Exclusive: Ted Haggard Breaks His Silence
Haggard Claims He Had Sexual Experience With Man at 7 Years Old
By DAN HARRIS and LEE FERRAN
Nov. 12, 2008 —
Ted Haggard, the disgraced former evangelical leader, recently broke his silence on the second anniversary of the scandal that brought him down.
He gave a pair of sermons at a small church in Illinois where the pastor is an old friend of his.
"The first thing I want you to know is I sinned," Haggard began.
Haggard's comments were quite revealing. They were recorded on audiotape and put on the Internet at www.tedhaggard.com.
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http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6235564&page=1Foley blames his victims
More than two years after his fall from grace, former Rep. Mark Foley finally granted an interview to address the scandal that led to his resignation. Foley sent graphic text messages and e-mails to 16- and 17-year-old congressional pages, but no criminal charges were ever filed.
He’s more defensive than apologetic or contrite in the interview.
"There was never anywhere in those conversations where someone said, 'Stop,' or 'I'm not enjoying this,' or 'This is inappropriate,'” Foley said. Foley tries to minimize the significance of what he did, asserting that these were 17-year-olds, just months from being men. That, of course, ignores the fact that at least one object of his affection was 16. \
In an e-mail to the youth, Foley asked for his photograph. ABC News reported that the youth told others the message “freaked me out” and was “sick, sick, sick.” In text messages to pages, Foley repeatedly asked a 17-year-old about masturbation and the size of the youth’s penis, according to a transcript of the exchange. In one 2003 exchange, Foley said he delayed voting on the floor of the House to engage in online sex with one of the youths, the transcript shows. And to make matters worse, he refused to take responsibility for his actions, instead blaming alcohol or alleged sexual abuse for his behavior.
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http://www.washingtonblade.com/blog/index.cfm?blog_id=22369ETA: I'm not equating pedophilia with closet homosexuality - just a couple hypocrites who decided today was the day to talk about their "troubled pasts".