The religious right took another severe hit this week with the downfall of Rev. Ted Haggard, an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage.
On Thursday, Haggard resigned as the head of the National Association of Evangelicals, a group representing 45,000 churches with a combined total of over 30 million members after allegations that he paid for sex with a man from whom he also purchased drugs.
On Saturday, Haggard resigned at the pastor of the 14,000 member New Life Church in Colorado Springs that he founded over 20 years ago after an investigative board of the church determined he was guilty of "sexually immoral conduct."
The Advocate has an exclusive interview with Mike Jones, Haggard's accuser.
The facts in this case are not clear. Haggard has admitted to part of what Jones accused him of, and Jones failed a polygraph test during a live radio interview Friday morning.
What is clear, though, is yet another of the loudest voices on the religous right has come up short. One of the men who love pointing fingers at those they do not deem as worthy of God's love as they are has taken a hard, painful fall off the pedistal they placed themselves upon.
This is another reminder that we ALL fall short of God's will for our lives and that we only gain admittance to heaven through his grace, not through earning it by our actions. As a result, no man is in position to judge his fellow man.
Hopefully, this situation will help open some minds and hreats to that critcially important truth.
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I've been following this story since it first broke and I suspect that when everthing comes out in the wash, Haggard will have been found "guilty" of everything he's been charged with. The reason I feel this way is that his accuser only advertised on gay websites, he's on tape asking for more cystal meth, something someone who just throws it away doesn't do and he has a track record of hanging out at gay bars.
ReplyDeleteWhat's surprising though is that the so called "values voters" just haven't figured out that they are being used. Over the course of the past few months, more and more evidence has come to light that Bush, Cheney and their cronies in the House and Senate just don't care about the things these people believe in.
They are openly mocked, their agenda is never advanced and yet on Tuesday they will turn out in huge numbers to try and send the very same people who screw them over back to office. I don't know whats worse, that they are too stupid to see this or that they believe what they do.