Evangelical leader quits, denies male escort’s allegations
Is There Even One Heterosexual Republican??
Secretly Gay Evangelical Leader: “Who Is Mike Jones?”
Key Evangelical Quits Amid Gay Sex Claim
(CNN) — The president of the National Association of Evangelicals resigned Thursday after denying an accusation by a male prostitute that the pastor paid him for sex over three years. The Rev. Ted Haggard said he is also temporarily stepping aside from the pulpit of his church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, pending an internal investigation by the church.
While I’m normally not one to revel in the public humiliation and demise of a public figure, I’m beyond willing to make an exception in the case of the Rev. Ted Haggard, who’s built his career on gay-bashing and all manner of intolerance and judgemental self-superiority. Haggard, one of the most vocal anti-gay preachers out there, is reported to have paid a male prostitute for monthly “prayer and counselling sessions” over the past three years. Yeah, don’t think I’m going to be willing to give this one a free pass. If true, the allegations against Haggard represent the worst sort of hypocrisy, and Haggard represents EVERYTHING that is wrong with Christianity today.
Of course, Haggard is denying the allegations, even though the new acting head of Haggard’s New life Church is saying that Haggard admitted to some of the alleged “indiscretions”. Predictably, both he and some members of his church are crying “politics”, given that his hypocrisy was disclosed less than a week before Election Day.
Well, duh…OF COURSE IT’S POLITICAL. Like his two-faced hypocritical condemnation of gays and lesbians hasn’t also been political. Why is it acceptable for Haggard’s opponents to play the same game he’s been playing for lo, these many years? If you’re going to live by the sword, you can’t claim to be surprised when you end up hoisted on your own petard.
Personally, I could care less if Haggard buggers goats in his spare time. What thoroughly pisses me off is the rank, shameless hypocrisy. While Haggard is decrying the shameful violation of God’s law that is homosexuality (at least in his own twisted mind), he’s apparently been paying a male prostitute for taking a monthly trip down the chocolate expressway on his bologna pony.
Oh, Rev. Haggard? While you were out….
JESUS CALLED; HE WANTS HIS RELIGION BACK….
The accusations were made by Mike Jones, 49, of Denver, who said he decided to go public because of the political fight over the amendments.
“I just want people to step back and take a look and say, ‘Look, we’re all sinners, we all have faults, but if two people want to get married, just let them, and let them have a happy life,’” said Jones, who added that he isn’t working for any political group.
Jones, who said he is gay, said he was also upset when he discovered Haggard and the New Life Church had publicly opposed same-sex marriage.
“It made me angry that here’s someone preaching about gay marriage and going behind the scenes having gay sex,” he said.
Jones claimed Haggard paid him to have sex nearly every month over three years. He said he advertised himself as an escort on the Internet and was contacted by a man who called himself Art, who snorted methamphetamine before their sexual encounters to heighten his experience.
Jones said he later saw the man on television identified as Haggard and that the two last had sex in August.
Kinda makes you want to become a born-again Christian, doesn’t it? Hey, why not? According to Haggard’s brand of theology, you can become the very thing you profess to hate…and you don’t have to worry about any of that nasty lingering guilt. When God’s on your side, what could you possibly have to worry about?
Yes, I suppose you could reasonably argue that the timing of this accusation was political. Then again, if Haggard has been leading a hypocritical double life, he should be exposed at the earliest possible opportunity. If you’re going to build a career out of gay-bashing and all manner of intolerance, you deserve no consideration. Regardless of the approaching election, Haggard deserves to be outed and exposed.
You’re are free to live your live as you choose (this is still- noiminally, at least- a free country), but you are NOT free to live your life as you choose while you condemn others who do the very same thing. Ted Haggard is a hypocrite of the first order. What makes his trangressions even worse is that he has hidden behind his pulpit while getting his helmet polished by a male prostitute. Show me where the Gospel sanctions that sort of two-faced hypocrisy….
And what if Mike Jones made this whole thing up out of whole cloth? Somehow, I doubt that’s the case, but if it is…well, you’d be looking at our next DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener, don’tcha think?
