Busted

The Associated Press reports —

The Rev. Ted Haggard was dismissed Saturday as leader of the megachurch he founded after a board determined the influential evangelist had committed “sexually immoral conduct,” the church said Saturday.

Haggard had resigned two days earlier as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, where he held sway in Washington and condemned homosexuality, after a Denver man named Mike Jones claimed to have had drug-fueled trysts with him. He also had placed himself on administrative leave from the New Life Church, but its Overseer Board took the stronger action Saturday.

“Our investigation and Pastor Haggard’s public statements have proven without a doubt that he has committed sexually immoral conduct,” the independent board said in a statement.

    “Those who have great realization of delusion are buddhas; those who are greatly deluded about realization are sentient beings.”

    — Dogen, Genjokoan

    “When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty.”

    — Jesus, Gospel of Thomas

Update: Blaming Mrs. Haggard.

Update update:
You want to read James Wolcott.

10 thoughts on “Busted

  1. Trapped into fidelity?…Wow, that’s some insight into the committed Christian mind. And I thought that putting animals on trial and then hanging them because they showed a familiarity to their owners was bizarre.

    Haggard can’t seem to get honest enough to muster a good manly confession. He should look at Jimmy Swaggert’s benchmark of a real on your face type of manly confession and try to emulate it. They don’t make men like they used to.

  2. Swami — you’re right about Swaggert. That was one of the great confessions of all time. Gives me chills just thinking about it.

  3. Mea culpa. My smell test was surely faulty when this news first broke a couple of days ago. Still, my nose is yet quivering trying to identify some background forces at work here….. my nose and I would have preferred that it be a downfall story about Dobson or Falwell rather than this guy.

    This situation could be a chance for evangelicals to try out humility leading to less judgmentalism about non-evangelicals, but I suppose that’s too much to expect.

    I can’t imagine what Ted Haggart’s family is going through right now. I do hope all those New Life church members wrap them all up in loving arms.

  4. So far, Haggart bought the meth and then threw it away. He only wanted a massage (prostrate?) from the alleged gay john.
    You see everyone, he is being “tested” by God. Notice a pattern here?If nothing else, you gotta admit these cats are entertaining….
    If Haggart is into gay sex and meth, it makes me wonder what Fred Phelps might be doing when the door is locked.Yuck…

  5. I loved the Wolcott piece. He was spot on when he (or someone he quoted) said that fundies don’t believe that homosexuality exists on its own. It’s always the fault of someone being seduced into it, or as that idiot Driscoll posted, a man’s wife allowing herself to go to seed.

    Somehow I think Jesus is rolling his eyes at this whole thing, at how so many of his followers get hung up due to their primitive beliefs about sex.

    Another favorite quote, somewhat relevant, from the Gospel of Thomas:

    If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.

  6. If Haggart is into gay sex and meth, it makes me wonder what Fred Phelps might be doing when the door is locked.Yuck…

    I’ll bet that when Dobson’s closet get opened his kink will be B&D, or Golden Showers.

  7. I assume that self-professed liberals believe that an individual’s sexual proclivities are none of anybody’s business. If they are honest, they will cease and desist from making any comments about Mr. Haggart’s sexual proclivities.

    Mr. Haggart, on the other hand, made it his business to condemn the sexual behavior of others. If he condemns himself for his behavior, that should be the end of it. ( Hopefully, he will hesitate before casting the first stone in the future.) Liberals need to remember that part of being a liberal means we believe in live and let live. The present issue is something conservatives have to deal with, not us.

  8. Point taken Felicity, you are beautiful, and far better than I.HOWEVER….
    The deal here is gay prostution and Meth, both sleazy and illegal ( not to mention hypocritical).
    Mr. Haggart has been very influental in the Bush administration.I wonder what the theme of tomorrow’s conversation with the President will be. Haggart has decieved his followers in a massive fraud, and has been ramming his medieval form of Christianity down the throats of Americans along with the likes of James Dobson. With all respect, in this ever changing world in which we live in won’t you give it a try, say live and let die.
    We can be civil after the elections….

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