached against being what he is.  That would be like me preaching against being a straight woman.  The only thing they should be considering exonerating him for is lying to them in the first place.

And yes, I feel bad for the children who have had and will have to listen to all the anti-gay ranting and raving.  Their parents are already too far gone for pity.

[Mikaela]

he/she is sitting there listening to his or her parents rant about the people accusing their pastor of being gay, and the kid is just dying inside, because he/she is just coming to realize that he/she is attracted to men/women.

..and when that kid grows up, there's a certain likelihood he/she will become active in continuing the cycle. Fighting equal marriage acts, preaching against gay relationships, doing everything to make the load heavier for those more courageous ones who've dared to come out. While himself/herself either living in total denial, or dying inside at living such a hypocritical lie. **Groan** It's all just so horribly depressing to think about it.

That said, I had a look at some of the links related to Mr. Haggard specifically, including one interview with him on YOuTube. Urgh!!!  6 minutes and I just wanted to hit something or run away screaming, based on what he was saying, and how he was saying it - and all that entirely unrelated to the recent (alleged) hypocricy. I had never heard of this person before, lucky me. What an unpleasant acquaintance.


One of the other links, an article on his church, says:

No pastor in America holds more sway over the political direction of evangelicalism than does Pastor Ted, and no church more than New Life.

If that is really true, dare one hope that something good might come out of the current story - that the political direction of evangelicalism exercise a bit of humility and take a long, good, hard look at their own hypocricy and prejudices? Nah. It's probably to much to hope for....

[JennyC]

Ted Haggard admitted Friday that he bought methamphetamine from Mike Jones (the gay escort), but denied that he had a gay relationship with him. 

A quick search on “Methamphetamine” tells me that it is schedule II controlled drugs, that is available only via prescription, and distribution is carefully controlled and monitored by the DEA.  But due to its notorious nature linked to abuse and addiction, medical professionals are averse to prescribing it.

The way I understand is being gay is not illegal, but in possession of controlled drugs without prescription is.   Let’s admit that law normally sets a lower standard to regular people’s social behavior than religious moral value does.  You would think one may choose to admit a behavior that is against a questionable moral value than to admit conduct illegal activity.   But no surprise when Ted Haggard had to pick lesser of the two evils, he chose to admit getting meth from Mike Jones to take off some heat from the scandal.  Way to go for Pastor Haggard for setting an example for his congregation. 

What’s more irritating to me is the reason behind his choice.  While we are all here thinking there is nothing wrong being gay or being different, there is a lot of people still think otherwise, and they have been told repeated so by all those predominant Christian advocates.  It drugs their mind and becomes the truth they hold on to.  Particularly with the issue being more on the front line than ever before in the recent years, the resistance becomes more ferocious. I think anyone who may be secretly relieved that he admitted to one allegation but not the other was just as hypocrite as he is.  Urrg!

He has repeatedly lied on camera since yesterday, including denying he knew Mike Jones. And what’s more is people already caught him lying again.  While he maintains that "I was buying it for me, but I never used it. I was tempted." The voice message suggested otherwise.

"Hi Mike, this is Art," one call began, according to the station. "Hey, I was just calling to see if we could get any more. Either $100 or $200 supply."

get any more ??

As to the other allegation, what the heck, he may later come out to say he is not gay, he was just tempted.  So the lies continue…

[moremojo]

I'll say it again.  7 November cannot get here fast enough.

Barb, I voted early (yesterday to be precise). I'm anxious too for November 7th to get here so we can hopefully get some of these bums out of the house(s). I think there's a real chance the Dems might be able to recapture the House of Representatives. As for my state's gubernatorial race, I fear there's a very real probability that one of the most venal Republicans to hold office in recent years will win another, much to be lamented term.

As for Haggard, I think he's history insofar as any kind of church leadership is concerned. What he has already admitted to is bad enough, from an hypocrisy angle, to warrant his permanent exclusion from any presumed moral high ground.

[ednbarby]

Barb, I voted early (yesterday to be precise). I'm anxious too for November 7th to get here so we can hopefully get some of these bums out of the house(s). I think there's a real chance the Dems might be able to recapture the House of Representatives. As for my state's gubernatorial race, I fear there's a very real probability that one of the most venal Republicans to hold office in recent years will win another, much to be lamented term.

