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Author Topic: Evangelical head resigns after being outed
josh
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posted 02 November 2006 03:53 PM      Profile for josh     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:

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.



http://tinyurl.com/y58tlg


From: the twilight zone between the U.S. and Canada | Registered: Aug 2002  |  IP: Logged
paxamillion
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posted 02 November 2006 04:00 PM      Profile for paxamillion   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Haggard is married with five children and an outspoken critic of gay marriage.

Here's proof that one can be judged by the very thing one judges in others. Maybe the pastor will have some time to reflect on Matthew 7 while on his leave.


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remind
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posted 02 November 2006 05:14 PM      Profile for remind     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Oh, now that, if not for it being profoundly (please put in own explicit)it would be funny!
From: "watching the tide roll away" | Registered: Jun 2004  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 02 November 2006 06:00 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
What I think is so sad about this sort of thing is that this guy probably actually believes he's horribly sinful because of his orientation. I mean, I don't feel THAT sorry for him because he oppresses sexual minorities. But these cases always strike me as a symptom of a really sick subculture that really victimizes gays and lesbians within it. Many leave; others feel they're horribly sinful and try to lash out against it. Sad.
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
morningstar
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posted 02 November 2006 08:10 PM      Profile for morningstar     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
This all fits in rather nicely with Susan Sontag's theses in the 60's of why the American culture was a 'pornographic' society.

She felt that the rigid unsophisticated, literal spirituality that was so prevalent there encouraged guilty sexuality to seep through the seams of the holy construct.

An amazing number of these holy guys have, over the years, been caught out in the most blatant lying---they have had issues with 'sinful' sexual behavior for as long as I've been watching them.

what a pathetic and unhappy bunch.
However, it never seems to end the charade---they just keep on with the same simplistic, mind numbing prattle.


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josh
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posted 03 November 2006 07:49 AM      Profile for josh     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:

The Rev. Ted Haggard, who stepped down as head of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals on Thursday after allegations that include having gay sex, has confessed to some of the allegations, a fellow pastor said in an e-mail to church members.

"It is important for you to know that he confessed to the overseers that some of the accusations against him are true,” Ross Parsley, the acting senior pastor at New Life Church stated. Haggard on Thursday also stepped aside as leader of the 14,000-member New Life Church, based in Colorado Springs.

“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,” the e-mail stated. A copy was obtained by KMGH-TV in Denver.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15536263/


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remind
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posted 03 November 2006 09:04 AM      Profile for remind     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Hmmm, thinking about Morninstar's excerpt of Sontag's:

quote:
She felt that the rigid unsophisticated, literal spirituality that was so prevalent there encouraged guilty sexuality

One wonders by taking that step further in sub-conscious directed actions, is not what makes it more gratifying for them? And it in actual fact "guilty sexuality", and being "sinful" is not actually a mental addiction that needs to fed. So, they feed themselves the BS that their being sinful, and condemning others as sinful, in order to prove to themselves they are too, in order to have greater emotional addiction gratification? Moreover, the addiction to "drama" is also very present within evangelicalism and of course other cults as well.


From: "watching the tide roll away" | Registered: Jun 2004  |  IP: Logged
josh
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posted 03 November 2006 11:53 AM      Profile for josh     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:

Embattled minister Ted Haggard this morning admitted receiving a massage from the Denver man who claims to have exchanged sex for money with the Colorado Springs church leader for three years.

. . . .

This morning, Haggard said he had never had sex with Jones but said he did buy methamphetamine out of curiosity.

Haggard said he never consumed it but threw it away.

"I was tempted. I bought it but I never used it," Haggard said.


http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5115903,00.html

Paging Bill Clinton.


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Michelle
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posted 03 November 2006 12:09 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I think my favorite line in that article is this one:

quote:
Haggard drew a silent stare from his wife when he told the gathered reporters that he received a massage from Jones.

I'll just bet he did!


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
josh
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posted 03 November 2006 12:16 PM      Profile for josh     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Paging Chuck Robb as well.

quote:

The Washington Post and NBC News in April 1991 focused on Tai Collins, a 1983 Miss Virginia-U.S.A. who claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Robb during his governorship.

Robb, then a U.S. senator, denied the affair initially, but later admitted to sharing a bottle of wine with Collins before receiving a nude massage from her.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/frenzy/robb2.htm


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Michelle
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posted 03 November 2006 12:24 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
What is all this only admitting to a "massage"? Is there something about it being a "nude massage" that makes it all okay?
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
josh
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posted 03 November 2006 12:47 PM      Profile for josh     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I guess he thought he'd seem more forthcoming by saying that it was a nude massage. Haggard hasn't said whether his was nude or not. The question I have is, is there any other kind?
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paxamillion
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posted 03 November 2006 02:05 PM      Profile for paxamillion   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by josh:
I guess he thought he'd seem more forthcoming by saying that it was a nude massage. Haggard hasn't said whether his was nude or not. The question I have is, is there any other kind?

