From The Washington Post

The new senior pastor of a Colorado megachurch said Wednesday he was optimistic for its future even as the church's overseers chastised their disgraced former leader, Ted Haggard.

Brady Boyd, selected Monday by members of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, said he knew he wasn't facing a routine pastoral transition and had plenty of questions for church members.

"I wanted to know if this church was ready to move forward," he said. "They just want to be normal. They just want to care for one another and be a church. They think their reputation as a church can be recovered."

Haggard left New Life and resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals last year after a former male prostitute alleged he had a cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard. The man also said he saw Haggard use methamphetamine.

Haggard confessed to undisclosed "sexual immorality" and said he bought meth but never used it.

Last week, Haggard sent an e-mail to KRDO-TV saying he planned to pursue a master's degree in counseling and also counsel at the Phoenix Dream Center halfway house. He said he and his family would move in to the Dream Center run by Tommy Barnett, who leads the 15,000-member Phoenix First Assembly of God that Haggard now attends.

Haggard, 50, also sought financial support.

New Life overseers released a statement Wednesday saying they told Haggard the e-mail was "unacceptable."

"Mr. Haggard's solicitation for personal support was inappropriate," the overseers said in their statement. "It was never the intention of the Dream Center that Mr. Haggard would provide any counsel or other ministry. Mr. Haggard will not be moving in or working with the Dream Center. He will not be doing any ministry. He will be seeking secular employment to support himself and his family," the statement said.

Church members on Monday selected Boyd, who had been an associate senior pastor at Gateway Church in Southlake, an upscale Fort Worth suburb.

At New Life, Boyd will oversee a church of about 10,000 members -- down from 14,000 since the Haggard scandal -- a $12 million budget and a staff of 150. Besides a drop in its attendance, New Life has seen its revenues drop by 10 percent since Haggard left.

From Slate

Hot Document readers will remember the public apology rendered by the Rev. Ted Haggard, founder and pastor of Colorado Springs' New Life Church, after a sex scandal forced him to resign from the church and as president of the National Association of Evangelicals. (Haggard got caught having a sexual relationship with, and buying methamphetamines from, a male prostitute.) Later, after secular counseling, Pastor Ted wrote some of his former parishioners a "personal and private e-mail" (promptly leaked to KRDO, an ABC affiliate in Colorado Springs) to explain that he was no longer gay and that he planned to become a psychologist. Now Haggard's rehabilitation is raising some new, very bizarre questions.

Four months ago the Haggard family moved to Arizona, and last week, Haggard informed KRDO of his newest life decision: to minister to "the homeless, those coming out of prison, recovering alcoholics, drug addicts, prostitutes, and other broken people" at the Phoenix Dream Center halfway house, where the Haggard family will also live. Haggard and his wife, Gayle, now members of Phoenix First Assembly (the "church with a heart"), are also enrolled as full-time students at the University of Phoenix. Minus his $138,000 salary, and with the depressed real estate market preventing the sale of his $700,000 house, Haggard will have trouble making ends meet. So, Haggard asked KRDO reporter Tak Landrock (see below) to help him line up "people who can give a one-time gift or make a commitment to help support us monthly for two years."

Here comes the weird part.

Haggard wrote Landrock that supporters can mail checks directly to the Haggard family at their Scottsdale, Ariz., address, but that if contributors wish to make their donations tax deductible, as they very likely will, they can make out their checks to something called Families With a Mission and write on the check that it is designated for the Haggard family. Ninety percent of these funds will then be forwarded to Haggard, while the remaining 10 percent will cover Family With a Mission's "administrative costs."

And illustrating the Christlike importance of forgiveness, the completely heterosexual Rev Brady Boyd called Haggard a failure. From Christian Today

"I want to be your pastor," the Rev Brady Boyd told thousands, drawing laughter and applause from the packed auditorium.... "I don't have any moral failures in my past, no bones in my closet... I have sinned, but I am not a failure." READ IT ALL

The Duke of Haggard, from The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right

From HuffingtonPost

The Rev. Ted Haggard moved Wednesday from his longtime home in Colorado Springs to Phoenix, where the disgraced minister will join the same church that helped fallen televangelist Jim Bakker.

Haggard, 50, resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals last year, after a former male prostitute alleged a three-year cash-for-sex relationship. The man also said he saw Haggard use methamphetamine. Haggard confessed to undisclosed "sexual immorality" and said he bought meth but never used it.

As part of his severance package from New Life Church, a 14,000-member congregation he started in his basement, Haggard agreed to leave Colorado Springs, a city he helped make an evangelical center.

