Once he lead the New Life Church, 14 000 people strong, with millions of dollars behind them. Seems that a male escort and some drugs have ruined his career. The response of his wife has been that she will support him, but the church dismissed him.

Haggard has been battling against the right for same-sex couples to be married, saying that, "we don't have to debate about what we should think about homosexual activity, it's written in the Bible". At least irony (hypocrisy) is not lost.

Anyone here that was a member of the New Life Church? What does this mean, particularly to Evangelicals, in terms of trusting their preachers to deliver an honest and true message? I presume that these are people that you look to for guidance and support; how do you react to this news?

Megachurch leaders are a bunch of money-grubbing hypocrites. It's amazing what these people come up with for excuses:

No, I wasn't paying for sex, I was...ummm...Buying meth! Yeah, that's it!

Posted by Asher Archive What does this mean, particularly to Evangelicals, in terms of trusting their preachers to deliver an honest and true message? I presume that these are people that you look to for guidance and support; how do you react to this news?

Not from an evangelical church but I do have one thing to say on this topic.

We are all, every one of us, horrible miserable sinners. No church leader is above it. Everyone sins, the only perfect person ever was Christ (according to my beliefs).

As long as he's preaching the message in the bible, you have to realize that preacher or not, he's human.

I'd be more suspicious of someone who seemed too perfect.

I know that all of us have our failings but honestly, this has to be one of the most ironic of all of the religious fallouts. Quite frankly, I believe that Haggard was using all of his anti-gay sermons as a way to cover up his homo erotic dealings.

He is just a man, and a very arrogant man at that.
We live in an age devoid of heroes where nothing is surprising and everyone is suspect.
I am sure that the 'true believers close to him will not accept these accusations as truth unless he comes out and does a James Baker "I have sinned" speech. People see what they want to see and believe what they want to believe. I think you want everyone to have a dirty secret and a skeleton in the closet.

Posted by DanB Megachurch leaders are a bunch of money-grubbing hypocrites. It's amazing what these people come up with for excuses:

Agreed

Posted by Curious_George I know that all of us have our failings but honestly, this has to be one of the most ironic of all of the religious fallouts. Quite frankly, I believe that Haggard was using all of his anti-gay sermons as a way to cover up his homo erotic dealings.

He's not half as bad as Fred Phelps though!

I found this excerpt from a harpers article (http://harpers.org...8488.html#3-anchor) to be somewhat ironic.

In December, Commander Tom received a vision. It is not unheard of for ordinary New Lifers to experience visions, but most are wary about their provenance; what a secularist would call psychological they call satanic. But Commander Tom thinks that this one was real. He seemed close to tears as he told me the story. This is what he had seen: “Complete darkness over all of America. But there was a light coming down to the center of America,” i.e., Colorado Springs. “And it was just a circle. And in it there were angels, and the angels were battling. And they were fighting hard as they could”—here Commander Tom's voice broke—“but they couldn't hold back the dark, and the Lord said to me, ‘America has to repent, or this hole will close.’” Commander Tom returned to the moment. “I'm not even saying I know what to do with it. It's just—that's what I see. And I pray. There's something going on here, and God's gonna explode it. There's gonna be an explosion from here bigger than anyone's ever seen.” Pastor Ted, he believed, would marshal the shock waves. “I think Pastor Ted is Gandalf,” said Commander Tom. Tom had received a few mini-visions, just glimpses really, and in them he saw a pastor kneeling, praying, in spiritual battle.

Posted by camerakid He's not half as bad as Fred Phelps though!

Actually, he's worse.

We KNOW where Phelps stands. Now...if Phelps gets busted in some homoerotic/male escort and meth sting, then we have a reasonable comparison.

But what would really make my day would be if Phelps got busted in one of those Dateline NBC things where he's trying to get head from 14 year old on-line kiddies. THAT would be killer shit.

Post by Asher Archive Once he lead the New Life Church, 14 000 people strong, with millions of dollars behind them. Seems that a male escort and some drugs have ruined his career.

Wrong. He ruined his career all by himself. If he was smart, he would have whacked the escort after the 'massage.'

What a fucking loser.

Posted by KublaKhan he would have whacked the escort after the 'massage.'

No pun intended