Church ousts pastor for 'immoral' acts
After resigning as head of a national evangelical group, Ted Haggard is removed from his New Life leadership post.
By Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writer
November 5, 2006
DENVER — An investigative committee of independent pastors concluded "without a doubt" on Saturday that the Rev. Ted Haggard had committed "sexually immoral conduct" and removed him from his duties as senior pastor at a mega-church in Colorado Springs, Colo.
The committee's decision took away Haggard's last position of church leadership — and cast doubt on his assertion that he had visited a male prostitute for a massage but never had sex with him.
Last week, Haggard resigned from the presidency of the 30-million member National Assn. of Evangelicals under allegations that he had a three-year sexual relationship with the man. Haggard also has said that he bought methamphetamine from the prostitute but did not use it.
The statement from New Life Church's investigative committee did not list the evidence the group considered. But the strong wording left little doubt that Haggard's conduct involved more than an illegal drug buy.
"It's not just about meth. It's not just about a massage. I guess that's what we are to infer," said the Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president of governmental affairs for the evangelical association.
"We all have to be humble and recognize that people — even our leaders — have feet of clay," Cizik said. "So we love. And we forgive."
A letter of explanation and apology from Haggard will be read at New Life services today. His wife of 28 years, Gayle Haggard, will also address the congregation. The couple have five children.
Haggard, 50, built the church after he said he experienced a vision during a three-day solitary fast on Pikes Peak, the majestic mountain that soars above Colorado Springs. Given to visions — he says he can see demons, and he sometimes speaks in tongues — Haggard preached his first sermon in his unfinished basement on a cold morning in January 1985. His pulpit was a stack of old buckets. His pews were lawn chairs.
From the start, the church — and its leader — broke the mold.
Haggard led ebullient worship services filled with song and dance; he prayed over names in the phone book; he sent his members out walking through Colorado Springs with instructions to pray for specific parcels of land. He wrote a tract about his goals with the title "Making It Hard for People to Go to Hell From Your City."
Haggard's exuberance and inveterate optimism began attracting crowds, and New Life outgrew one space after another.
Nearly 22 years after that first service, the church has a congregation of 14,000 and a huge complex on the edge of Colorado Springs. Each Easter, the sanctuary is transformed into a theater for an extravagant passion play with a cast of hundreds, live animals, Cirque du Soleil-style acrobats portraying angels — and special effects worthy of Broadway.
Telegenic and proud of his accomplishments, Haggard welcomed reporters to the church campus (though he did send out a memo cautioning congregants to refrain from dancing in the aisles and speaking in "glassy-eyed heavenly mode" when TV cameras were rolling). His openness with the media only raised his profile further.
"He is probably one of the top five most prominent evangelicals in America and therefore in the world," said Ted Olsen, news director for the evangelical magazine Christianity Today. "Hardly a day went by where we did not see Haggard quoted by someone. It was pretty rare for him not to have an opinion."
Through their sorrow and bewilderment this past week, church members have been quick to say that the scandal will not bring down New Life — or shake their faith.
"This is a pruning, in a sense," said Patty VanTassel, 50. "New Life Church is not about Ted Haggard. It's about God … and rescuing people from sin."
Many others have repeated a variation of that line: We don't worship Ted Haggard; we worship God.
But Charles Chandler, who runs a support program for ousted preachers, said mega-churches like New Life sometimes put their pastors on a pedestal. The ministers are more than spiritual leaders; they're almost rock stars — their images beamed on enormous television screens as they preach, their books sold front and center in the lobby, their photos plastered across church websites.
"People almost put you on a throne," Chandler said. "You're vulnerable when that happens. You can take yourself too seriously."
In his group, Ministering to Ministers, Chandler has seen some pastors behave immorally in a gesture of what he calls "professional suicide."
"They can't handle the pressure, but they can't bring themselves to step down, so they do something stupid," he said. Others struggle with sexual or chemical addictions for years — and preach mightily about that very subject to try to cover up, Chandler said.