Continue reading "Haggard Leaves Colorado With Check In Hand" »

The plot keeps thickening. Turns out, Pastor Ted embraced his "dark side" on many occassions, perhaps with members of his own staff: from Capitol Hill Blue

“Numerous individuals” -- some of them later described as young male staffers -- have outlined what church leaders call a pattern of improper and even “sordid” behavior by the founder and former chief pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo.

“We have verified the reality of (Haggard’s) struggle through numerous individuals who reported to us firsthand knowledge of everything from sordid conversation to overt suggestions to improper activities to improper relationships,” the Rev. Larry Stockstill told the congregation.

In other Haggard news, Rev. Tim Ralph says he was misquoted as saying Haggard is now “completely heterosexual.” from Capitol Hill Blue:

He said he meant to say that therapy “gave Ted the tools to help to embrace his heterosexual side.”

Related: Haggard Had Other "Improper Relationships"

From the AP

Numerous individuals reported knowledge of New Life Church founder Ted Haggard's struggle with a "dark side," leading to his departure from the mega-church, a member of the church's board of overseers told parishioners Sunday.

Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals in November after former male escort Mike Jones alleged Haggard paid him for sex and sometimes snorted methamphetamine. Haggard was removed as senior pastor at New Life and admitted to "sexual immorality" in a letter to the church.

"Concerning Ted and his family, we have done extensive fact-finding into his lifelong battle with a 'dark side' which he said in his confession letter has been a struggle for years," Pastor Larry Stockstill, part of the church's board of overseers, told the 14,000-member congregation Sunday.

"We have verified the reality of that struggle through numerous individuals who reported to us firsthand knowledge of everything from sordid conversation to overt suggestions to improper activities to improper relationships. These findings established a pattern of behavior that culminated in the final relationship in which Ted was, as a matter of grace, caught," he said.

Stockstill did not elaborate. Church leaders had billed Sunday as a "day of hope" to discuss claims against Haggard and to bring closure to church members.

The Haggards have agreed to move from Colorado Springs, Stockstill said. The family was considering the Minneapolis and Phoenix areas, and communities in Missouri and Iowa.

The church will provide the Haggards with financial support over the next year, roughly equivalent to the $130,000 salary Haggard received as pastor, Associate Pastor Rob Brendle told The Colorado Springs Gazette.

Even though Ted Haggard is now "completely heterosexual", his former church wants nothing to do with him. A new agreement signed by Haggard and the leaders of New Life Church has disowned the disgraced pastor from his evangelical family. Didn't Jesus teach his followers to forgive? From 9Wants to Know:

9Wants to Know has learned the New Life Church in Colorado Springs has reached an agreement on the conditions of Pastor Ted Haggard's relationship with the church.

New Life Church co-pastor Rob Brendle talked candidly with investigative reporter Paula Woodward Wednesday afternoon about an agreement signed by both Ted Haggard and church representatives.

“We think it’s a win-win” said Brendle during an interview with 9NEWS on Wednesday....

The agreement calls for Haggard, the former head of the National Association of Evangelicals and senior pastor at the New Life Church, to not rejoin the ministry at New Life, for him and his family to relocate from Colorado Springs and requires Haggard to refrain from speaking publicly about the scandal.

"The Haggards will always be part of the New Life Family," said Brendle. "We love them and we are committed to helping them through this difficult process together."

The agreement also includes a financial settlement, but as part of the deal, the church and Haggard cannot disclose how much was included.

Watch the video here [annoyingly requires Internet Explorer}

Mike Jones

From Miami Herald

Gay ex-escort Mike Jones has signed to write a sexually explicit memoir about his relationship with fallen evangelist Ted Haggard. ''It's going to review my encounters with Ted and other people who are similar,'' Jones told The Miami Herald today from New York.

''It's not a book about bashing Ted at all. It's humanizing him as a person with feelings and emotions and desires,'' Jones said. ``I'm going to be explicit as far as what happened in our encounters, but not to rip him apart or be mean to him. He's a man who has faults like all of us.''

Jones, 49, won't say how much the book deal is worth.

Just before the November election, the muscular massage therapist went public and told the world that he had a three-year relationship with Haggard -- married president of the 30-million member National Association of Evangelicals, a confidante of President Bush and a leader in the anti-gay political movement.

Haggard, 50, paid $200 cash per session, ''plus tips,'' said Jones, who said he also helped Haggard buy methamphetamine. READ IT ALL

From CNN via ThinkProgress

LARRY KING: Have you spoken to him?

