Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:01 am Posts: 19477 Location: Brooklyn NY
Evangelical leader quits after gay sex allegation
Ted Haggard, accused of affair with gay man, resigns from national post
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The leader of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals, a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage, resigned Thursday after being accused of paying for sex with a man in monthly trysts over the past three years.
The Rev. Ted Haggard, a married father of five who has been called one of the most influential evangelical Christians in the nation, denied the allegations. His accuser refused to share voice mails that he said backed up his claim.
Haggard also stepped aside as head of his 14,000-member New Life Church while a church panel investigates, saying he could "not continue to minister under the cloud created by the accusations."
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"I am voluntarily stepping aside from leadership so that the overseer process can be allowed to proceed with integrity," Haggard said in a written statement. "I hope to be able to discuss this matter in more detail at a later date."
He also told KUSA-TV late Wednesday: "Never had a gay relationship with anybody, and I'm steady with my wife, I'm faithful to my wife."
The allegations come as voters in Colorado and seven other states get ready to decide Tuesday on amendments banning gay marriage. Besides the proposed ban on the Colorado ballot, a separate measure would establish the legality of domestic partnerships providing same-sex couples with many of the rights of married couples.
Accuser cites hypocrisy
Mike Jones, 49, of Denver told The Associated Press he decided to go public with his allegations because of the political fight. Jones, who said he is gay, said he was upset when he discovered Haggard and the New Life Church had publicly opposed same-sex marriage.
"It made me angry that here's someone preaching about gay marriage and going behind the scenes having gay sex," said Jones, who added that he isn't working for any political group.
Jones, whose allegations were first aired on KHOW-AM radio in Denver, claimed Haggard paid him to have sex nearly every month over three years. Jones also said Haggard snorted methamphetamine before their sexual encounters to heighten his experience.
Haggard and his attorney, Martin Nussbaum, did not return calls Thursday night from the AP.
Jones said that he had advertised himself as an escort on the Internet and that a man who called himself Art contacted him. Jones said he later saw the man on television identified as Haggard.
He said that he last had sex with Haggard in August and that he did not warn him before making his allegations this week.
Jones said he has voice mail messages from Haggard, as well as an envelope he said Haggard used to mail him cash, though he declined to make any of it available to the AP.
"There's some stuff on there (the voice mails) that's pretty damning," he said.
Haggard, who is about 50, was appointed president of the evangelicals association in March 2003. He has participated in conservative Christian leaders' conference calls with White House staffers and lobbied members of Congress last year on U.S. Supreme Court appointees after Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement.
After Massachusetts legalized gay marriage in 2004, Haggard and others began organizing state-by-state opposition. Last year, Haggard and officials from the nearby Christian ministry Focus on the Family announced plans to push Colorado's gay marriage ban for the 2006 ballot.
At the time, Haggard said that he believed marriage is a union between a man and woman rooted in centuries of tradition, and that research shows it's the best family unit for children.
"Homosexual activity, like adulterous relationships, is clearly condemned in the Scriptures," the evangelicals association says on its Web site. The Bible says homosexuality is a sin that "brings grave consequences in this life and excludes one from the Kingdom of God."
Haggard's resignation from the NAE seems unlikely to do lasting damage to the organization, an umbrella group for a diverse and independent-minded membership. At his own church, Haggard's decision to step aside — if it became permanent — would have a more profound effect.
"One would hope and pray that this matter would be resolved expeditiously and quickly and he can be restored back to being the pastor of the church and the leader of the NAE," said Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative Washington think tank.
‘That’s not Ted’
New Life Church member Brooks DeMio, 44, said he thinks Jones is a liar and can't believe Haggard would engage in sex with a man.
"He loves the Lord, homosexuality is a sin and that's not Ted," DeMio said. "His desire is to serve other people and uphold the word of God. ... I don't know him well enough to give a complete character description, but I know him enough to know it's not true."
Carolyn Haggard, spokeswoman for the New Life Church and the pastor's niece, said a four-member church panel will investigate the allegations. The board has the authority to discipline Haggard, including removing him from ministry work.
"This is really routine when any sort of situation like this arises, so we're prepared," Carolyn Haggard said. "The church is going to continue to serve and be welcoming to our community. That's a priority."
Unfortunately, it's so elementary, and the big time investors behind the drive in the stock market aren't so stupid. This isn't the false economy of 2000.