"They don't want to recognize that it's part of their life," said Chandler, who is based in Richmond, Va.
When caught, Chandler said, a minister's instinct often is not to confess, but to deny, as Haggard did when he was confronted with questions about the prostitute, Mike Jones. The pastor said at first that he did not know Jones. Later, after Jones released voice mail messages he said were from Haggard, the pastor acknowledged that he had visited the prostitute for a massage and bought methamphetamine from him.
The church's board of overseers said Saturday that they would "continue to explore the depth of Pastor Haggard's offense so that a plan of healing and restoration can begin."
Haggard's friends and followers are praying for that restoration. "God alone is judge, and he has the power to heal, restore and bring some good out of this," Cizik said. "It's hard to believe that there could be good of this. But that's a biblical promise."
stephanie.simon@latimes.com
source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-haggard5nov05,0,7347342.story?coll=la-home-headlines
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Minister Ted Haggard Accused by Male Escort
M-Taliesin
November 4, 2006
There is quite an uproar going on in Denver and Colorado Springs in particular over the allegations of a male escort who claims that a prominent evangelical minister had a sexual business relationship with him over the span of some 3 years.
Mike Jones first contacted KUSA channel 9 news in Denver with his claims regarding Pastor Ted Haggard of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. He asserted that Haggard had sexual relations with him over a period of three years. Channel 9 was investigating the story, but had not aired any of this information while working quietly to verify information provided by Jones.
More recently, Jones sent an email to KHOW radio talk-show host Peter Boyles informing that he was a male escort who had a sexual relationship with a prominent religious leader in Colorado. There was some discussion between Boyles and Jones that resulted in an agreement that Jones would be a guest on the Peter Boyles morning radio program.
Mr. Jones repeated the claims made in his email to Boyles on live radio, but would not name the minister nor the church involved. Jones repeatedly stated his fear of retribution should he reveal the name and stated he was seeking advice from his attorney before going further. He did say, however, that the minister in question was actively promoting antigay legislation in Colorado.
The outrage of KHOW listeners soon exploded in a firestorm of anger against Mike Jones for making such claims and at Peter Boyles for having him on his morning radio show. The station was inundated by hostile calls from the largely conservative listeners of KHOW, along with a flood of email messages sent to the studio. Peter Boyles read many of those emails on the air, most attacking Boyles directly for airing this story. Irate listeners demanded to know the identity of the minister in question and speculated on several possible suspects.
When the show ended at 9:00 am, infuriated listeners had pounded Boyles for 4 solid hours, attacking his credibility, integrity, professionalism and motivations for having Jones on his show. In reality, such attacks were unwarranted and mostly unkind or outright hateful. Boyles, to his great credit, broke this story with sensitivity and objectivity.
Now that Boyles had broken ground on this story, the folks at KUSA channel 9 went into full swing on the story. Along with local newspapers, KUSA gave background on the story that had not been made public for several weeks since being contacted by Mr. Jones. Now they rushed to publish information and revealed much that Jones had kept confidential. For example, they revealed Mike Jones by name, along with the identity of the Ted Haggard of New Life Church. The cat was now officially “out of the bag” and the networks picked up the story somewhat belatedly the following day. Primary reporters from KUSA included investigative journalist Paula Woodward and investigative producer Amy Herdy.
In a video interview with Ted Haggard at his home, Haggard denied knowing Mike Jones. He disavowed all the allegations made by Jones on KHOW radio.
Back at KHOW, Peter Boyles once again invited Jones to be a guest on his show. The phone lines again were jammed with callers who were, for the most part, furious over the allegations that Ted Haggard had sexual congress with Mike Jones. Most attacked Jones on the basis of character and credibility. “How can you take the word of an avowed male prostitute over that of a man like Haggard?” said one. “ Boyles, you have sunk to a new low in tabloid broadcasting!” said another. Few wanted to know whether there was truth to the allegations, preferring instead to assault both men on the basis of integrity and credibility. Sacred cows do not slaughter without a great deal of ruckus!
