And thanks to mainsailset for pointing it out!
Posted by iamcoyote at November 2, 2006 12:42 PMGeez, it's getting so a guy can't do a couple lines and have a lil' reach around without a big goddamned uproar over it!!
Posted by steve duncan at November 2, 2006 12:45 PMwhat is it with these guys..really
Posted by dennis at November 2, 2006 12:48 PMI knew it!
gay demons, indeed.
Posted by at November 2, 2006 01:02 PMDamn alcohol err meth.
Qucik Ted, get thee to rehab!
Posted by God Of War at November 2, 2006 01:04 PMWho's taking the polygraph?
Posted by snark at November 2, 2006 01:08 PMJones will take a polygraph. That makes a bit more sense.
Love this quote from Haggard;
I’ve never had a gay relationship with anybody, and I’m steady with my wife. I’m faithful to my wife," said Haggard.
Let's parse.
I've never had a gay 'relationship'. Just gay sex.
I'm steady with my wife. She helps me keep the urges down.
I'm faithful to my wife. Now. Since the gay sex thing has ended.
Posted by snark at November 2, 2006 01:17 PM
It's just too juicy when these holier-than-though gay-bashers get caught. I hope Jones passes the polygraph and makes his voicemails and letters public.
Posted by CG at November 2, 2006 01:20 PMBut ya know, all they gotta do is cry for the cameras and they're forgiven. You can get away with anything so long as you confess and pretend remorse!
Posted by iamcoyote at November 2, 2006 01:25 PMalcohol rehab soon to come...no doubt
Posted by dennis at November 2, 2006 01:29 PMwho cares. nobody said being a hypocrite was restricted to straights. And what about some actual proof anyway, this smacks of a witchhunt mentality.
Posted by T2 at November 2, 2006 01:58 PMwho cares.
I bet plenty of his parish members care since their contributions to the collection plate have probably funded his hypocrisy. And if he was paying the guy for sex he was commiting a crime.
And by all means, if the accusor has emails and a letter he should make the evidence public.
Posted by snark at November 2, 2006 02:07 PMFrom "Soldiers of Christ I" (Harpers.org) on the New Life Church and Pastor Ted.
Pastor Ted soon began upsetting the devil's plans. He staked out gay bars, inviting men to come to his church; his whole congregation pitched itself into invisible battles with demonic forces, sometimes in front of public buildings.
Then this fine art:
The atrium is a soaring foyer adorned with the flags of the nations and guarded by another bronze warrior angel, a scowling, bearded type with massive biceps and, again, a sword. The angel's pedestal stands at the center of a great, eight-pointed compass laid out in muted red, white, and blue-black stone. Each point directs the eye to a contemporary painting, most depicting gorgeous, muscular men—one is a blacksmith, another is bound, fetish-style, in chains—in various states of undress. My favorite is The Vessel, by Thomas Blackshear, a major figure in the evangelical-art world.[2] Here in the World Prayer Center is a print of The Vessel, a tall, vertical panel of two nude, ample-breasted, white female angels team-pouring an urn of honey onto the shaved head of a naked, olive-skinned man below. The honey drips down over his slab-like pecs and his six-pack abs into the eponymous vessel, which he holds in front of his crotch. But the vessel can't handle that much honey, so the sweetness oozes over the edges and spills down yet another level, presumably onto our heads, drenching us in golden, godly love. Part of what makes Blackshear's work so compelling is precisely its unabashed eroticism; it aims to turn you on, and then to turn that passion toward Jesus.
Holy smokes!
Too bad Jeff Gannon doesn't submit to a lie detector test and answer who -- I mean, what he was doing during those 200+ visits to the Bush White House.
Maybe in a future autobiographical book?
Posted by Christopher at November 2, 2006 03:13 PMNBC News tonight reported that Ted Haggard has withdrawn from both the Presidency of the National Asociation of Evangelicals and his own Church, claiming, "he can't minister to the needs of his flock (or some such horse shit) with this cloud hanging over his head".
It sounds like SOME evidence must be waiting to be exposed!
Posted by DeminNewJ at November 2, 2006 04:34 PMHaving had experience with this kind of thing personally, I can assure you that many people will be very angry because they have supported a hypocrite with their donations on Sunday mornings. Others will chose to believe him, and will support him unconditionally. However, he will lose a lot of financial support.
Posted by Judith at November 2, 2006 05:58 PMit aims to turn you on, and then to turn that passion toward Jesus.
The descriptions gave me a little woody for jesus.
I've long argued that most forms of extremism harkens back to one's own psychological issues. I'm reminded of the psychological theory that suggests that the psyche is similar to a tube of toothpaste. The gist of the argument is that a tube of toothpaste works well when the cap is removed and pressure is applied in order to push the paste from the container. However, if the cap is placed on the tube and the same pressure is applied, toothpaste will eventually ooze out from numerous newly created and unintended openings. The psyche functions similarly in that if we allow our identity to flow naturally and resist the societal pressure to "cap it" we function normally...but if we attempt to hide our identity...meaning to "cap it" in order to keep it hidden (whether that be from shame, fear, or some other factor)...it will escape and manifest itself in numerous dysfunctional behaviors.
If Jesus was to be our example, then I don't understand this thing we now call Christian values. Pastor Haggard may believe that he speaks for God but his actions suggest that he merely fears his own humanity. Further, if the values he espouses exist to demonstrate his faith in the God he knows, then the God he knows must have already seen this element of his humanity that he cannot personally accept...which would mean that any true God has already accepted that which we humans won't and would also prove that the God Haggard purports to represent is not a real God but a God of his own creation designed to serve his flawed view of the human condition.
Read more here:
Posted by Daniel DiRito at November 2, 2006 10:38 PMSomeone has posted an E-Mail on C+L that is supposed to be from the good pastor's church to its sheeple, that Teddy has admitted to some wrongdoing.
I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop; that he was an agnostic like Rove, and was merely laughing all the way to Fort Knox.
Posted by TIKI AL at November 3, 2006 02:08 AMI read Harper's and I recalled that article about Haggard's church and of Haggard. I have grown up in communities filled with people who would fit right into his church. I think Judith is right absolutely. In a smaller, less affluent church, you would see Christian (Baptist) Cell-division immediately; that is, the oldcomers and the newcomers would have a sudden need to identify a new charismatic leader, or else stick with the old one. These churches are about cult-leaders, and if a cult-charismatic stumbles, cell-division is bound to follow. The irony is that the number of churches actually multiplies however weak it leaves the total body of congregants. But it creats a kind of farm-system for budding charismatic leaders who will charm their way up the ladder to leadership positions. A few (like Haggard) will really excel, but most will be modest successes and folks who need a cult-environment (a tribally based religious experience and theology) will hang on.
Posted by cromulant at November 3, 2006 06:34 AM