NEWS: Top Evangelical Leader Caught in Gay Sex & Drug Scandal

I'm so high on meth right now. Does anybody want a massage?

At least there is one person we can hold blame for this travesty. No, not the good Reverend -- don't be daft. It's his wife, of course.

-TTm

What a loss. Who will do God's work now?

Hell yeah! I hope he holds hands with Dubya when they pull the switch!

Well, let's see.... could it beee ---- SATAN?!?

That video had one of my favorite sayings.

"There are no contradictions in the bible"

Luke 3-23 "And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli"

Matthew 1-16 "And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ."

Hmmm... Found one.

I am not a fan of Haggard at all, but Richard Dawkins was being a total prick in that video. Openly comparing Haggard's church service to a "Nuremberg rally" was completely inappropriate under the circumstances.

the comparison wasn't innappropriate. he just was referring to haggard's ability to move the crowd. he was being a prick tho. both of them were frighteningly arrogant. frightening consindering the amount of influence both of them seem to yield.

Customer review from the Amazon listing for Ted Haggard's book:

this made my day

LMAO

'Sorry to go all Rah-Rah on you, but...

I'm certain that I'm one of the oldest members of SG, two or three times older than most of you. I'm telling you, you can CHANGE who's got the power and influence in this country, on Tuesday, at the polls. Get out and vote. The people in power - the ones who actually pick up the phone when Haggard calls with advice - were put there by active voters (and a little sleight-of-hand - but they can't steal every vote if we overwhelm them on Tuesday.)

Don't be lazy about this! If all the 20-year-olds who stayed home in 2000 had instead voted their conscience, we probably wouldn't be in this mess. You have a choice of which lying hypocrites will govern!! HELP!!

Just as this scandal is typical of why people hate the religious right, so does your strident tone epitomize all there is to loathe about the left.

Well, but think about what prison would do for him:
Gay sex and drugs....

This makes me sick, because I am a Christian. I don't believe insane things like this man and that's why I'm sad, we're not all crazy, only the crazy ones make it on TV.

I do think it's funny that Dawkins seemed offended as much as Haggard when they were having their discussion. He was almost defensive. This is why I hate documentaries like this, he's not being open minded, he just wants to show that Christians are crazy weirdos who are brain washed. It's not all like that.

I would never push my beliefs on anyone, and I'm fairly laid back about it all. I mean for crying out loud I have a SG account. I agreed with Dawkins a lot about how Christians are brainwashed. I would never judge anyone for what they believe because we are all definitely trying to figure it out.

And for Harlykin, not saying there aren't contradictions in the Bible, I'm sure there is. But, Jewish law during that time said that if a man dies his brother shall take his wife. Heli having died childless, his widow became the wife of his brother Jacob, and Joseph was the offspring of the marriage, by nature the son of Jacob, but legally the son of Heli.

I wish people would be knowledgeable about something they want to put down before they actually do it.

From CNN.com -

"Evangelical pastor Ted Haggard confessed on Sunday to a "lifelong" sexual problem, and said he was "a deceiver and a liar," in a letter read to his New Life Church.

"There is part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life," he said in the letter.

This whole thing is so sad and frustrating.

See, what I don't get is why so many people are attracted to and buy into this shit. Seriously, would anybody on this site be caught dead at one of these things? (If you've been to one, please come forward because I'm genuinely curious.) The usual course of action for me is: Serious crisis (lose job, lose girlfriend, quit band, take your pick), experience a couple of days/weeks/months of severe depression and soul-crushing despair, realize that things could be worse, pick self up off of (literal) floor, get new job/girlfriend/band/whatever and move the fuck on. It's not: Serious crisis (see above), go to freaky christian/nazi/rock concert rally, realize that "god" is going to take care of everything and that despair is for sinners, move onward up to heaven after I've given a large percentage of my income and spare time to some idiot who clings to ideas about the origins of humanity made popular by the Spanish Inquisition while my life really doesn't get any better and if it does, it's probably being influenced by the same set of (random) events and synchronicity that influenced that other poor fuck's life. Didn't time magazine do a story on this? Seriously, I don't really care whether or not this Haggard guy puts from the rough, but he probably shouldn't preach against gay marriage. (I have to admit that it is fantastically funny that the same guy who has George Bush on speed-dial and conferences with the white house every week has been caught tweaking with a gay prostitute.) Seriously, that is fucking hilarious...

While it's always nice to see a hypocrit taken down a peg or two, I feel like this particular "scandal" is somewhat overblown, in no small part because certain media outlets have allowed it to be so.

I follow politics pretty closely, and am fairly familiar with most, if not all of the Evangelical right's top leaders. And before this story broke I had never heard of Haggard. It might just be a testament to my own ignorance, but I feel like some are making a mountain out of a molehill on this one.

Honestly, we bitch and complain about how the right wing media can fixate for days on a misstatement made by John Kerry, but I don't feel like we're being much better if we take a story like this and try to turn it into a wholesale indictment of Republicans like some are.

I have to agree; While I do see the irony, it's not quite as big as if Jerry Falwell, for example, had been caught in a crack house with a gay prostitute. As you say, it is nice to see a hypocrite taken down a peg.

Oh, how I wish you were joking. I take this quite seriously. People like Haggard are highly influential in American politics. Our history is full of examples of one or two disgruntled white guys leading a state to overturn affirmative action legislation, cocaine-loving lawyers prosecuting petty offenders while high in court, high and mighty republicans cheating on their wives and stealing from taxpayers, and the list goes on. If all the self-hatingest gay men in this country abstained from politics, the culture wars would be severely toned down. Haggard, at the very least, spoke directly to over 10,000 people a week. He is highly responsible for the strong and growing effort to ban gay marriage in CO.

I feel it is of the utmost importance to highlight that the preacher's politics are deeply personal. His outward hatred is overflowing self hate. It is people like Haggard who commit the most heinous acts of physical violence against gays and lesbians. These are not brave or tough people, these are people who live in fear, and Haggard made it his life's work to sell his fear to as many people as possible. If it weren't for people like Haggard, Haggard could enjoy some gay sex and lead a large group of people toward right living without cognitive dissonance.

I could go on, but I fear I'm not making my point succinctly and I would begin to repeat myself. My point, is that these issues are vital to American politics and human life, in general.

It's people like him who give normal middle of the road Christians like me a bad rap. If that guy wants to really understand what he should be, he should take a look at Billy Graham and see how he lived his life. For evangelicals, Billy Graham was pretty damn cool I think, and has done alot.

As far as Haggard goes...

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

He's going to Hell

I disagree with those who think this is just another ho-hum-buried-on-page-16 news story. This man was the acting head of a huge evangelical organization, had thousands of adherents lined up every Sunday to hear what he had to say, and had a weekly teleconference with the president of the free fuckin' world. Palacemuse was right above when he said that these issues are vital to American politics and human life, in general.

Again, as I urged earlier in this thread, get out Tuesday and vote. If you think all the candidates are fucknuts, then register your disapproval with a vote for yourself. Make your voice heard. Believe me, if ALL the 20-somethings start going to the polls every election day, it's gonna' be a far different world.

I sure hope that wasn't a blanket statement. Christians are notoriously hypocritical, and it's in their nature ? Sorry, but not all Christians are like that, and making a statement like that only shows the stereotypical attitude that too many have about Christians. If you were not making a blanket statement, I'm sorry.

WITCH HUNT!!!!