In a new documentary set to air on HBO next month, a disgraced evangelical pastor comes clean.  “The Trials of Ted Haggard,” directed by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Alexandra, was filmed with Haggard’s cooperation — and how. 

You may recall that two years ago, Haggard stepped down from his post as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was sacked as senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs after a former male prostitute alleged that the cleric paid him for sex and used illicit substances.

I have yet to see the documentary, but published reports say that Haggard speaks onscreen, speaks about his new life. The father of five remains in his marriage for the same of his children and apparently has been living with shame. While he doesn’t speak of his sexual improprieties in detail, he does admit to “sexual immorality” and says, “I really did sin.” Haggard tells of his longtime struggle with his same-sex desires, insisting that he never claimed to be heterosexual.

“The reason I kept my personal struggle a secret is because I feared that my friends would reject me, abandon me and kick me out, and the church would exile and excommunicate me. And that happened and more,” he says in the film.

He also reveals that while he purchased methamphetamine, he never used it.

Haggard’s wife Gayle speaks in the documentary as well, and offers what perhaps is the reason behind the couple’s participation in the production: “I know to restore the honor to our children is to help restore honor to their father.”

That may be a long, hard road. Right-wing Christian leadership isn’t treating Haggard with honor, and most GLBT people probably will say that a man who worked so hard against honorable treatment for us is not worthy of anything resembling honor. Many believe he’s getting his just deserts.

After the scandal broke, the Haggard family fled Colorado for Arizona, where the former preacher confesses thta he is having a tough time making ends meet as an insurance salesperson. ”At this stage in my life, I am a loser,” Haggard says.

I suspect Haggard is a loser only if he does not come to grips with his reality and learn to embrace it. If he can emerge from this crisis a better human being, then he will deserve to be honored. He doesn’t have to abandon his family to do it: Many gay and bisexual people end up in marriages with heterosexual partners. (Exhibit A: Me.) Sometimes those marriages work; often they do not. But the real losers are the misguided ones who work to diminish others. The Religious Wrong is filled hypocrites who divide people and spead a message that does not include anything Jesus would champion — things like forgiveness, compassion, and acceptance without judgment.

Haggard could choose to re-up as a fundamentalist Christian soldier — or he could take another road, one that leads to justice for all of God’s children and could help him right the wrongs he committed. That second path leads to honor. At this point in his now-difficult life, the choice is his.

You know what? I hope he makes the honorable choice — and I wish him and his family well.

“The Trials of Ted Haggard” is scheduled to run Jan. 29 on HBO.

As noted by TWO, Richard Cizik, Washington lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals, resigned his post last week because of controversy over his nationally broadcast support of gay civil unions. The NAE and right-wing political organizations are applauding his departure with words both questionable and unkind.

During a Dec. 2 interview on National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air,” Cizik told host Terry Gross that he voted for Barack Obama in the Virginia primary and said Christians should not fear supporting pro-choice and pro-LGBT candidates. Cizik also said that his views on marriage were “shifting” and that he supports civil union.

The comments made by the lobbyist — formally known as NAE’s vice president for governmental affairs — caused a huge stir in evangelical Christian circles and the controversy led him to resign his job. In a statement to the organization’s board members, the association’s acting president Leith Anderson explained his departure, saying Cizik’s radio remarks caused “a loss of trust in his credibility as a spokesperson among leaders and constituencies.”

It turns out that Cizik’s views are evolving even more. For years, he has been one of the rare evangelicals banging the drum for addressing climate change. The DC-based Institute on Religion & Democracy’s Mark Tooley told OneNewsNow that “Cizik has been very outspoken and in some ways ‘off the reservation’ for the last five or six years in terms of his global warming activism, which the board of NAE had initially somewhat disavowed — but that had not discouraged him.”

Cizik’s civil-union support was an apparent step too far from the reservation. “The National Association of Evangelicals has official positions strongly supporting traditional marriage and opposing same-sex marriage, and certainly by implication same-sex civil unions,” Tooley said. “So it seemed to be a very clear case where Cizik was ignoring the very obvious and official positions of his own organization, for which he is supposed to be the chief spokesman and lobbyist in Washington.”

Evangelical support for Cizik’s resignation is voluminous, the criticisms harsh.

