I’m not a big fan of the modern concept of forgiveness in that it implies that the slate is wiped clean and everyone acts like they have amnesia and the past never happened. Of course, we are all a product of the past and it actually did happen with consequences that still reverberate.
Contemporary “forgiveness” also lends itself to a syrupy phoniness and opportunistic reinvention that I want no part of. That is why it is so popular among socially conservative evangelical churches. Those places are often packed with people who made a hash of their lives and hope that if they get new hairdos, quote an ancient book, and throw money into a hat they will be redeemed.
Well, the trouble and tears left behind won’t be easily cleaned up by pious professions of faith.
In the case of Ted Haggard — he spent his entire life promoting the worst face of Christianity and clubbing around with politicians determined to harm LGBT families. He was the ultimate hypocrite who was a lot more intolerant than his current efforts to spin the past lets on. He wasn’t only against gay and lesbian people, but quite hostile to anyone who held different beliefs in his effort to turn Colorado Springs into a fundamentalist Christian paradise. These facts simply can’t be conveniently forgotten — because we are still fighting tooth and nail with the forces he helped elevate to positions of power and influence.
That said, if people legitimately want to become better human beings, they ought to be given the opportunity. Ted Haggard — out of necessity and survival — has created a new project, the St. James Church. It is a somewhat inclusive church (it is still against marriage equality, but for civil unions).
I say we neither viciously condemn nor wholeheartedly embrace Haggard. Let him live his live in peace and prove through his actions that he has changed. While the past will never disappear, Haggard has time to do good work and create an overall legacy that he can one day be proud of. Although he is a man of smooth words — it is his actions over a period of time that are worth watching.
While we should not entirely “forgive” — there is also no point of holding a grudge and living in the past. In the case of Haggard, we should keep one eye on the past and one on the future. If only, because there are bigger fish to fry.
I’m curious what our readers think.
Read the full story by Andrew Harmon in The Advocate magazine. It is a really well-written piece and worth the read.
This picture of Ted Haggard’s family is apparently in the latest edition of GQ, and I don’t want to look at it anymore, so I’m posting this and never looking at it again.
In a new GQ profile, Rev. Ted Haggard addresses the continued assumptions that he’s gay, following revelations years ago that the prominent evangelical had a drug-fueled sexual relationship with a gay male former escort: “I think that probably, if I were 21 in this society, I would identify myself as a bisexual.”
But, he told GQ’s Kevin Roose: “I’m 54, with children, with a belief system, and I can have enforced boundaries in my life. Just like you’re a heterosexual but you don’t have sex with every woman that you’re attracted to, so I can be who I am and exclusively have sex with my wife and be perfectly satisfied.”
The profile provides a few other tidbits about Haggard, who resigned from the New Life Church and from his position as president of the National Association of Evangelicals after he admitted to the affair with his male meth dealer, who was also a prostitute.
So here’s a Monday Funday video for you that has nothing to do with anything.
HOWEVER, if you ever harbored a secret desire to Be A Blogger,* then Jamie Kilstein and Allison Kilkenny have made a helpful video to learn you the basics. If you are not familiar with them, they are married, to each other, and they have a fancy radio show called Citizen Radio, where they talk to everyone from Digby to Moby, about politics and whatever else floats their goose. Also, they are very funny. Jamie’s hobby is coming up with fancy terms to describe Ted Haggard’s sexual escapades, and Allison’s hobby is making finger porn, which is every bit as sexy as it sounds. (Also, she has a blog, which is brilliant, and which you should be reading. But the finger porn is the most important part.)
So, anyway, in this video, Allison reveals The Process behind her brilliance, which involves knives. My process is actually much simpler, but no less violent. But we’ll leave that for a later date!
This is an interesting interview. Try not to cringe in the second section when, for some unknown reason (CNN, y’all really are batting a thousand, you know), King’s producers thought it would be a good idea to bring on a bigoted pastor to sit and talk about how sorry he feels for Jennifer. Props to Jennifer, though, for holding her tongue all the way through his entire ignorant, concern trolling tirade. Of course, there’s a hilarious moment at around 5:35 when Larry asks the pastor whether he made a “choice” to be a heterosexual, and he responds “I did!”
For the record: Pastor Bob Botsford of Horizon Christian Fellowship of San Diego could just as easily have been super gay, had that been what he wanted, and it wasn’t, so shut up.
In fairness, Larry mops the floor with the idiot pastor. So does Jen. So maybe they only brought him on for laughs.
In this segment, for some reason I cannot possibly put my finger on, they invite Ted Haggard on to give his perspective.
