CREEPY evangelist Ted Haggard, whose enormous influence and power in the US once rested on a foundation of bigotry and homophobia, is trying desperately to wheedle his way back into public favour.
Ted Haggard welcomes the faithful to his home
The former pastor, who headed the National Association of Evangelicals, and ran the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, fell spectacularly from grace in 2006
He was exposed as a liar and a hypocrite after it emerged that he had paid a male prostitute for sex over a period of three years whilst aggressively denouncing same-sex unions from the pulpit.
Haggard – married with has five children – initially said the sexual allegations were false, and admitted only to receiving “a massage” from his accuser and buying drugs from him.
But he later confessed to “sexual immorality” and deeply-rooted gay feelings. He resigned as President of the NAE, and was also forced out of the mega-church he founded.
As part of a severance package with New Life Church, Haggard agreed to leave Colorado Springs for a period and not speak publicly about the scandal. The family moved back to their $700,000 home down the road from New Life Church in 2007.
Earlier this year, Haggard admitted he had an “inappropriate” relationship with a church volunteer a few years ago. He insisted that the relationship with the man, who was 22 at the time, did not involve physical contact.
His latest attempt to climb back on the Christian carousel took place at his home in Colorado Springs last Thursday, where, according to this report, he held a “well-attended” prayer meeting. The 53-year-old told reporters:
For the people who come tonight, that means they believe in the resurrection in me … I died. I was buried.
He added with a grimace:
People find it hard to stomach me. I understand.
Many of those who attended carried cookies, pies, and brownies along with their Bibles. By the time prayers began, more than 50 cars were parked outside the home. Reporters weren’t allowed inside.
The one-time evangelical superstar insisted that his intent is not to start a new church, but he isn’t ruling out the possibility. He said the reason for starting prayer meetings after three years of exile was a simple one.
We were getting lonely.
And he probably needs MONEY!
Said Alan Hawkins, a pastor from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who travelled to Colorado Springs to be at the prayer meeting:
The essence of our faith as Christians is to forgive. When this thing happened, I said, ‘Ted, nobody is defined by their worst moments.’
A day before the meeting, Haggard said in a TV interview that his trials in recent years had made him more compassionate towards gay people.
Sick bag, anyone?
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
November 16th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
No doubt. I’m sure he’s now redoubling his efforts to get gays saved and “fixed.” If that’s not compassion, what is?
November 16th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I am considering the possibility that this is just an incremental “way station,” a stage in Haggard’s journey to acceptnce of his own homosexuality and a transformation into a truly compassionate person. he has a lifetime of exposure to poisonous thinking to overcome. I am willing to allow him the opportunity to change. It takes some people a long time.
November 16th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Once again, I would recommend that anyone who has not already done so visit this creature’s “own personal” website:
http://www.tedhaggard.com/
The photos alone are enough to make you want to vomit!
November 16th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Had Haggard not been embrioled in Christianity, he would have been able to establish a normal healthy gay relationship and avoid all this self loathing anguish. The downside would be that he would have had to get a real job and work for a living.
November 16th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Yeah, barriejohn, that site proves he hasn’t really profited by his experience, doesn’t it? Shame, that.
November 16th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
This man was the FOUNDER of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, which has one auditorium alone holding 7,500 people, and I have a particular interest in him! Have you seen that YouTube video where he is bragging about the numbers attending “his” church, and the fact that they have more new members in a week than most churches do in a year, or some such nonsense? It’s nauseating. (BTW I thought pride and arrogance were sins. They were the last time I looked!) What his co-pastors wanted him to do was to retire from the limelight for a respectable time, get a “proper” job, and become a “normal” member of the congregation of some “normal” evangelical church away from Colorado Springs, where he could build up his credentials as a faithful, humble Christian again. Not “Pastor Ted”! A few months of anonymity was all that he could bear; and everyone clearly knows what he is up to here. Whilst attending one church he is setting about starting another church of his own by drawing around himself people who are gullible enough to put him into a position of responsibility again. And he’ll do it!! What sort of loyalty is that showing to the Christians with whom he is at present associating? They know full well that in no time at all he will have yet another mega-church sucking the life out of all other churches within a wide radius, just as the New Life Church does in Colorado. Does he care about that? Is the Pope a Catholic? All that Ted Haggard cares about is Ted Haggard – he’s like an unstoppable juggernaut. This sort of thing has happened with disgraced evangelists and ministers in the past and it will happen again: this IS America that we’re talking about, after all. Watch this space!
Trivial fact: the children at New Life Church are educated in a part of the building called Woo-Gah Land. No kidding, as it were!!
