The Rev. Ted Haggard emerged from three weeks of intensive counseling convinced he is “completely heterosexual” and told an oversight board that his sexual contact with men was limited to his accuser.
Ya, ok, not so much… (To say nothing of the idiotic delusion of reparative therapy being completed in three weeks…)
Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard’s former church disclosed Friday that the gay sex scandal that caused his downfall extends to a young male church volunteer who reported having a sexual relationship with Haggard – a revelation that comes as Haggard tries to repair his public image.
Brady Boyd, who succeeded Haggard as senior pastor of the 10,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, told The Associated Press that the man came forward to church officials in late 2006 shortly after a Denver male prostitute claimed to have had a three-year cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard.
But of course, the church is clearly living out their commitment to a transparent, open reflection of a new life in Christ… We think… Ok, maybe they are mostly covering it up better then even Haggard himself and even paying hush money…
Boyd said the church reached a legal settlement to pay the man for counseling and college tuition, with one condition being that none of the parties involved discuss the matter publicly.
Boyd said a Colorado Springs TV station reached him Thursday to say the young man was planning to provide a detailed report of his relationship with Haggard to the station. Boyd said the church preferred to keep the matter private, but it was the man’s decision to go public.
But no, of course it’s not hush money — it’s just compassionate assistance… Um, no wait…
“It wasn’t at all a settlement to make him be quiet or not tell his story,” Boyd said. “Our desire was to help him. Here was a young man who wanted to get on with his life. We considered it more compassionate assistance – certainly not hush money. I know what’s what everyone will want to say because that’s the most salacious thing to say, but that’s not at all what it was.”
Boyd said the church will not take action against the man if he tells his story in the press.
“We have legal standing to do that, but not the desire to,” he said.
Yep, compassionate assistance — with a Non Disclosure Agreement. I’ll bet the church also makes patrons of their food bank sign one though so I’m sure it’s all standard procedure…
It isn’t often that Evangelical Christendom manages NOT to make me ashamed to be associated with them — this is not their lucky day…
January 26th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
also apparently the hush ahem compassionate payoff the church gave the guy wasn’t enough so he’s now – no doubt – agreed to talk about his story on TV for an undisclosed sum.
Can the book and made for TV movie be far behind?
January 26th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Yep, they just made it even more sensational now…
January 27th, 2009 at 9:37 am
The irony here is close to everyone’s heart isn’t it? That the church is meant to be a safe place to share your weakness without shame or condemnation. And now because of the “secrecy” (vs privacy) the whole damn thing is spread all over like a soap opera.
So back to the operations room; you are either interested in real healing and compassion or just simply your image and the preservation of such at all cost. And usually that cost is the image you were trying so hard to preserve. Such a waste of time isn’t it. And to think we only live here for say….max 100 yrs?
Of course, we don’t have any church businesses like that in Canada….
Implosion is simply what it is, implosion.
January 28th, 2009 at 3:11 am
It just strikes me that the tree really didn’t fall far from the apple either. (Ted was just as much created by the culture he inhabited as the culture was created by Ted — and he led the entire Evangelical Union of the United States.)
Once you start with a culture of rules (nothing more then an attempt to control people) and define healing and growth as the adherence to such, you automatically need to play a role to look like you fit or those you are, “Healing,” will not let you heal them.
In a way, I kinda feel for Ted — there had to be a moment when he woke up one morning and realized he needed help. It probably was MANY years ago too. I’m nearly certain that the next thought that crossed his mind was, “I can’t do that, I’d be unemployed — and from who anyway — who could I trust not to get me fired?”
He would have been right — by that point he was so trapped in that culture there was no help. His church’s response to the latest lover breaking his silence is proof positive of the culture of shame, guilt and a bizarre parody of the latest vision of holiness which that church ran on. It’s nothing more then a blatant attempt to deny that there was any other gay person there…
Welcome to Evangelical Christendom… {SIGH} I doubt if there’s ever going to be a chance that any church out there could actually let a real person be and/or remain in the pulpit…
January 28th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
True that all individuals/corporations eventually come to the end of themselves, either by death or despair. I guess it looks like corporations continue only because of new and determined management.
I pray that the washed up ones truly find the Master and His Mercy.
The only other option is ruthlessness, or shall we say “truthlessness”.
This story makes me more thankful for Jesus and a little more sad for all of us who too long lived in fear of condemnation.
And so right you are, I wouldn’t take my deep hurts to my church. Thank you God for you and the small group of safe people you have put me in.
And now for one of the biggest and one of the dirtiest lies then, if Ted felt he couldn’t take it to his colleagues and therefore believed there was no other place to take it…..
The church seems to be the place which most people consider to be the last resort to take their troubles. Doesn’t leave much hope does it?
And without hope he may as well keep on doing what he is doing right…
Cause there must not really be a good and kind God…….
January 29th, 2009 at 12:26 am
Sad isn’t it.
Grace has become, “How God enables you to perform.”