To
the disbelief of everyone - straight and gay - the Rev.
Ted Haggard, former anti-gay megachurch pastor who was excommunicated
for soliciting sex from a male prostitute, is starting a
new church.
But
this one won’t blossom to be like the 14,000-member New
Life Church
he founded decades ago in Colorado
Springs.
As
a matter-of-fact, Haggard’s Amen Corner will gather Sundays,
if at all, in his modest home, as he opens the doors of
his new church to “everyone”.
“Whether
you’re a Democrat, a Republican, gay, straight, bi, tall,
short, addict, recovering addict… I believe Jesus’ arms
are open to all,” Haggard told the Associated Press (AP).
But
Haggard still has with his homosexuality.
Last
year, the fallen evangelical star rose from public obscurity
to tell us he’s not gay. He’s “heterosexual with issues.”
After a publicity junket promoting the HBO documentary,
“The Trials of Ted Haggard,” which landed him on “ Oprah”
and “Larry King,” Haggard stated on both shows that his
has “sexual thoughts about men, but they’re not compulsive
any more.”
First
Haggard lied about being gay, and now he’s lying about being
“cured” that even his Christian cohorts are not buying it.
So what’s behind Haggard’s tall tales?
Some
view Haggard’s move as egotistical.
“Why
clerics who have been spectacularly ruined as he was don’t
just go sell life insurance, or something,” wrote Rod Dreher,
a blogger for Beliefnet. “I think religious leadership,
like political leadership, must have particular appeal to
narcissists.”
Another
view for Haggard’s tall tales is the lost of clergy power
he once enjoyed.
Excommunicated
from the GOP inner sanctum and the Christian right’s hallowed
sanctuary, Haggard now hopes to regain the creature comforts
he once had - a political platform, a bully pulpit, and
heterosexual clergy privilege.
 Haggard
was president of the National Association of Evangelicals;
“Time” magazine, in 2005, listed Haggard as one of the top
25 most influential evangelicals in America.
Once
a national bigwig, Haggard wielded influence on Capitol
Hill as part of a cadre of men who participated in conservative
Christian leadership conference calls with the White House
when Bush was in office. As a GOP insider, Haggard was one
of this nation’s key advocates for a constitutional amendment
to ban same-sex marriage. After Massachusetts
legalized marriage equality in 2004, Haggard, along with
others, began aggressively organizing state-by-state opposition
that resulted in pushing Colorado’s same-sex marriage ban for the 2006 ballot.
Still
another view for Haggard’s tall tales is his internalized
homophobia.
In
his effort to convert gays to a life of Jesus, Haggard fronted
a “conversion” ministry to frequent gay bars while inviting
these lost souls not only to his congregation for worship,
but also to his hotel suite for sex.
“I
do believe I don’t fit into the normal boxes,” Haggard to
AP. “I do think there are complexities associated with some
people’s sexuality, but it just wasn’t as simple as I wanted
it to be, because I was so deeply in love with my life.”
However, truth be told, Haggard is deeply in love with heterosexual
privilege and homosexual sex.
Haggard
repeatedly denied allegations about dalliances with gay
men. He was shamed into confessing “his sexual immorality”
when his gay male prostitute, Mike Jones, went public about
their affair. Haggard, we find out, was ranting and railing
against gays, while privately living a different life, one
on the down low in drug-fueled homosexual trysts, for at
least three years.
 While
on his publicity junket in 2009, new allegations of a homosexual
relationship surfaced concerning Haggard. This time Haggard’s
former church got involved by paying the 20-year-old male
church volunteer hush-money to keep silent. In a settlement
reached by the man’s lawyer to not go public, the church
provided the young man money to pay his college tuition,
moving expenses and counseling.
Haggard
said he traces his sexual struggles to allegedly being molested
as a child.
Older
evangelical Christians use homosexuality and sex scandals
like Haggard’s as a way to politicize their theological
presence and control within the Republican Tea Party.
But
younger evangelical Christians find the struggle Christian
conservative churches are having with LGBTQ people a culture
war they don’t want to engage in because the emphasis is
political rather than focused on “the ethic of Jesus.” And
fighting against same-sex marriage is not on the top of
their list of social concerns for the country.
As
a matter of fact, the top three social issues for this coming
of age of evangelical Christians are the environment, children
orphaned by AIDS, poverty and health care, all social issues
they view as matters of faith and family values.
No
lie lives forever. And no one should know this better than
Rev. Ted Haggard. But Haggard’s road to perdition is not
about his sexual orientation; rather it is about the lies
he’ll preach in his new church of homophobia.
BlackCommentator.com
Editorial Board member, the Rev. Irene Monroe, is a religion
columnist, theologian, and public speaker. She is the Coordinator of the African-American
Roundtable of the Center for Lesbian and
Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry (CLGS) at the Pacific
School of Religion. A native of Brooklyn, Rev. Monroe is a
graduate from Wellesley College and Union Theological Seminary
at Columbia University, and served as a pastor at an African-American
church before coming to Harvard Divinity School for her
doctorate as a Ford Fellow. She was recently named to MSNBC’s
list of 10 Black Women You Should Know.
Reverend Monroe is the author of Let Your Light Shine Like a Rainbow Always: Meditations on Bible Prayers for Not’So’Everyday Moments.
As an African-American feminist theologian,
she speaks for a sector of society that is frequently invisible.
Her website is
irenemonroe.com.
Click here
to contact the Rev. Monroe. |
Jun 17, 2010 - Issue 380
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