Ingrid Schlueter, co-host of evangelizing radio show Crosstalk America said, “Those who are at war with God, the author of life, should be publicly confronted by evangelical Christians. Instead, they are aided and abetted in their evil by craven leaders like Cizik.”

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council is expectedly meanspirited: “This is the risk of walking through the green door of environmentalism and global warming – you risk being blinded by the green light and losing your sense of direction. How else can you explain enthusiastic support for what will probably be the nation’s most pro-abortion, anti-family president in our nation’s 232 year history?”

Janice Shaw Crouse, director and senior fellow of Concerned Women for America’s Beverly LaHaye Institute, takes a broad swipe: “I think, perhaps, my dear friend Rich has been inside the Beltway for too long and has swallowed too much of the NPR and Vogue magazine Kool-Aid.”

I suppose the nasty talk has to be over-the-top. After all, Cizik has the ear of millions of Americans. People listen to him. You can see it in the responses on the FRC blog, where faithful Christians responding to Perkins’ statement wonder why caring about the environment or supporting Barack Obama contradicts their beliefs. Time magazine even named Cizik one of the world’s 100 most influential people this year. That’s a lot of clout to for the evangelicals to overcome.

Consider the response of NAE supporters of Cizik — and there are many of them. According to US News and World Report, “a coalition of roughly 60 evangelical leaders (mostly of the non-Christian right variety) has written to … Leith Anderson pushing for a successor [who, like Cizik, is] not beholden to the Christian right… [one] who embraces more progressive causes like combating global warming.” Read the full letter here.

David Gushee, a college professor and progressive evangelical activist who helped write the letter to Anderson, said this in an interview with USNWR:

I think Leith and the executive committee are going to take their time and let the furor over this die down. I personally think they need to find somebody who can promote all seven of the policy commitments in the NAE’s Health of Our Nation statement. There’s one on sanctity of life and one on climate change and one on poverty. There are always pressures from the right that the two fundamental issues of our time should be abortion and homosexuality. I think there will be pressure to hire somebody to make those the top priority.

I can tell you from some feedback that if the NAE makes the mistake of rolling back to the classic Christian right agenda, they would lose support of a lot of people who are currently happy to be working with them.

Yes, this comes from within the NAE.

The good news for Cizik, if he is sincere in his evolution, is that his message is being heard across the nation. It’s evident in the growing support for legal recognition of same-gender couples and for humane and just treatment of LGBT citizens. It is reflected in the fact that an increasing number of people are realizing that “gay” isn’t something that needs to be prayed away. Even the vote that passed California’s obnoxious and un-American Proposition 8 was a close one. Cizik is but one of many Americans who are slowly but surely understanding that being a Christian does not require denying compassion and equality to LGBT people.

Let’s hope this good man is snapped up by a progressive evangelical organization so that his vast influence — and his personal evolution — can continue. And let’s hope those questioning evangelicals continue searching their hearts and minds.

Evangelical Leader Takes Heat For His ‘Shift’ On Same-Sex Relationships

NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out praised the National Association of Evangelicals’ top lobbyist today for resigning in a storm of controversy after he said on a Dec. 2 “Fresh Air” NPR broadcast that he had shifted his position on gay relationships. The Associated Press reported that he told Fresh Air, “I’m shifting, I have to admit. In other words, I would willingly say I believe in civil unions. I don’t officially support redefining marriage from its traditional definition, I don’t think.”

“We applaud Rich Cizik for opening his mind and speaking from his heart,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “It would have been easier for Cizik to have remained silent and continued collecting a paycheck. Instead he did what he thought was right and one can only admire such courage.”

Not surprisingly, Focus on the Family said they were glad Cizik was stepping down. “It was time for him to go,” Tom Minnery, a Focus on the Family senior vice president, told the Associated Press. “He no longer represents the view of evangelicalism. He has not represented those views for some time.”

“Focus on the Family is going to find that support for their outdated position on gay and lesbian equality is eroding, even among evangelical Christians,” said Besen. “As more gay people come out, Americans can see that we are their friends and family members – and certainly no threat to their lives.”

On Thursday, Truth Wins Out placed a hard-hitting full-page ad in The Salt Lake Tribune, under the headline, “Lies in the Name of the Lord.” It was in response to an ad in last Friday’s New York Times, that portrayed protests against Proposition 8 – a ballot measure in California that prohibited same sex couples from marrying – as mob violence. One of the people criticized by TWO was Cizik, who signed the ad.