Meanwhile, back at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Ted Haggard suddenly stepped down as senior pastor and also resigned as President of the National Association of Evangelicals. Martin Nussbaum, legal counsel for New Life Church, announced this stunning development. Haggard maintained he had no dealings with Mr. Jones.
Another bombshell was lobbed into the controversy by interim pastor Ross Parsley when he announced, “I don't have an accurate description about the precise details. 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.”
Peter Boyles of KHOW again invited Mike Jones to visit the studio, this time armed with voice messages left on his machine by someone who identified himself as Art. Allegedly, the voice on the tape is Haggard’s. Voice expert Richard Sanders compared KUSA audio recordings of Haggard with those on the voice mail tape and they seem to match. "Overall, I would say it's probably the same person, from a scientific standpoint," said Sanders, after listening to the voice recordings.
One of those recordings is quoted here for context:
"Hi Mike, this is Art. Hey, I was just calling to see if we could get any more. Either $100 or $200 supply. And I could pick it up really anytime. I could get it tomorrow or we could wait till next week sometime and so I also wanted to get your address. I could send you some money for inventory but that's probably not working, so if you have it then go ahead and get what you can and I may buzz up there later today, but I doubt your schedule would allow that unless you have some in the house. Okay, I'll check in with you later. Thanks a lot, bye."
It was later announced that Ted Haggard’s middle name is Arthur.
Ted Haggard next claimed to reporters that he did buy methamphetamine once, but believed it to be wrong, so he simply disposed of it and never took any.
Haggard said in a KUSA TV interview, which also aired on CNN:
“I did call him. I called him to buy some meth. But I threw it away. I was buying it for me but I never used it.”
That statement is at odds with what is stated on the recording. “I was just calling to see if we could get any more.” What would one want with more if he threw the first batch away? The statement denying methamphetamine use is inherently illogical.
Back at KHOW, Mike Jones stated he would be willing to take a polygraph test. Peter Boyles arranged for a polygraphist to administer the test at the studios of KHOW and the result indicated deception. However, polygraphist John Kresnik stated he had misgivings due to physiological factors that might influence results. Jones had not eaten properly and only slept a few hours over the 48 immediately prior to the examination. In addition, the stress of confronting a national figure on a public forum would likely impact results. Jones agreed to submit himself to additional testing at another time.
The next comment from Haggard indicated that he had visited hotels in Denver and wanted a massage. He claims a concierge referred him to Jones. Yet, he never stated which hotel referred him to Jones.
This particular bit of information seems laughable on face value. Denver has many certified massage therapists readily available throughout the city. Most have storefronts and operate their business with utmost professionalism. Many of the larger hotels in Denver will have massage therapists on staff. Moreover, within 40 miles of Denver are several schools that teach massage therapy and emphasize professionalism and ethical standards. What hotel in the city of Denver, or in nearby communities, would refer anyone to a male escort for a massage that can be easily provided by a therapist on staff or to one of the many professional massage therapists who provide this service locally? This simply does not make sense.
As I write this, events continue to unfold and more information is revealed with every new hour. It would seem wise to evaluate what is known at this time, through the rational and unemotional perspective of a viewer that doesn’t have a dog in this fight. To that end, I would like to place the following facts before the reader for consideration.
Mike Jones was a male escort who provided sex for pay services. He stated that he was motivated to expose Haggard for hypocrisy. Jones claims his motivation was to denounce someone who campaigned against gay rights, including support of an amendment to the Constitution of Colorado, to prohibit gay marriage; all the while turning to Jones for sex. Jones failed a lie detector test administered by a professional polygraphist who cited deception was indicated in the readings. Jones has credibility issues because of his background as a male escort who engaged in sex as a business activity. He also has implicated himself in providing a controlled substance, methamphetamine.