DOBSON: I have talked to him. I was asked to serve on a three person restoration panel and I originally wanted to be of help and said that I would, but I just don’t have the time to do that. And I called my board of directors, we talked about it at length and they were unanimous in asking me not to do that, because this could take four or five years and I just have too many other things going on.

KING: How’s he doing?

DOBSON: I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him since it happened.

KING: Oh you haven’t?

DOBSON: I talked to him the day that the news broke and I have not talked to him since then.

KING: Was he sad that day?

DOBSON: Oh, of course. I mean you can imagine he was shocked, he was numb, he even lied about it. There’s a video of him saying that none of these things are true, but they were true or a least some of them were

KING: When you say, Doctor, when you say “restoration” you mean restore him from being gay to not gay or what do you mean?

DOBSON: Yeah, probably that, too.

Haggard's board of overseers

From NY Times

A male prostitute had accused Mr. Haggard, one of the nation’s most prominent evangelical ministers, of engaging in a three-year affair with him and of using drugs. Then, in a private emergency meeting, Mr. Haggard promptly confessed to the ministers -- his handpicked board of overseers -- that he had engaged in sexual immorality.

Now, the question was, what punishment did Mr. Haggard deserve? The board had two options: discipline him or dismiss him as senior pastor of New Life Church. Could he take a leave of absence, repent, receive spiritual counseling and return to ministry?

The answer became clear the next morning, the overseers said, when Mr. Haggard gave an interview to a television news crew as he pulled out of his driveway with his wife and three children in the car. He denied having sex with the male prostitute, and said he had bought methamphetamine but never used it. The overseers said they watched Mr. Haggard, affable as ever, smile grimly into the television camera and lie.

“We saw this other side of Ted that Friday morning,” said the Rev. Michael Ware, one of the overseers. “It helped us to know whether this would be a discipline or a dismissal.”

The Rev. Mark Cowart, another overseer, agreed. “It was a defining moment.”

In many ways, Mr. Haggard had sealed his fate long before the driveway interview by establishing a mechanism for accountability in his church that gave a committee of his peers ultimate authority to remove him. Years ago, Mr. Haggard had asked four of his closest friends, all senior pastors of their own churches, to serve as a board of overseers. They had only one function: if Mr. Haggard was ever accused of immoral conduct, they would act as judge and jury.

Continue reading "Minister’s Own Rules Sealed His Fate" »

Gay Expert H.B. London

Since James Dobson doesn't have time to help Ted Haggard get the gay out, Focus on the Family crony, H.B. London, has stepped up to the plate. As part of Haggard's therapy, London will be performing a "symbolic laying on of hands" with his extremely soft, yet thoroughly heterosexual hands. We can assume Haggard will undergo a rigorous "ex-gay" brainwashing program since London wrote a book called Love Wins Out that helps people "gain perspectives from past homosexuals, know how to reach out, how to respond to the "born that way" argument and extend compassion without compromise." Focus on the Family routinely sponsors ex-gay counseling programs and teaches that through "reperative therapy" homosexuality can be cured.

From Christian Post

Focus on the Family announced Tuesday that one of its senior officials, H.B. London, will join the team overseeing a counselling programme for Ted Haggard...

"From the Christian perspective, we think in terms of prayer, we think in terms of what we call godly counsel, where godly men who are clean themselves insert themselves in the life of the one who is struggling," London said.

The symbolic laying on of hands may also be a part of the recovery, London said.

"I'm sure there will be those who lay their hands on Pastor Haggard as an act of faith, calling on the act of God to restore and heal," he said. "The prayer can be therapeutic, the laying on of hands can be ceremonial."

"Godly men who are clean themselves insert[ing] themselves" and "the symbolic laying on of hands?!" Sounds like London truly is an expert on all things gay.

The Duke of Haggard, from The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right

Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, head of a antigay evangelical group known as the Traditional Values Coalition says many leaders of the evangelical Right have known that Haggard was gay for some time. From The Jewish Week:

Sheldon disclosed that he and “a lot” of others knew about Haggard’s homosexuality “for awhile ... but we weren’t sure just how to deal with it.”

Months before a male prostitute publicly revealed Haggard’s secret relationship with him, and the reverend’s drug use as well, “Ted and I had a discussion,” explained Sheldon, who said Haggard gave him a telltale signal then: “He said homosexuality is genetic. I said, no it isn’t. But I just knew he was covering up. They need to say that.”

Evidently, Jesus endorses hypocrisy. Here's what TVC has to say about homosexuality:

Homosexual behavior is explicitly condemned in both the Old and New Testaments as an abomination and a violation of God’s standards for sexuality. We oppose the normalization of sodomy as well as cross-dressing and other deviant sexual behaviors in our culture.