As for Haggard, I think he's history insofar as any kind of church leadership is concerned. What he has already admitted to is bad enough, from an hypocrisy angle, to warrant his permanent exclusion from any presumed moral high ground.

I voted yesterday, too, as a matter of fact.  So did my husband.  I'm afraid the Republican is probably going to win the gubernatorial race down here, too (what state are you in, again?).  But I too hold high hopes for reclaiming the House.

Whether or not the Church disowns Haggard, the larger issue is whether the exposure of his hypocrisy will put a dent in the gay marriage issue in Colorado.  My fear is that all it will serve to do is bring out even more religious zealots in that state to vote to ban it.  Still, I admire Jones for trying to make a difference if that was indeed his intention.

And I'm with you, too, Jenny - what a mad world it is we live in where drug abuse is considered the lesser of two evils where the other evil is homosexuality.  That the latter is even considered an evil at all is mad enough as it is.

[moremojo]

I'm afraid the Republican is probably going to win the gubernatorial race down here, too (what state are you in, again?). 

I'm in Texas, currently governed (and I use that term charitably) by Rick (rhymes with a vulgar term for the male anatomy) Perry. Perry and Bush are surely two of the most contemptible people ever to hold the office of Governor in my native state, at least in my lifetime.

[nakymaton]

Whether or not the Church disowns Haggard, the larger issue is whether the exposure of his hypocrisy will put a dent in the gay marriage issue in Colorado.  My fear is that all it will serve to do is bring out even more religious zealots in that state to vote to ban it.  Still, I admire Jones for trying to make a difference if that was indeed his intention.

There are actually two votes in Colorado... one to change the law to create domestic partnerships, and one to amend the constitution to ban gay marriage. I'm scared that the homophobes will get riled up about somebody saying their leader is gay, and come out in force. (Or not come out, as in the case of Haggard.) But I've got a lot less trust in Colorado voters than Lee does... maybe she's right, and the domestic partnerships are bound to win. I don't know.

Argh. I just wish there was somebody in public, in the so-called liberal media, pointing out that using meth is bad, and being gay isn't. 

(I've voted already, too. But I'm still pretty stressed out about the whole thing, and mostly I wish Colorado Springs would just go away...)

[ednbarby]

Argh. I just wish there was somebody in public, in the so-called liberal media, pointing out that using meth is bad, and being gay isn't. 

Oh, Superman, where are you now?  Where did things go wrong somehow?
These men of steel, men of power are losing control by the hour.
Too many men, too many people making too many problems.
And not much love to go 'round.
Can't you see, this is a Land of Confusion.

~ Phil Collins, "The World We Live In"

Yeah - I'm waiting for a knight (or lady) in shining armor to come and speak the truth.  I'd pin my hopes on Anderson Cooper to come through for me on this one, but for obvious reasons, I think he'd shy away from it.  Don't count Keith Olbermann out - he's one of the (very, very few) good guys.  And in a pinch, there's always Jon Stewart.  If he doesn't jump into this pool hip-deep, I don't know who will.

[JennyC]

And in a pinch, there's always Jon Stewart.  If he doesn't jump into this pool hip-deep, I don't know who will.

And Bill Maher.  He probably will make this into his new rules.  I am sure all late night comedians are going to jump on this.

[delalluvia]

I'm in Texas, currently governed (and I use that term charitably) by Rick (rhymes with a vulgar term for the male anatomy) Perry. Perry and Bush are surely two of the most contemptible people ever to hold the office of Governor in my native state, at least in my lifetime.

Well said.  The current state of our government is going to force me to do something during the voting that I've never done before.  Damn them.

And yes, these evangelical religious nuts live by hypocritical standards and are the first to forgive themselves so they feel lily white and are quick to pounce on those who can't 'forgive' them as unChristian. 

Pathetic.

[ednbarby]

Well said.  The current state of our government is going to force me to do something during the voting that I've never done before.

Vote for a Democrat? 

(My father says he's voting for not just one, but a few, for the first time since 1968.)