On the positive side of the Mike Jones ledger is that his story has remained consistent to this point. While the polygraphist did test Jones with deception resulting from the session, he also stated that Jone’s physical and mental state could produce misleading results. Jones has little to gain, and much peril in making these accusations. The possibility exists that law enforcement could press charges for prostitution and drug dealing in this case. Why would he place himself in such dire peril unless he was confident that he was speaking the truth? Additionally, he has physical evidence to support his claims.
Turning to Ted Haggard, we have proof that he lied regarding knowing Jones to begin with. Not only did he lie about knowing Jones, he lied about having any dealings with Jones. His claim of throwing away the methamphetamine he states he purchased from Jones seems untrue contrasted with his voice on tape seeking to purchase more of the product. Haggard is, by his own admission, guilty of purchasing methamphetamine and having it in his possession, whether or not he used the stuff. That’s a felony. He too is in peril of criminal charges being filed in this case. Haggard’s story has changed from not knowing Jones, to buying methamphetamine from him, to seeing him to receive a massage!
On the positive side of Haggard’s ledger, we must consider that a man is innocent until proven guilty. Haggard has, by statements made to media, implicated himself of deceit. We must also consider the ministry he has dedicated so much time and energy to and the good that has flowed from that work. He is a family man with a wife and 5 children and a leader in the community.
It will be interesting to see what develops in this story in coming days and weeks. If Haggard is innocent of the charges Mike Jones has laid to his charge, then woe to Jones for doing so much wrong to a man who has done so much good.
But if Haggard hasn’t come clean and is lying to everyone about his activities, then Jesus had a special woe to him, just as he did for the religious hypocrites of his own day:
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.”
As a Pagan, I believe in ethical values that revolve around the concept “an it harm none, do as you will.” So I really don’t care if somebody wants to have sex with someone else of either sex. That should be private between those involved. But when one claims religion as justification to subjugate an entire spectrum of Americans and relegate them to second-class citizens in terms of their rights and liberties, including a Constitutional Amendment to marginalize them; that is harm indeed. And as a Pagan, I will speak for life, liberty and happiness for all! I believe, as our founding fathers did, “that all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.”
And I believe, as a Pagan, it isn’t the job of religion to deny or campaign against the rights and liberties of another who happens to be different. You’d think we learned something from the Civil Rights movement, when many of the same claims made against gay folks were hurled at people of color.
Regardless of who is telling the truth in the matter of Mike Jones and Ted Haggard, the bottom line is that great harm is being done to many in the name of Jesus! Why is that so?
For more on this story, check with the following sources:
http://www.khow.com
http://www.9news.com
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_4597552
http://newlifechurch.org/nlcpressrelease110206.pdf
http://www.nae.net
source: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=16004
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Sunday, November 05 2006 @ 11:30 PM EST
Ted Haggard: Being Gay is 'so repulsive and dark'
Sunday, November 05 2006 @ 07:59 PM EST
Disgraced Haggard Tries to Take All Gays With Him
BBSNews Commentary 2006-11-05 -- In a self-serving statement read by another to the congregation at the New Life Church Ted Haggard created, the former evangelical leader seems more worried about the effect on him than others, and he takes a shot at all gays, trying to lump them in with his deceitful, lying behavior.
He goes on to use the term "repulsive" to describe being gay and he claims that being gay is somehow related to dirt:
"I am a deceiver and a liar. There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I’ve been warring against it all of my adult life. For extended periods of time, I would enjoy victory and rejoice in freedom. Then, from time to time, the dirt that I thought was gone would resurface, and I would find myself thinking thoughts and experiencing desires that were contrary to everything I believe and teach."
One suspects that the folks at NARTH (National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) will get a boost from Haggard's claim about being able to repress his homosexuality and actually "rejoice" in it. What a piece of work. This man actively worked to discriminate against gays across the country and in Colorado, then cheated on his wife and enjoyed meth as a sex enhancement, and now he has the gall to tar all gays with his sickness of being a great big liar for his entire adult life.