And don't forget to check out their “Homosexual Urban Legend Series”

From Radar

"He loved to have sex in the dark. We would have one little candle going."

Haggard was a "bottom" and "vanilla"

"he looks gay. ... All the guys that were up on stage were young, good-looking men."

"He acted stupid when he first got [the meth], like, "How should I do it? What do I do with it?" And I was like, jeesh. I would fall into the trap and show him, like he was this innocent guy who was curious"

"he usually did it [meth] every time he saw me."

From the AP

The summer camp featured in the documentary "Jesus Camp," which includes scenes with disgraced preacher Ted Haggard, will shut down for at least several years because of negative reaction sparked by the film, according to the camp's director.

"Right now we're just not a safe ministry," Becky Fischer, the fiery Pentecostal pastor featured in "Jesus Camp," said Tuesday.

The documentary, which hit select U.S. theaters during the summer, portrays Fischer, 55, as drill instructor to a group of young evangelical children steeling themselves for spiritual and political warfare.

Led by Fischer, the children pray in tongues, as is common in charismatic strains of Pentecostalism; tearfully beg God to end abortion; and bless President Bush at a weeklong camp in Devils Lake, N.D.

Fischer has drawn fire from some corners for "brainwashing" the children. After vandals damaged the campground last month and critics besieged Fischer with negative e-mails, phone calls and letters, the pastor said she's shutting down the camp for at least several years.

"I don't think we'll be doing it for a while," she said.

Fischer lives in Bismarck, N.D., and is chief pastor at The Fire Center, a church devoted to children's ministry there. She has run the weeklong "Kids on Fire" summer camp, which is featured in the film, since 2002, with 75 to 100 children attending each year.

The documentary also includes scenes of Haggard, the evangelical leader accused of gay sex and drug use.

From AmericaBlog

Michelangelo Signorile: Tell me a bit about how you first met Ted Haggard.

Michael Jones: It was approximately three years ago. Got a call from a gentleman who said his name was Art. He wanted to see if we could hook up. At the time I was advertising as an escort in gay publications. I only advertised in gay publications. So if someone was looking for me, they were looking in a gay publication. He said he was from Kansas City and he wanted to hook up. We hooked up at my place. Always at my place. I had never been to a hotel with him.

MS: Did he use the term "hook up?" I mean, what did he actually say he wanted to do?

MJ: He said he wanted an appointment with me. He came to my apartment. And the clothes came right off. The first time it was pretty much mutual masturbation, then in time oral sex. He was really pretty vanilla. Only once in three years did we try anal sex.

MS: Was he a top or bottom? What was he interested in?

MJ: When I was on the radio show in Denver, the question was asked: Did you practice safe sex? I said, 'We used a condom once." The talk show host goes, "You mean he wore the condom once?" I said, "Uh, no, I did."

MS: What about with oral sex. Was he the passive partner or the active partner?

MJ: You know, it kind of went back and forth --- and I can't say he was very good at it.

[...]

MS: Tell me about this: You're having sexual encounters with him once a month. After about a year he just asks you about crystal meth?

MJ: He just goes, "Hey Mike, I have a question. What do you know about crystal meth?" I was a little bit surprised. I said, "I don't care for it. I've tried it but I don't care for it. But I have friends who do it and they think it enhances their sexual pleasure." He goes, "Do you think you can get me some?" I told him I'll see what I can do.

MS: And you hooked him up with somebody who could get him this drug. Then what? He would do it in your presence when he had sex with you?

MJ: Yes, he agreed it enhanced his pleasure and said that he used it when he had sex with his wife too.

[...]

MS: He said he was taking this when he had sex with his wife. Did he indicate he had trouble having sex with his wife? Did it allow him to have heterosexual sex more easily? Is he gay, bisexual, any ideas on that?

MJ: I really don't know. I really think he is a gay man. When you're in that business, you've got to put up a good front. I think he has enormously strong homosexual tendencies but he just told me the drug enhanced his pleasure with his wife. I don't know if he even really was having sex with his wife, or just said that. I think part it too is that he was a very busy man, traveling all over the country and the world. I think he enjoyed the drug too because it kept him going.

[...]

MS: You spoke about a fantasy he told you, his sexual fantasy. Tell me about that?

MJ: This was the only time he ever spoke about something sexual other than being with me. He goes, "Mike do you know any young college guys" I said, "Well, I know a few, why? "He said, "I would love to get about 4 to 6 young college guys, about 18 to 22, I'd love to have group sex with them.' I said, "Let me check around and see what I can do and see if I can organize that for you." I never pursued it.