You mean like from a Registered Massage Therapist?


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West Coast Greeny
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posted 03 November 2006 02:13 PM      Profile for West Coast Greeny     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Um..... huh?

Conflicting evidence...

quote:
Kresnik said he asked six questions on the polygraph test and there were two relevant questions — both involving sexual contact with Haggard. Kresnik said those were the ones Jones failed.

"All I can do is call them as I see them," Kresnik said.

KUSA-TV reported Thursday night that a voice analysis expert compared a voice mail recording provided by Jones to a recording of Haggard's speech and that they matched.



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Ken Burch
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posted 03 November 2006 03:04 PM      Profile for Ken Burch     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Am I the only one who enjoys the fact that the title to this thread begins with the words "Evangelical head"?

I wonder if that's better or worse than secular head?


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Sineed
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posted 03 November 2006 03:18 PM      Profile for Sineed     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Am I the only one who enjoys the fact that the title to this thread begins with the words "Evangelical head"?
I wonder if that's better or worse than secular head?

Probably almost as good as a holy fuck.

In other news...I hear Mark Foley's turned over a new page.


From: # 668 - neighbour of the beast | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
Ken Burch
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posted 03 November 2006 03:41 PM      Profile for Ken Burch     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
(rim shot!)(cymbal crash!)
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josh
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posted 05 November 2006 03:10 PM      Profile for josh     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:

Evangelical pastor Ted Haggard confessed on Sunday to a "lifelong" sexual problem, and said he was "a deceiver and a liar," in a letter read to his New Life Church.

"There is part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life," he said in the letter.

Haggard apologized to his congregation and asked for their forgiveness in the letter read by pastor Larry Stockstill, a member of the board of overseers of New Life Church.

On Saturday, the board ousted Haggard from the 14,000-member church, which he founded more than 20 years ago, citing his "sexually immoral conduct."


http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/05/haggard.allegations/index.html


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remind
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posted 05 November 2006 07:29 PM      Profile for remind     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
"There is part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life," he said in the letter.

It must be the fact that he bought into the neo-con religious lies about sexuality that he is talking about, eh?


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Michelle
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posted 05 November 2006 09:00 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by remind:

It must be the fact that he bought into the neo-con religious lies about sexuality that he is talking about, eh?


Yeah, that's what I was talking about upthread. It's probably the absolute truth that this guy has been tortured inside over his sexuality because he believed all the religious right lies about homosexuality. That's probably why he was fighting so hard - a way of either punishing himself, or trying to make up for the "sin" by fighting against it.

Mel White, a former ghostwriter and speechwriter for some of the biggest names in the evangelical right in the USA, came out of the closet years ago, and wrote a book about his struggle with homosexuality all his life until he finally accepted himself as he was. It was the same sort of thing - hating himself, attempting suicide, some clandestine meetings with men in between trying to swear off men and be "cured" of his "sinfulness", and hoping that all the work he did for the religious right would somehow right the balance with God over his sin.

I know that people like Haggard are repulsive, but I feel sorry for them. They're nasty, but they're also totally fucked-up, brainwashed victims of their religious subculture.


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TemporalHominid
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posted 06 November 2006 09:28 PM      Profile for TemporalHominid   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Michelle:
What is all this only admitting to a "massage"? Is there something about it being a "nude massage" that makes it all okay?

and to think, these types of massages are intended to conclude with a happy ending.


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Pepper-Pot
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posted 06 November 2006 10:07 PM      Profile for Pepper-Pot        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The media overhypes and sensationalizes this kinda stuff, but this issue does indicate the church-state fusion that has happened under the Republicans.

The notion that Jerry Falwell, the Bakers, Swaggart, Robertson or even the lying meth-head preacher has a place in forming gov't policy is destructive and dangerous.

1) The US is constitutionally based on the seperation of church & state.Anyone who tries to fuse or merge church & state is - BY DEFINITION -Anti-American (got it Neo-Cons ?).Many of the current US laws are authoritarian morality squad tactics based on biblical dogma.

2) The evangelical/fundamentalist Christians injecting their 'moral majority' laws into a supposedly libertarian society is truly poisonous.US citizens should be allowed to have sex with 16 & 17 year olds without being imprisoned for 10 years for 'child' rape.They should also be allowed to grow a few cannabis plants without being sentenced to life in prison.Janet Jackson's breasts on TV should be a non-issue (as it would be in Europe), not a lynch-mob frenzied attack by a government regulatory agency FUELED by insane puritanical morality laws.Prostitution should be licensed and regulated, swearing on TV should be allowed (it's violence on TV that is the real problem, not swearing or nudity).