[Lynne]

Barb - I don't think it's 'wrong' of you.  I think it's just human nature to try to find the humor/irony in something that is really too sad and troubling to grasp fully.  And then when you add the hypocrisy factor...just human nature.

I thought this was a really insightful article about the fallout from this scandal related a bit to the election results.  Bold type is mine.
-Lynne

Old Time Politics of Hatred
Ellen Goodman

BOSTON - I suppose it's hard to count Ted Haggard as a direct casualty of the 2006 election since his name wasn't on any ballot. But if the evangelist had not been a prime supporter of a Colorado amendment banning gay marriage, Mike Jones might never have seen him on TV and said, "Oh my God, it's Art." The gay prostitute might never have outed the minister of the New Life Church as a customer of rentaboy or a referral for methamphetamine.

So the Sunday before the election, Pastor Ted resigned, labeling himself a "deceiver and a liar." He no longer heads the National Association of Evangelicals, nor does he field calls from the president. He's embarked on religious rehab, more properly known as "spiritual restoration," an odd name that seems to combine New Age steps and fundamentalist beliefs.

Still, what strikes me in the aftermath is not just the hypocrisy of Pastor Ted. I keep flashing back onto this sentence in his confession: "There is part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life." Haggard was not referring to marital infidelity or drugs, but to his gayness.

Haggard seemed like a kinder, gentler and greener evangelical than many on the religious right. Yet he once equated Gay Pride Day with Murderer's Pride Day and looked to the Bible for the last word in science as well as religion. This was not just a man split between his walk and his talk. This was a man repulsed by himself.

How do we think about this repulsion? In the aftermath of his revelation, reactions were as bifurcated as our culture.

Sympathy came in two varieties.

On the one hand there were congregants, fellow ministers and letters-to-the-editor writers who heard a man wrestling with real demons. Their sympathy was for a sinner.

On the other hand there were people who heard a man wounded by the culture of demonization. Their sympathy was for a man primed for repression and deception by the teaching of homosexuality as a sin.

We've heard echoes of this duality before. When "Brokeback Mountain" was presented as the ultimate gay cowboy story, the religious right found its own moral message in the movie: Look at the damage done by the evil of homosexuality. But other moviegoers saw the culprit of the tragedy in the repressive atmosphere that hung over these two men and the landscape.

Haggard's deception and repulsion are, in some ways, lagging indicators of changing attitudes and science. Thirty years ago, only 13 percent of Americans thought homosexuality was inborn while 56 percent thought it came from the way people were raised. This year, for the first time, more Americans believe that homosexuality is inborn (42 percent) than due to upbringing (37 percent). More gays, more friends, families, co-workers have come to believe that gayness is not a choice, let alone a sin.

Nevertheless, this week Catholic bishops meeting in Baltimore offered guidelines for ministering to gays that might have been - indeed were - from the distant past. The tone, said one bishop, was meant to be "positive, pastoral and welcoming" to gay Catholics. But the message was that "homosexual inclinations" are "disordered," that gays should live in chastity, and that they are banned from marrying or adopting. In short, gays are welcome with open arms into the church as long as they declare themselves sinners and reject - repel? - their own sexuality.

In many places we are witnessing another way out of the repulsion - the creation of open heterosexual unions, the establishment of gay families with all their ordinary, imperfect, daily struggles. We are watching the incremental acceptance of same-sex benefits and civil unions, and, at least in Massachusetts, gay marriage.

I suspect that Haggard's idea of "spiritual restoration" is the restoration of the closet. "From time to time," he wrote, "the dirt that I thought was gone would resurface." If anything he seems to want more tools to fight the "dirt. " This charismatic man may well reappear, "cured," as a poster boy for the ex-gay movement enlisted to preach "hope" for the homosexual.

But those whose families and workplaces and neighborhoods include openly gay men and women will always see this lost soul as a poster boy for the real damage caused by the old-time ministry of self-hate.

Ellen Goodman is a Boston-based syndicated writer. Her e-mail address is [email protected].
http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061116/EDIT/611160310/1003

[ednbarby]

I heart Ellen Goodman.  Always have.  And as usual, I think she hit the nail on the head with this one.  Thanks for posting that, dear Lynne, my other self.