http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2008/12/tr ... ggard.html

The Trials Of Ted Haggard

Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard has agreed to help promote a new documentary following his life in exile after a 2006 sex scandal — no longer bound by an agreement with his former church that prohibited him from talking publicly about the events that led to his downfall.

"The Trials of Ted Haggard," directed by Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is set to air next month on HBO. Haggard has agreed to take part in publicity for the project, HBO said. "We look forward to presenting the film, Ted Haggard and his family at a press tour in Los Angeles next month," a spokeswoman for the cable network said Wednesday.

Haggard's latest return to the public eye comes after he re-emerged last month at a rural Illinois church, where he delivered guest sermons and said he was sexually abused as a second-grader.Haggard, 52, resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was fired as senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., in November 2006 after a former male prostitute went public with allegations that Haggard paid him for sex and used methamphetamine. A married father of five, Haggard said he bought the drugs but never used them. He confessed to undisclosed "sexual immorality" and has said, "I really did sin."

In February, New Life Church announced that Haggard prematurely ended a "restoration" process designed to help him heal. Neither Pelosi nor Haggard responded to requests for comment on the documentary, which is scheduled to first air Jan. 29. However, a Web site for a Toronto-based entertainment company that promotes HBO and other television projects describes it as "a behind-scenes-look at the rise and fall of Pastor Ted Haggard." The 41-minute documentary "follows Haggard and his family as they move from houses to motels as the excommunicated pastor tries to redeem himself and support his loved ones," it says.

pelosi did a kickass documentary on george w during his first campaign cycle in 2000, and looking back it was a dire portend of the future. just nobody realized it yet.

didn't pelosi do jesus camp, too?

nah i don't think she was involved in that one. id like to think pelosi is more of a midde-of-the-road documentarian in that she's legitimately looking to paint a portrait that you can take in either direction. the bottom line is that i doubt she went into it thinking she was going to paint haggard as some man-loving hypocritical douche, although im sure she thought he was personally. if haggard comes across like that, i think thats his own damn fault.

i think the jesus camp people knew exactly what they were making. thats not to say it wasn't a powerful piece, but i think that entire thing just became a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.