3) They (evangelical/fundamentalist Christians)are generally individuals drunk on religious dogma, RAMMING their puritanical hypocritical morality down the throats of every single North American (and the entire world for that matter), so when they are PROVEN to be irrational faith-based pathetic hypocrits, that is a GOOD thing.That is reality speaking.


Hopefully scandals like this re-invigorate the seperation of church & state foundational principle, and that reverberates throughout North America.


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M. Spector
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posted 07 November 2006 10:08 AM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Haggard was the slimy evangelist that Richard Dawkins confronted in his film that was shown recently on the Avi Lewis show.

Dawkins has a great nose for hypocrisy.


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BriannaB
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posted 10 November 2006 01:21 PM      Profile for BriannaB     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Ode to Ted Haggard
From: Alberta | Registered: Jan 2006  |  IP: Logged
siren
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posted 10 November 2006 02:24 PM      Profile for siren     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by BriannaB:
Ode to Ted Haggard

"Give me Meth and man ass on a Sunday Morn...."

All to gripping country music.

Thanks for sharing!


From: Of course we could have world peace! But where would be the profit in that? | Registered: Nov 2004  |  IP: Logged
josh
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posted 06 February 2007 10:20 AM      Profile for josh     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:

One of four ministers who oversaw three weeks of intensive counseling for the Rev. Ted Haggard said the disgraced minister emerged convinced he is "completely heterosexual."

Haggard also said his sexual contact with men was limited to the former male prostitute who came forward with sexual allegations, the Rev. Tim Ralph of Larkspur told The Denver Post for a story in Tuesday's edition.

"He is completely heterosexual," Ralph said. "That is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing."



http://cbs4denver.com/topstories/local_story_037065330.html


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Michelle
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posted 06 February 2007 10:43 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I'm cured! Jeysus cured me! I'm living proof that with the Lord, anything is possible! In fact, that makes me even MORE qualified to be your spiritual leader! Because I have been tested, and I have overcome, with the help of Jey-sus!

I still feel somewhat sorry for people like this. Think about this: the guy has grown up being fed evangelical lies about homosexuality and has been forced to deny his sexuality, probably for as long as he has been sexually aware.

I know this isn't a popular thing to say, but this guy is not just a perpetrator, but also a victim. He's a dupe, and he's hurting others because of his own hatred of his own feelings and urges.

Mel White, the guy I mentioned upthread, is a "good guy" now, but back when he was a speechwriter for Falwell and Robertson and other homophobic fundies, people might have taken the same delight had he been caught before he realized that homosexuality is not a sin.

I feel a lot of sympathy for people victimized in this manner. Unfortunately, abused people often become abusers, especially if the abuse they suffer is a norm in their family or community. It's a nasty cycle. Haggard is an abuser, but he's also a victim.

[ 06 February 2007: Message edited by: Michelle ]


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Tommy_Paine
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posted 06 February 2007 11:01 AM      Profile for Tommy_Paine     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
So he resigned as an Evangelical Head, now he's resigning from Evangelical Head.

Untill, that is, someone prepositions him again.


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ConcernedCanadian
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posted 06 February 2007 11:23 AM      Profile for ConcernedCanadian     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Ted Haggard made an appearance on the documentary Jesus Camp (If you haven’t seen it, I recommend you do). He was bashing gays on stage. Here is a YouTube link to it:

YouTube Link


From: Ancaster, ON | Registered: Jun 2006  |  IP: Logged
Phred
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posted 06 February 2007 03:09 PM      Profile for Phred     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Ya I watched Jesus Camp and just shortly after saw the whole outing of Haggard. Then I read an interview with Jones talking about all the details of the affair.

It gave me a nice chuckle because here you have
Haggard (at the time) as the main man of the Evangelical Association not only getting freaky with a gay prostitute but also snorting METH off the dudes ASS! I mean... of all the drugs he could have picked he picked one of the dirtiest ones out there! Like blow would have been a step up!

Oh so dark the con of Ted Haggard!


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jrose
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posted 07 February 2007 08:25 PM      Profile for jrose     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I added a thread about Jesus Camp at this url if anyone is interested in commenting.
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siren
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posted 07 February 2007 09:00 PM      Profile for siren     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Jon Stewart on a sad day for the gays who have lost one of their own.
From: Of course we could have world peace! But where would be the profit in that? | Registered: Nov 2004  |  IP: Logged

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