“If I someone would have told me that I would have ended the week praising Rich Cizik, I would have told them they were living in a dream world,” said Besen. “But, Cizik’s evolution on this issue shows that we should never make blanket assumptions that individual evangelical Christians don’t support fairness and equality. I call on more fair-minded evangelicals to speak out in the name of equality and fairness for gay and lesbian people, as this courageous man has done.”

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about gay life.
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Contact: Wayne Besen
Phone: 917-691-5118
E-Mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
Web: www.TruthWinsOut.org

‘We Refuse To Allow Anti-Gay Activists To Rewrite History and Pose As Beacons of Religious Tolerance,’ Says TWO

NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out (TWO) unveiled a hard-hitting full-page ad today that will be published in The Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday, under the headline, “Lies in the Name of the Lord.” TWO’s provocative advertisement is in response to an ad by anti-gay activists in last Friday’s New York Times, that falsely portrayed protests against Proposition 8 – a ballot measure in California that prohibited same sex couples from marrying – as mob violence. The TWO ad also criticized the culture warriors who ran the Times ad under the name, “No Mob Veto,” for their disingenuous claim of religious tolerance and their posture as staunch defenders of the Mormon Church.

“These anti-gay activists are crying wolf on the Proposition 8 protests, but they actually are a wolf in sheep’s clothing that preaches religious tolerance while practicing the most defamatory form of religious bigotry,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “We refuse to permit this orchestrated campaign to rewrite history, nor will we allow some of the most notorious Mormon bashers in America to pose as friends of the Latter-day Saints.”

TWO exposes “No Mob Veto’s” hypocrisy, after the group wrote in the Times, “Beginning today, we commit ourselves to opposing and publicly shaming anyone who resorts to the rhetoric of anti-religious bigotry, against any faith, on any side of the cause, for any reason.” In its ad, TWO agreed to take the signers of the “No Mob Veto” ad at their word, including convicted felon Chuck Colson, Prison Fellowship; Rich Cizik, National Association of Evangelicals; and William Donohue, The Catholic League, and remind America of their past incendiary statements against other religions, particularly the Mormon church.

“Activists like Colson, Cizik and Donohue must decide if they are ‘people of faith’ or ‘people of fibs’ – they can’t be both,” TWO proclaimed in its ad. “Lying is wrong, especially when it’s done in the name of God.”

“There is a concerted and ongoing effort by anti-gay forces to portray peaceful marchers exercising their First Amendment rights as violent troublemakers,” said Besen. “We hope to set the record straight and refuse to let No Mob Veto get away with their blatant lies.”

Singer Pat Boone contributed to the “Big Lie” this week when he wrote a column in World Net Daily that compared nonviolent Proposition 8 protesters with the terrorists who wantonly murdered nearly 200 innocent people in Mumbai.

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about gay life.

In a breathtaking display of lies and hypocrisy, a group of anti-gay culture warriors and long-time Mormon bashers placed a full page ad in the New York Times on Friday pretending to be both victims of alleged homosexual “mobs” and staunch defenders of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons). Both claims are absurd and a cruel attempt for the victimizers to claim the mantle of the victimhood – which is a manipulative and cynical political ploy, says TWO.

“These new defenders of the Mormon faith have long been the most prolific Mormon bashers in the nation, so it is remarkable to see their defense of the LDS church,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “The only thing they have in common with the Mormons is an uncommon desire to discriminate against gay and lesbian Americans. The degree of chutzpah and hypocrisy in this ad is eye-popping.”

The ad essentially claimed that violent mobs of gay protesters were attacking the Mormon Church and its followers in the aftermath of California voters narrowly approving Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in that state. They even launched a website www.NoMobVeto.org. (It seems they forget that they put basic human rights up for a vote, which is essentially mob rule)

This Times ad is full of blatant lies – much like the immoral television ads attacking same-sex families during the Prop. 8 campaign. We should also question the unctuous defense of Mormons by the ad’s  signers (Kevin Hasson, Nathan Diament, Rich Cizik, Ronald Sider, Chuck Colson, Chris Seiple, Dr. Alveda King, William Donahue, Robert Seiple, Douglas Laycock, Marvin Olasky, Roger Scruton and Armando Valladares).
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