How dare you speak of the leader that way??? DU NU NU NU NU NU NU NU LEADER! A plague of locust on your house and the house of your children! LOCUSTS! AHHHHH!!!! They're almost as bad as gay people...
Just kidding, by the way...
_________________ ...and then they made me their chief.
A leading evangelist and outspoken opponent of gay marriage has given up his post as president of the National Association of Evangelicals while a church panel investigates allegations he paid a man for sex.
The Rev. Ted Haggard resigned as president of the 30 million-member association Thursday after being accused of paying the man for monthly trysts over the past three years.
Haggard, a married father of five, denied the allegations but also temporarily relinquished leadership of New Life Church pending an investigation.
"I am voluntarily stepping aside from leadership so that the overseer process can be allowed to proceed with integrity," he said in a statement. "I hope to be able to discuss this matter in more detail at a later date. In the interim, I will seek both spiritual advice and guidance."
Haggard told KUSA-TV late Wednesday: "I've never had a gay relationship with anybody, and I'm steady with my wife, I'm faithful to my wife."
Carolyn Haggard, spokeswoman for the 14,000-member New Life Church and the pastor's niece, said a four-member church panel will investigate the allegations. The board has the authority to discipline Haggard, including removing him from ministry work.
The acting senior pastor at New Life, Ross Parsley, said Haggard acknowledged some of the accusations were true.
"I just know that there has been some admission of indiscretion, not admission to all of the material that has been discussed, but there is an admission of some guilt," Parsley told KKTV-TV of Colorado Springs.
Parlsey did not elaborate, but in an e-mail addressed to congregants, he wrote that the board of overseers had since met with Haggard.
"It is important for you to know that he confessed to the overseers that some of the accusations against him are true. He has willingly and humbly submitted to the authority of the board of overseers, and will remain on administrative leave during the course of the investigation," the e-mail stated. A copy was obtained by KMGH-TV in Denver.
The allegations surfaced as voters in Colorado and seven other states get ready to decide Tuesday on amendments banning gay marriage. Besides the proposed ban on the Colorado ballot, a separate measure would establish the legality of domestic partnerships providing same-sex couples with many of the rights of married couples.
Church members were stunned.
"It's political, right before the elections," said Brian Boals, a New Life member for 17 years.
Church member E.J. Cox, 25, called the claims "ridiculous."
"People are always saying stuff about Pastor Ted," she said. "You just sort of blow it off. He's just like anyone else in the public eye."
The accusations were made by Mike Jones, 49, of Denver, who said he decided to go public because of the political fight over the amendments.
"I just want people to step back and take a look and say, 'Look, we're all sinners, we all have faults, but if two people want to get married, just let them, and let them have a happy life,'" said Jones, who added that he isn't working for any political group.
Jones, who said he is gay, said he was also upset when he discovered Haggard and the New Life Church had publicly opposed same-sex marriage.
"It made me angry that here's someone preaching about gay marriage and going behind the scenes having gay sex," he said.
Jones claimed Haggard paid him to have sex nearly every month over three years. He said he advertised himself as an escort on the Internet and was contacted by a man who called himself Art, who snorted methamphetamine before their sexual encounters to heighten his experience.
Jones said he later saw the man on television identified as Haggard and that the two last had sex in August.
He said he has voice mail messages from Haggard, as well as an envelope he said Haggard used to mail him cash. He declined to make the voice mails available to the AP, but KUSA-TV reported what it said were excerpts late Thursday that referred to methamphetamine.
"Hi Mike, this is Art," one call began, according to the station. "Hey, I was just calling to see if we could get any more. Either $100 or $200 supply."
A second message, left a few hours later, began: "Hi Mike, this is Art, I am here in Denver and sorry that I missed you. But as I said, if you want to go ahead and get the stuff, then that would be great. And I'll get it sometime next week or the week after or whenever."
Haggard, 50, was appointed president of the evangelicals association in March 2003. He has participated in conservative Christian leaders' conference calls with White House staffers and lobbied members of Congress last year on U.S. Supreme Court appointees after Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement.
After Massachusetts legalized gay marriage in 2004, Haggard and others began organizing state-by-state opposition. Last year, Haggard and officials from the nearby Christian ministry Focus on the Family announced plans to push Colorado's gay marriage ban for the 2006 ballot.
At the time, Haggard said that he believed marriage is a union between a man and woman rooted in centuries of tradition, and that research shows it's the best family unit for children.