MS: What have you been hearing from people in response to what you've done?

From Colorado Springs Gazette

The three men chosen to oversee the Rev. Ted Haggard’s spiritual restoration are well-known in conservative Christian circles and are old pros at such work. James Dobson, the Rev. Jack Hayford and the Rev. Tommy Barnett have been tapped by New Life’s overseer board to “perform a thorough analysis of Haggard’s mental, spiritual, emotional and physical life.”

"Find a person of the opposite sex and make a lifelong commitment to them"

From CNN

On Saturday overseers of [Haggard's] church recommended he be permanently removed.

"We, the Overseer Board of New Life Church, have concluded our deliberations concerning the moral failings of Pastor Ted Haggard," a statement from the church said.

"Our investigation and Pastor Haggard's public statements have proven without a doubt that he has committed sexually immoral conduct."

Haggard, 50, and his wife were informed of the decision, the statement said, and "they have agreed as well that he should be dismissed and that a new pastor for New Life Church should be selected according to the rules of replacement in the bylaws."

The statement said "a letter of explanation and apology" from Haggard and "a word of encouragement" from his wife, Gayle, would be read at Sunday morning services.

The couple has five children.

Read all about The Duke of Haggard, who we interviewed extensively in our book The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right. (Yes that's Pastor Ted on the cover standing behind Pat Robertson). And here's our favorite Pastor Ted quote from the book: "I’m a right-wing religious conservative. … I joke that the only disagreement I have with George Bush is on what type of truck to drive.”

Forget prayer and forgiveness, Pat and Jerry know that mudslinging works better. From WaPo

Some fellow conservative Christian leaders got in their digs yesterday. "We're sad to see any evangelical leader fall," the Rev. Pat Robertson said on his television show, "The 700 Club." But, he added, it "just isn't true" that the NAE represents 30 million churchgoers, as the association claims.

"We can't get their financial data. I think it's because they have very little money and very little influence," Robertson said.

James Dobson, chairman and founder of Focus on the Family, which is headquartered near Haggard's megachurch, called Haggard a "close friend." "Nevertheless, sexual sin, whether homosexual or heterosexual, has serious consequences, and we are extremely concerned for Ted, his family and his church," Dobson said.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, speaking Thursday night on CNN, said Haggard "doesn't really lead the movement. He's president of an association that's very loose-knit . . . and no one has looked to them for leadership."

This sounds eerily reminiscent of "I didn't inhale." From CNN

The Rev. Ted Haggard, who resigned as one of the nation's top evangelical leaders, admitted Friday he had contacted male prostitute Mike Jones "for a massage" and bought drugs from him.

Haggard said he never had sex with Jones and never used the methamphetamine drug he bought.

He told reporters earlier this week that he did not know Jones, who claims to have had a three-year sex-for-money relationship with him.

Haggard, 50, resigned Thursday as leader of the National Association of Evangelicals -- a group representing more than 45,000 churches and 30 million people -- and he also stepped down temporarily from leadership at New Life Church in Colorado Springs.

He was one of a group of religious leaders who regularly participated in conference calls with White House aides.

Haggard told CNN affiliate KUSA-TV Friday that he received Jones' name as "a referral" from a hotel where he was staying in Denver.

He did not name the hotel. "I did call him," Haggard said. "I called him to buy some meth, but I threw it away."

"I was buying it for me but I never used it. I was tempted, I bought it, but I never used it."

"He told me about it. I went there for a massage."

Earlier, Jones said he would not back down from his allegations despite a polygraph test that showed "deception."

Jones took the test voluntarily, answering questions about his alleged ties with the Haggard, who regularly participates in White House advisory conference calls.

Test administrator John Kresnik said the results "did show deception" but that Jones was physically and mentally exhausted. Kresnik said he would like to take the test again after Jones had slept and eaten, which could provide more trustworthy results. (Watch Haggard's response to whether he knows gay men in Denver -- 2:07 )

The Rev. Ross Parsley, who assumed leadership of Haggard's church, said Haggard had made "some admission of indiscretion -- not an admission to all of the material that has been discussed, but there is an admission of some guilt."

This is a great overview, if you're playing catch-up on the Duke of Haggard's meth-induced manlove scandal. It includes Haggard's damning voicemails. [HT Americablog]

As the Duke of Haggard's gay-bashing ilk are known to say: "what's next? Bestiality?!"

From kktv

A sudden about--face in the scandal facing New Life Church's pastor.

