Ted Haggard, the leader of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs (a very popular, massive church on the north side of town, and a big supplier of Focus on the Family shock troops), resigned yesterday after being accused of having sex with a gay prostitute.
Why does it have to be like this? Why is sex immediately equivalent to dirty laundry? Nobody was hurt here. And who knows what to believe…I mean, the timing is so bad, it’s hard to believe it.
As a point of interest (mostly to me), his church is a block away from the facility I work in. If necessary, I volunteer to go over there and investigate any scandalous sexual situations.
The reason it is so huge a deal is because he came out bashing Referendum I and for the gay marriage ban – Amendment 42 or something? That’s why he’s under such a microscope – for being a hypocrite. He is out there preaching the evils of drugs and homosexuality and well one of the guys he was with got a little ticked about it and outed him.
Sure, he’s a hypocrite–but, being a Christian hypocrite, isn’t there supposed to be forgiveness, instead of wallowing in his hypocracy? I work in Conservative Central, and the sheer delight in abusing the guy is disgusting.
The New Life congregation decided to put their faith in a guy instead of in their religion. That guy lets them know that it’s OK to hate gays, even though their religion tells them otherwise. That guy lets them know it’s OK to condemn people, even though their religion tells them otherwise. Who’s more hypocritical? The guy that got caught, or the congregation (and the rest of the so-called Christians) who throw him to the wolves now? Sure, Haggard is a jackass. But what’s so great about ripping him to shreds for being a jackass? Haggard has gone from being an “us” to being a “them.” How does this stop the cycle of the Christian Right turning everything that isn’t the Christian Right into evil monsters?
The problem is that he is meat for both groups. Those he lied to and those he lied about. Hypocracy is one of the hardest faults to forgive. He used his position of power and leadership to preach hatred and intolerance, it’s a case of as ye sow so shall ye reap. Perhaps in time he can use the dregs of his influence or contacts to change things for the better once he has suffered.