Home > Insight

Pastor deserves loss of support from his flock
By Andrew Flohr-Spence
spencand@mscd.edu

On Nov. 2, a prostitute named Michael Jones went public with details of a three-year drug and gay sex relationship with the Rev. Ted Haggard, an outspoken anti-gay pastor of the New Life megachurch in Colorado Springs.

In a talk-radio interview, Jones played a voicemail message in which the pastor, who gained international infamy from several recent documentaries on the church and who said he has weekly conference calls with George W. Bush, asked if they could get together again and if he could hook up $100 or $200. While Jones actually failed several questions on a polygraph test sponsored by the radio program, it quickly became apparent the question was one of details, not of whether or not Haggard was naughty.

After initially denying the allegations, the pastor confessed. The next morning, leaving his house in a minivan with his wife next to him, Haggard admitted to reporters he had bought meth from Jones and at one time had received a massage from him. But they never had sex, and he threw the meth out, he said.

According to the reporter, Haggard’s admission drew quite the look from wife Gayle Haggard. In the video, you can see him look at his wife with pleading eyes. The woman must be a Zen Buddhist or something not to have backhanded him right there. She has since released a letter to the church saying that her test of faith has begun.

New Life Church has removed Haggard as head pastor, and the National Association of Evangelicals has removed him from the presidency. I cannot imagine George W. is still
taking his calls, and it remains to be seen what the political fallout might be.

Jones has been asked why he came forward with the information so close to the election. He said he saw the preacher recently in a documentary on the History Channel and realized how important Haggard was. He thinks Haggard is hypocritical regarding the issue of gay marriage.

“I didn’t want to ruin his life or his family’s life,” Jones was reported as saying. He said he had to look at his life and his community and believes he made the right decision.

Now, I truly doubt that Jones is randomly coming forth at this time to tell us all about Haggard’s dark secret, but the fact remains that party boy Haggard claimed to be preaching the word of God when in reality he was nothing more than a lying, sneaky, lonely man with a drug problem.

The difference here is that call-boy Jones is clearly an opportunist. He is in it for money, but then, that’s pretty clear from his job title. Haggard, however, was a pastor throwing stones from a glass house. He claimed to be a role model and told his wife he was going to hotels in Denver so he could have the peace and quiet needed for his writing. In reality, he was zipping up to the big city, getting ripped on speed and dancing the night away with his boy toys.

Again I find myself with a smirk on my face, and I have to think that with all the poetic justice in the world, perhaps there is a higher power. If there is, it clearly has a grand sense of humor.