After Pastor Ted Haggard went public Wednesday night denying allegations of a homosexual affair, senior church officials told KKTV 11News Thursday evening, Pastor Ted Haggard has admitted to some of the claims made by a former male escort. The church's Acting Senior Pastor, Ross Parsley, tells KKTV 11 News that Pastor Haggard has admitted to some of the indiscretions claimed by Mike Jones, but not all of them.

Voice expert believes the voicemails are real... listen to the voicemails here

From TowelRoad

Voicemail 1

"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. I will call though you early next week to see what's most convenient for you. Okay? Thanks a lot, bye."

Said speech expert Richard Sanders: "This certainly sounds like the same person. If we can find enough words and phrases that match then it's generally accepted by courts that that's the same person."

"Everybody is 100 percent for him, for his family, and for encouraging the process where he gets some great encouragement and spiritual counsel."

Voicemail 2

"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. I will call though you early next week to see what's most convenient for you. Okay? Thanks a lot, bye."

Said speech expert Richard Sanders: "This certainly sounds like the same person. If we can find enough words and phrases that match then it's generally accepted by courts that that's the same person."

"Everybody is 100 percent for him, for his family, and for encouraging the process where he gets some great encouragement and spiritual counsel"

From NonProphet, Hat Tip Wonkette

Dear New Lifers and friends of New Life Church,

Many of you have expressed concern about today's news regarding our pastor. Thank you all for your prayers and support, and for your concern for our church family.

As you've likely heard by now, Pastor Ted has voluntarily placed himself on administrative leave as New Life's senior pastor to allow our external board of overseers to work effectively. Below is the statement that we released to the media on Thursday afternoon.

Since that time, the board of overseers has met with Pastor Ted. 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.

I am serving as the acting senior pastor of New Life Church. I met with the pastoral staff and elders Thursday night, and I assure you that the leadership team is strong and united. We remain resolute in our commitment to serving New Life Church and the people of our community.

Please continue to keep Ted and Gayle and their family in your prayers.

I love serving God with you all,

Ross Parsley

"We don't have to debate about what we should think about homosexual activity, it's written in the bible....I think i know what you did last night, if you send me a thousand dollars I won't tell your wife"

RELATED: Haggard calls homosexuality a “sin” and “devastating for the children of our nation and for the future of Western civilization.”

RELATED: Past coverage of Ted Haggard

"I no longer find this rumor hard to swallow."

From 9 News in Denver, CO:

A pastor from Colorado resigned from a national organization and put himself on leave from his church Thursday, 9NEWS has confirmed.

The resignation came a day after a male escort claimed he has been having a sexual relationship with the pastor for the past three years.

A statement from the New Life Church says Pastor Ted Haggard resigned as president of the multi-million member National Association of Evangelicals Thursday and put himself on leave from his church.

Haggard is the founder and senior leader of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. The church has 14,000 members.

The statement says Haggard could "not continue to minister under the cloud created by the accusations".

Mike Jones, a gay man and admitted male escort, said on talk radio Wednesday he and Haggard had been in a "sexual business" relationship for the past three years.

Jones also says Haggard used methamphetamine in his presence.

Haggard denied the allegations in an exclusive interview with 9NEWS Wednesday night.

The statement from Martin Nussbaum, legal counsel for New Life Church, says Haggard put himself on administrative leave pending an investigation and a decision by the church's board of overseers.

"I am voluntarily stepping aside from leadership so that the overseer process can be allowed to proceed with integrity. I hope to be able to discuss this matter in more detail at a later date," said Haggard in the statement.

In the interim the church's associate senior pastor will serve as acting pastor of the church.

Haggard is married with five children and an outspoken critic of gay marriage.

Nussbaum stresses Haggard's decision to resign from the National Association of Evangelicals and go on administrative leave is in no way an admission of guilt.

Nussbaum says the church's bylaws state that when an allegation of immorality is made, a pastor is supposed to go on leave while the rest of the board makes a decision on his future.

Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw profiled Haggard in 2005 in a series on mega-churches. Haggard was also listed by Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential Evangelicals in America last year.

More:
Denver Post
ABC News
Think Progress

Previous post:

Head of National Association of Evangelicals, Ted Haggard, Is Gay!

Of course, we've always had our suspicions about Pastor Ted. [Via kusa.com with a big hat tip to DefCon.]

A gay man and admitted male escort claims he has had an ongoing sexual relationship with a well-known Evangelical pastor from Colorado Springs.

Mike Jones told 9 Wants to Know Investigative Reporter Paula Woodward he has had a "sexual business" relationship with Pastor Ted Haggard for the past three years.

Haggard is the founder and senior leader of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. The church has 14,000 members.

He is also president of the National Association of Evangelicals, an organization that represents millions of people.