Jamie Kilstein is one of my very favorite comedians. He and his wife Allison Kilkenny (who I link here from time to time) run Citizen Radio, and they’re one of the few duos I’ve seen who truly bridge the gap between politics and comedy, without either side suffering. Jamie’s insanely funny, but he actually knows his stuff. And if he doesn’t, he can always ask Allison, because she’s scary smart.
ANYWAY.
The other night, Jamie performed in Chicago, and he just cold went off on Rick Warren, Ted Haggard, anti-gay fundamentalist bigots, and made one of the boldest, most raw arguments for LGBT equality I’ve ever seen.
So! You should watch it. But not at work. Unless you have headphones. Because it’s, as Jamie just said on his Facebook wall, “beyond offensive.”
So here’s your warning, in red, in case you missed the last paragraph:
DIRTY LANGUAGE IS AHEAD!!!
Okay, that all clear? Oh, and handling the objection before I get it, in the parts where Jamie’s talking about God, we should all remember that the construction is “IF God is like they say, THEN we should…”
On Jan. 3rd Evan Hurst wrote about FOX anchor Brit Hume’s on-air proselytizing, where he condemned Tiger Woods’ current faith and urged him to become a Christian. On the air Hume said:
“He’ said to be a Buddhist. I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith…Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery.”
Ted Haggard shamed in gay sex/meth scandal. James Dobson gives up his throne.
These are just a few of the headlines that have come from the little town of Colorado Springs in the past couple of years.
How did this sleepy, conservative town become an evangelical Mecca?
“This Beautiful City”, a brilliantly executed and engaging play, answers this question. It takes you back to the 1980′s when Colorado Springs tried to attract new businesses through tax breaks. Focus on the Family moved from Southern California and dozens of evangelical organizations followed, transforming the town. Ted Haggard’s New Life Church was formed with the goal of religious revival in Colorado Springs.
I went to see the production in New York City’s Vinyard Theatre (108 East 15th Street) this week. I give it two thumps up (too bad I don’t have a third hand) and highly recommend it. This Beautiful City was timely, terrific and thought provoking.
To write the script, The Civilians, a New York theater group, actually ventured to Colorado Springs to interview locals. This resulted in writers Steven Cosson and Jim Lewis (music) presenting realistic, eye-opening dialogue and songs. The acting was superb and led to a boisterous standing ovation.
If you live in New York City or may be visiting, inquire with Wayne Besen about the Truth Wins Out discount.
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*Conditions: Ticket discount valid for all performances through 3/15/09. Some blackout dates apply. Phone and online orders are subject to regular service charges. This offer is not valid on previously purchased tickets, is subject to availability and may be revoked at any time. Offer Expires 03/15/2009.
Grant Haas, reputed recipient of hushmoney from New Life Church following a sex scandal involving disgraced bisexual evangelist Ted Haggard, on Tuesday issued lurid accusations about Haggard and himself on gay author Michelangelo Signorile’s daily Sirius/XM satellite radio show.
At this time, Haas’ accusations — involving explicit sexual discussions, extreme drug abuse, and ex-gay sexual exploitation of the opposite sex — have not been independently corroborated.
After it was disclosed Friday that New Life Church in Colorado Springs paid money to one of Ted Haggard’s longtime same-sex partners in 2006 in exchange for his silence, Exodus executive vice president Randy Thomas swiftly diverted attention from the church’s abuse of power and instead made Haggard out to be a sexual predator — even though the “other man” was in his 20s.
For better or worse, it has long been commonplace — in both conservative Christendom and Hollywood — for 40- and 50-year-old heterosexual men to seek relationships with 23-year-old women. That potential imbalance of age, privilege, and life experience is insignificant compared to the abuse of power committed by a church that, by its admission, offered untold sums of “compassionate assistance” on the condition that the sexual relationship not be disclosed — even as the church was publicly declaring in 2006 that it knew of no sex partners other than Mike Jones, Haggard’s middle-aged prostitute.
Contrary to Thomas’ claim, there is no evidence that Haggard’s newly disclosed male partner was any more “impressionable” than the average twentysomething woman. And since no illegal sexual activities appear to have happened, Thomas’s call for “proper justice” suggests that Thomas might support the re-enactment and enforcement of antigay sex laws against consenting adults.
Thomas — an opponent of self-disclosure and sexual honesty among homosexual men — expresses no objection to New Life’s attempted cover-up. Like New Life, Thomas equates “compassionate assistance” with secrecy.
For nearly a decade, Thomas and his peers at Exodus’ flagship Love In Action program have sidestepped and excused similar abuses of power against genuinely impressionable youths — perhaps because Exodus believes that secrecy and denial about sexual orientation is all the “change” that one ultimately needs.
The short answer is “no”. But, we can move on.