He also said in his statement that he didn't even have the guts to read himself from the pulpit:
"The public person I was wasn’t a lie; it was just incomplete."
Well you got that right Haggard. You could not reveal that you are gay because then you would have no "public" to deceive with your lies. Certainly not American evangelicals who are taught from the pulpit that being gay is a horrible sin and they will burn in hellfire forever unless they get enough Jesus to stop that horrible gayness.
While not quite admitting that everything was true in the allegations that have surfaced so far, Haggard does indeed admit that he committed "sexual immorality" and wierdly, the "overseers" of the church he founded have summoned forth the best and the vilest of deceivers to counsel him and make him right again:
"Our church's overseers have required me to submit to the oversight of Dr. James Dobson, Pastor Jack Hayford, and Pastor Tommy Barnett. Those men will perform a thorough analysis of my mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical life. They will guide me through a program with the goal of healing and restoration for my life, my marriage, and my family."
James Dobson? What is Dobson going to do, have Haggard bend over and give him a bare-bottomed spanking with a substantial paddle until he beats the gayness out of him? What will it take for the right-wing in America to realize that being gay is something one is born with and no matter what "therapy" or "counseling" is tried, the gayness will not go away? It's not going to happen and the American Psychological Association (APA) says that interventions by those such as NARTH may in fact be harmful from 2000:
"Recent publicized efforts to repathologize homosexuality by claiming that it can be cured are often guided not by rigorous scientific or psychiatric research, but sometimes by religious and political forces opposed to full civil rights for gay men and lesbians."
And from their position statement two years earlier in 1998:
"Several major professional organizations including the American Psychological Association, the National Association of Social Workers and the American Academy of Pediatrics have all made statements against reparative therapy because of concerns for the harm caused to patients. The American Psychiatric Association has already taken clear stands against discrimination, prejudice and unethical treatment on a variety of issues including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation."
In other words, trying to make someone not gay is bunk, it will not work, it may be harmful to try, and the need for some of these people to insist on trying is based upon religious based prejudice and hatred.
Eight states including Colorado have some form of initiative against equal rights for gay people in the form of marriage. No religion would ever be forced to marry a gay, they don't have to be involved at all. A justice of the peace or a judge would be perfectly acceptable, but these people are so driven by the likes of the fallen Ted Haggard and the still gay hating James Dobson that they will try and deny basic rights to people they simply dislike. There is no rational explanation for this behavior. There is no "protection" of "traditional marriage." This is a huge scam being perpetuated by close-minded people who themselves are being revealed again and again as gay themselves. But since they have been so repressed by their brand of religion they hate themselves, they repress the sexuality they were born with, and they project this hatred onto others with ballot initiatives that would enshrine discrimination against gays into various laws and States constitutions.
At this point, an exit poll of people who vote in favor of these initiatives would reveal people who have been brainwashed into bigotry against gays. Nothing more, nothing less. Thousands of gay marriages have been performed in Massachussetts with no effect on any heterosexual marriage or any religion whatsoever.
It's time that evangelicals start facing the facts from the reality they have before them and the experts at the APA, the effort against gays by evangelicals is based upon their religion and while evangelicals are entitled to their own opinions, they do not have the ability to change reality. Ted Haggard was on a pedestle among them, and he has fallen not because he is gay, but because of his lies and deceit of his family and the congreagation he has misled.
All of the initiatives should be seen for what they are, a cruel device to keep equal rights from people that are being persecuted by a religion driven contituency that simply hates gay people. It is not about protecting marriage, these initiatives are about keeping equal rights from gay people.
Plain and simple, a vote in favor of these marriage initiatives is a vote to discriminate against a community's own citizens.
source: http://bbsnews.net/article.php/20061105195945918