Haggard is married with five children and an outspoken critic of gay marriage.

Jones broke his silence Wednesday morning on talk radio.

In an exclusive interview Wednesday night, Haggard denied the claims and told 9NEWS he is prepared for his own church to investigate them.

"I did not have a homosexual relationship with a man in Denver," said Haggard. "I am steady with my wife. I'm faithful to my wife."

"I don't know if this is election year politics or if this has to do with the marriage amendment or what it is, but I'm not even the guy who will investigate it or question it. I don't know what the dynamics are, but this independent group will come in and do that."

Jones started talking to 9 Wants to Know two months ago. He claims Haggard has been paying him for sex over the past three years, even though Haggard preaches that homosexuality is a sin.

Jones also claims Haggard used methamphetamine in his presence on several occasions.

"People may look at me and think what I've done is immoral, but I think I had to do the moral thing in my mind and that is expose someone who is preaching one thing and doing the opposite behind everybody's back," said Jones.

Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw profiled Haggard in 2005 in a series on mega-churches. Haggard was also listed by Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential Evangelicals in America last year.
9NEWS and 9NEWS.com will continue to update this story as information becomes available.

Watch Haggard's response here.

National Association of Evangelicals Leader, Ted Haggard. (From The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right)

Somehow, this doesn't surprise us coming from Ted Haggard, who is head of the 30 million-strong National Association of Evangelicals. From Catholic News Service:

Heidi Ewing, the Catholic co-director of the new theatrical documentary "Jesus Camp," said she found some hostility about her religious faith during the making of the film from an unexpected source: a high-profile evangelical minister...

"My one disturbing encounter was at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs (Colo.) with Pastor Ted Haggard," head of the National Association of Evangelicals, who is "the senior minister of the church," Ewing said.

"I was in the service, and we had three cameras rolling, and there were 3,000 people in the church, and my cameraman was on the stage shooting him, and Pastor Ted started teasing the cameraman: 'Where are you from? England? Do you go to church?'" she recounted.

When the cameraman told Rev. Haggard that he goes to church when he's in England, the minister said, "So you're in the Church of England." The cameraman replied, "No, I'm Catholic," according to Ewing. "Pastor Ted turned to the congregation—and I have this on tape—in a very mocking tone, he said, 'Oh, we l-o-o-o-ve the Catholics, don't we?' and people started laughing.

"Why would he whack another religion?" she asked. "There was a disparaging way about how everyone reacted. As the leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, he is a representative of 30 million people and a religiously respected person in the movement. For him to joke like that, I was pretty alarmed."

In a statement on the group's Web site, Rev. Haggard said, "This movie manipulates facts like a Michael Moore film and works the camera like 'The Blair Witch Project.' It's one more 'documentary' that seems to miss the point intentionally."

Last week, Haggard had these disparaging remarks for the Mormons:

"We evangelicals view Mormons as a Christian cult group. A cult group is a group that claims exclusive revelation. And typically, it's hard to get out of these cult groups. And so Mormonism qualifies as that."

And who can forget Haggard's statements on Islam [from Carpetbagger]

"The Christian God encourages freedom, love, forgiveness, prosperity and health. The Muslim god appears to value the opposite."

“My fear,” he says, "is that my children will grow up in an Islamic state."

And that is why he believes spiritual war requires a virile, worldly counterpart. "I teach a strong ideology of the use of power," he says, "of military might, as a public service." He is for preemptive war, because he believes the Bible's exhortations against sin set for us a preemptive paradigm, and he is for ferocious war, because "the Bible's bloody. There's a lot about blood."

It seems like the only people Haggard supports are "God's chosen people," the state of Israel who he has pledged to support come "hell or high water," despite his opinion that Barbara Walters is destined to spend eternity in hell unlesss she converts.

"If a person does not accept Jesus Christ as his savior, does he go to hell?" Ms. Walters asks.

"Yes," Mr. Haggard says.

Ms. Walters, who is Jewish, pursues the point: "What if the God is not Jesus Christ? What if it's a different God? Do they go to hell?"

"I think so," says Mr. Haggard

Ironically, Ted Haggard has nothing negative to say about the people who run Jesus Camp, or his own church for that matter.

From the LA Times

[Romney's] reluctance to delve deeper into his beliefs, only add to the mystery of a faith that many Americans associate with polygamy -- although that practice has long been outlawed by the church -- and with customs such as marrying people after they have died and converting the dead.

"Evangelicals are appalled by all that," said Pastor Ted Haggard, president of the National Assn. of Evangelicals in Colorado Springs, Colo. "We evangelicals view Mormons as a Christian cult group. A cult group is a group that claims exclusive revelation. And typically, it's hard to get out of these cult groups. And so Mormonism qualifies as that."

