Haggard's flock notes, in hindsight, there was something 'strange' about Ted

by: Pam Spaulding

Sun Mar 18, 2007 at 16:00:00 PM EDT

The light bulb has finally clicked on over the heads of the folks at Ted Haggard's former mega-haunt, the New Life Church in Colorado Springs.  In the LA Times, after four months to think about the pastor's fall from grace, having admitted to buying meth and visiting a male escort repeated for at the very least, erotic massages. People are now commenting about "warning signs" about their former spiritual leader and ex-head of the National Association of Evangelicals.

But they see now what they should have seen then: that Haggard talked too much about sex; that he could be crudely suggestive; that he seemed to have a need to push boundaries.

And that no one ever called him on any of it.

"His loose discussions about sexuality might have seemed refreshingly raw and real, especially since church had always been so stuffy and prudish in the past," said Rob Brendle, associate pastor of the megachurch in Colorado Springs, Colo. "In retrospect, some of his comments and interactions that at the time seemed edgy, but innocent enough, now seem questionable."

...The board of overseers uncovered a pattern of troubling behavior - "everything from sordid conversation to overt suggestions to improper activities to improper relationships," the Rev. Larry Stockstill told the New Life congregation in a report last month.

Stockstill would not divulge details, but he and the other investigators concluded that Haggard - who is in therapy and preparing to leave Colorado Springs - suffered from "habitual, life-controlling problems." They called it "a matter of grace" that the pastor was caught in his relationship with prostitute Mike Jones of Denver.

See after the flip.

"The true characterization is that Mr. Haggard had a weakness and he continues to work to strengthen himself," said the Rev. H.B. London, a member of the three-man team overseeing Haggard's spiritual recovery.

"Ted will need years of accountability to demonstrate his victory over both actions and tendencies," Stockstill said in the report, which he read aloud to the New Life congregation.

Haggard's associates say he is working diligently toward that goal. He follows a strict regimen of group therapy, family counseling and one-on-one sessions with spiritual advisors. He has agreed to restrictions on what he watches and reads, to try to banish what he has called "repulsive and dark" desires.

So, God made a mistake in creating a person to be Gay and be capable of loving another human being, so professing Christians are going to "correct" that "defect" that, according to Albert Mohler, comes about because of "original sin," so the Gay person is to engage in "a lifelong struggle, demanding constant vigilance and sacrifice...to avoid relationships [some professing Christians] consider sinful." If God made us in his image, how is it possible that being Gay is sinful? Are they saying that God is the author of sin?

Moreover, in exchange for "roughly" $130,000, Haggard is "not to talk to the media and to leave town." What are they trying to hide? Christians are supposed to be transparent and authentic! Hiding information apparently deemed so crucial that Haggard is not to talk about it is reminiscent of RC Bishops shuffling ephebophiles around to different parishes and keeping quiet about the whole mess and pressuring victims not to talk about the priests who preyed on them.