January 25, 2007 – NY Times
TV REVIEW | 'FRIENDS OF GOD'
A Culture of Faith, Devoted Yet Complex
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
There is a God, and he punishes those who overreach on television.
Until he was removed from his ministry last November for “sexually immoral conduct” (he was accused of having sex with a male prostitute and buying illegal drugs), the Rev. Ted Haggard was the president of the National Association of Evangelicals and one of the most prominent spokesmen for the Christian right.
“You know all the surveys say that evangelicals have the best sex life of any other group,” Mr. Haggard waggishly told a documentary filmmaker a few months before his secret came out. On “Friends of God: A Road Trip With Alexandra Pelosi,” which will be shown tonight on HBO, Mr. Haggard coaxes a member of his congregation to say how often he has sex with his wife (“Every day. Twice a day.”) and how often she climaxes (“Every time”).
You could almost see the wrathful lightning bolt striking down from the heavens.
The Bible Belt is the Loire Valley of American extremism — visitors glide across vast highways in the South and West to marvel at the revivalist megachurches and “Honk for Jesus” road signs with the giddy awe of tourists exploring an alien civilization. And like Chenonceau or the vineyards of Sancerre, Christian evangelical churches rarely disappoint. More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/arts/television/25stan.html?th&emc=th