In addition, Haggard said, evangelicals do not accept Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith as a prophet. "And we do not believe that the Book of Mormon has the same level of authority as the Bible," he said.

When Romney says that he accepts Jesus Christ as his savior, "we appreciate that," Haggard said. "But very often when people like Mormons use terms that we also use, there are different meanings in the theology behind those terms."

Related: here's Haggard's sarcastic response to Jesus Camp-- which is aguably a cult--after the jump

Continue reading "Ted Haggard Says Massachusetts' GOP Governor, Mitt Romney, Is In A Cult" »

Ted Haggard: "We always use fear and guilt to motivate people"

Last week, The New York Times ran a high-profile article citing an alleged fear among evangelicals that they were losing their teens: Evangelicals Fear the Loss of Their Teenagers.

"Alarm has been stoked," the article stated, "by a highly suspect claim that if current trends continue, only 4 percent of teenagers will be “Bible-believing Christians” as adults." The supposed "4 percent panic" was triggered by a poll in the book “The Bridger Generation," a title that was released over ten years ago. In a more current poll, Barna Research stoked the flames by claiming that only 5% of teens are "bible-believing," a statistic that has been attacked since the criterion for being "bible-believing" is too stringent.

What the article didn't address was the Christianity Today advertisement, that has been perpetuating the 4% panic. [From Bible Belt Blogger's article "Top evangelical: Don't believe our ads"]:

A full-page advertisement in this month’s Christianity Today warns that America’s evangelicals may soon be on the endangered species list -- as rare as snail darters, spotted owls and Chinook salmon.

But the ad, which is endorsed by the National Association of Evangelicals, is a false alarm -- or at least an exaggeration -- according to the group’s president -- Pastor Ted Haggard.

“We’re church people. We always use fear and guilt to motivate people,” Haggard told Bible Belt Blogger, punctuating the quip with hearty laughter....

"In the United States," Haggard says, "there are some difficulties and I'm not going to get into that now, but we're trying to encourage people to solve these problems before they are created too severe.... Those ads all ran in Christian magazines in order to motivate NAE churches and others to do a better job at building youth groups."

A commentor on Bible Belt's blog states our opinion on Ted Haggard's admission perfectly:

they're altering statistics in order to make money from their conferences? Sort of bearing false witness, isn't it?

A still from the must-see film, "Jesus Camp"

From the LA Times

"Jesus Camp," a documentary feature film that follows evangelical Christian children at a religious summer camp, won prizes and critical praise on the summer festival circuit, but it wasn't until its quiet opening in the Midwest two weeks ago that a news clip about the film hit YouTube.com, inciting a whirlwind of controversy.

The film's cherub-faced children cheer when asked if they'd be willing to give up their lives for Jesus, pray over a cardboard cutout of President Bush and sob as they plead for an end to abortion. One is home-schooled by a mother who teaches that "science doesn't prove anything."

At one point in the film, Fischer shouts to the children, "This is war! Are you part of it or not?" She proudly compares her work to the indoctrination of young boys by extremist Muslims in Pakistan....

More controversy over the film erupted last week when the Rev. Ted Haggard — whose constituency at the National Assn. of Evangelicals is 30 million strong — took a public stance against it, claiming that the film makes evangelicals look "scary." [...] Haggard -- who appears in the film noting that when evangelicals vote, they determine an election-- acknowledged he "hated" the film and called it "propaganda" for the far left. He said the filmmakers take the charismatic, evangelical jargon too literally and portray the children's and Fischer's "war talk" as violent and extremist, when it's just allegorical.

Related: Jesus Camp Trailer
Ted Haggard: The Duke of Haggard

From the AP:

When Muslims begin the holy month of Ramadan this weekend, Christians worldwide will be praying along with them. But Muslims may not welcome the support. In a campaign called the "30 Days Muslim Prayer Focus," Christians will be asking God to help Muslims accept Jesus.

The project is organized by a loose association of evangelical groups that include Youth With A Mission, which works in about 150 countries. In the U.S., the National Association of Evangelicals [headed by Ted Haggard] is asking the thousands of churches and ministries it represents to participate.

Lynn Green, international chairman of Youth With A Mission, said organizers chose Ramadan because it is a time when Muslims pray for God's acceptance and guidance and "we add our prayers to theirs," Green said. "We are praying they really know God." READ IT ALL

National Association of Evangelicals Leader, Ted Haggard. (From The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right)

Bush insider and head of the National Association of Evangelicals,