November 16th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Trivial Fact No.2: He really was known as “Pastor Ted”, though I doubt whether the associations with a side-splittingly funny British situation comedy of similar name (Father Ted) was known to anyone on the other side of the Atlantic. (American readers of this blog would doubtless be greatly amused if they looked up this particular TV series on the ubiquitous YouTube!)
November 16th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Pastor Ted might prove even more successful!
“Yes, I did purchase drugs, but I just threw them away without swallowing any of them!” Hahaha!!!
“Yes, I did pay for the services of a male prostitute on a monthly basis, but we found that we had a mutual interest in ornithology and Wedgewood China, and that occupied all of our time together!” Hahaha!!!
“Yes, I did spend a lot of time with a young choirboy, but we just sat and talked, and I merely admired his beautiful features and athletic body – nothing sinful in that!” Hahaha!!!
November 17th, 2009 at 5:55 am
Thank you for covering this event. Even if it was done with scorn. It is important that we at least try to understand one another. That is an important facet of free-thinking.
Often we who are Christians are accused of demonizing those who are different from ourselves. Usually this kind of accusation comes from those who fancy themselves somehow above that kind of narrow-mindedness. It is always helpful to see that even Christians cannot corner the market on bigoted language.
Some of us are capable of real engagement with people who differ with us. I trust the same is true of some who disagree with us. Let’s keep trying guys. We can do better.
November 17th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Well!
Praise Jesus!!
Yet another Christian cured of Homosexuality.
The power of Prayer works (nearly) every time,
The kindness of the many Christians who have prayed for Pastor Haggard over the past 3 years has finally worked.
Well, Prayer and also the Christians who answered his appeal to send him money so that he could maintain his lifestyle for the last 2 years. http://www.denverpost.com/ci_6715372
Money and Prayer.
It’s the Chri$tian way.
November 17th, 2009 at 9:04 am
I think we “understand” Ted Haggard, Alan!
November 17th, 2009 at 9:38 am
@Alan,
Glad to see you have an appreciation of the difference between
#1 bigoted language in and of itself
and
#2 The use of bigoted language in the lampoonery of hypocrisy
Nice try though Alan.
November 17th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
A day before the meeting, Haggard said in a TV interview that his trials in recent years had made him more compassionate towards gay people.
That’s all right then, Mr Fire-Alarm Face.
November 17th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Sister Talitha, you are SO right! When I was a Christian I agonized in prayer over my homosexuality too many times to mention, and the Good Lord cured me EVERY time!!
November 17th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
I remember seeing this guy in Dawkins ‘root of all evil’ I don’t mind telling you he scared me, in another time and place he would have been burning people for their ‘sins’.
Lucky for him though, he can ‘be born again’ again, after all it was probably the devil that made him do it, so it’s not really his fault that he broke the rules.
November 17th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Have you seen him on YouTube @rog, especially in the “Jesus Camp” episode? He really IS quite frightening!
November 17th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
@barriejohn, which one, got a link?
This was the same guy who claimed to be a spiritual advisor to GWB, taking weekly calls with him; makes you think, no?
November 17th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
I’ll say this for Ted, he has a fine set of soup coolers on him.
November 17th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
@Alan Hawkins:
Concern Troll’s concern is duly noted. (As is its complete and utter lack of ability to understand such rhetorical devices as invective.)
November 17th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I don’t have the info now, @rog, and in any case, when I put YouTube links up they never work! The one I meant was the “I know what you were doing last night! If you give me a thousand dollars I WON’T tell your wife!” video – part of a SERMON, believe it or not. I think I first saw it as part of the Jesus Camp programme, or perhaps Richard Dawkins’s encounter with the great man, but if you search for Ted Haggard on YouTube you should find it quite easily. The other video that is VERY revealing is the one where he gives a guided tour of “his” church, bragging all the time about how wonderful it is, and how it’s more successful (ie bigger) than any other church on the planet. It’s all absolutely nauseating, and he comes over as the worst example of a snake-oil salesman that you’ve ever had the misfortune to come across!
PS (1)The Jesus Camp vids are equally disturbing, though that has been covered before.
PS (2)There is a lot of very funny comic material about him as well on YouTube, that should keep you amused for ages!!
November 17th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
@rog: I’ve just checked on YouTube, and it WAS part of the Jesus Camp programme! It was, indeed, a most strange episode, and he comes across as being somewhat deranged, I must say. It made an impact on everyone who saw it!
(PS There are so many vids featuring Ted Haggard that you may have to set aside quite some time in your diary – hahaha!!!)
November 17th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Ok, somebody’s gotta say it:
Gay Tweakers for Jesus!
Ya know, I was in jail once for a short time, and the speed freak gals were the ones who were all ready to jump to Christianity as soon as they got in trouble.