______________________________________
at some point the republicans are going to have to do something, make some sort of statement about the gay thing...i mean, they have made the marriage protection ammendments a key platform in their election bids, and first they got hammered by foley and his hot gay teen action, and now the LEADER of the national evangelical organization is snorting drugs and paying for gay sex.
or will they really just ignore it all and hope that everyone conveniently forgets the hypocricy on election day?
_________________ cirlces they grow and they swallow people whole half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul and so it goes
Unfortunately, it's so elementary, and the big time investors behind the drive in the stock market aren't so stupid. This isn't the false economy of 2000.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:01 am Posts: 19477 Location: Brooklyn NY
Peeps wrote:
its reactions such as these that are laughable. i think its a shame a guy has to resign because hes been outed
You know he was the leader of one of the largest Evangelical groups in the country, not NAMBLA, right?
_________________
LittleWing sometime in July 2007 wrote:
Unfortunately, it's so elementary, and the big time investors behind the drive in the stock market aren't so stupid. This isn't the false economy of 2000.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:14 am Posts: 37778 Location: OmaGOD!!! Gender: Male
Peeps wrote:
its reactions such as these that are laughable. i think its a shame a guy has to resign because hes been outed
You're right. Our spiritual leaders should be campaigning against gay marriage in the morning and snorting crank off a male prostitute's erect penis in the evening.
_________________ Unfortunately, at the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, the Flower Children jerked off and went back to sleep.
Yes, thank you g_v. I've already seen the entire "Root of all evil?" video that Dawkins put out last year on Channel 4 in britain (I highly recommend it... check it ouy on YouTube). That's basically where I first heard of Haggart. I just love how dawkins handles the situation - with absolute disbelief with what he's hearing.
When I went to Dawkins' lecture a couple of weeks ago, he actually spoke about Haggart and the experience he had speaking with him.
Talking about how the human eye was created: "I beg your pardon, did you just say by accident? What do you mean by accident?" hahahaha. i love that. I bet Haggart is now saying that he also chugged some cock "by accident".
Oh, and I just got back from seeing the Borat movie. The scene where he goes to the evangelical church is just priceless. Un-fucking-believable.
its reactions such as these that are laughable. i think its a shame a guy has to resign because hes been outed
You know he was the leader of one of the largest Evangelical groups in the country, not NAMBLA, right?
well the irony is, you and everyone else (myself included) believe that homosexuals should be treated as normal people, well, since they are, yet when something like this happens, its quickly pointed out that hes gay, evangical second, as if theres some sorta stigma to it cause hes gay or had experiences with same sex sex.
if anything, you should be saying, see anyone can be gay and its not a big deal.
the only thing the guy is guilty of, is maybe having a double standard, if thats what hes guilty of, then i will guarantee that all of you are just as guilty, myself included
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:14 am Posts: 37778 Location: OmaGOD!!! Gender: Male
Peeps wrote:
glorified_version wrote:
Peeps wrote:
its reactions such as these that are laughable. i think its a shame a guy has to resign because hes been outed
You know he was the leader of one of the largest Evangelical groups in the country, not NAMBLA, right?
well the irony is, you and everyone else (myself included) believe that homosexuals should be treated as normal people, well, since they are, yet when something like this happens, its quickly pointed out that hes gay, evangical second, as if theres some sorta stigma to it cause hes gay or had experiences with same sex sex.
if anything, you should be saying, see anyone can be gay and its not a big deal.
the only thing the guy is guilty of, is maybe having a double standard, if thats what hes guilty of, then i will guarantee that all of you are just as guilty, myself included
I think his double standard is significantly larger than ANY of ours, including yours.
_________________ Unfortunately, at the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, the Flower Children jerked off and went back to sleep.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:14 am Posts: 37778 Location: OmaGOD!!! Gender: Male
Peeps wrote:
punkdavid wrote:
I think his double standard is significantly larger than ANY of our, including yours.
i think its very safe to say that everyone has to do something at their job that they dont agree with, i have to be nice to clients for example
Yes, yes. I have three bosses who are ultra-conservatives, and I'm faced with a ballot measure next week that I don't agree with in principle, but it would make my life at work a HELL of a lot easier if it passes.
But I still think we can't quite compete with spearheading an effort to deny gay people civil rights and then engaging in regular gay sex for money and/or drugs. That's quite a high standard of hypocrisy to attain.
_________________ Unfortunately, at the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, the Flower Children jerked off and went back to sleep.
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