Ted Haggard returns to preaching

[The Straight Story]

Ted Haggard returns to preaching


COLORADO SPRINGS, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Evangelical pastor Ted Haggard is preaching again in Colorado after resigning from a church in the wake of a sex scandal with a man, officials said.

Haggard, 53, weekly draws about 100 people for services in a musty barn next to his Colorado Springs home, which is about two miles from his former New Life Church, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

Haggard grew New Life into a mega church after starting it in his basement 25 years ago. In 2006, he resigned from New Life amid revelations he was sexually involved with a male escort. He remained married to his wife, Gayle, who today helps him with services in the barn.

It's not known if Haggard, who declined to be interviewed, is attempting to make a comeback, the Times reported. If he is able to recreate his previous success it's because many evangelicals find his story appealing, said Michael Hamilton, a professor at Seattle Pacific University who studies evangelical Christianity.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/12/07/Ted-Haggard-returns-to-preaching/UPI-52321260201830/

[NightWatcher]

1. he'll be hopped up on crystal meth, screwing male hookers in the basement of a megachurch in no time

[Canuckistanian]

18. He's a Crystal Methodist

It's his sacrament.

[mike_c]

2. OMG! It's a miracle! He's been cured of teh gay!

Praise Jay-zes! :rofl:

[ThatsMyBarack]

15. DUZY!

:rofl:

[Ron Green]

3. Here's a guy who's seriously confused about the difference between

the Spiritual Realm and the Free Market.

[Orsino]

4. If he condemns homosexuality often and loudly enough...

...there will always be rooms full of haters to pay him.

[niyad]

5. this is an interview with the local alternative paper--ted has no remorse, no indication that he

even begins to understand the depths of his hypocricy and venalness.

what isn't explained is why, having signed an agreement that he would not return to colorado, here he is, preaching to the stupid and gullible:

The resurrection of Pastor Ted
Nearly three years after his downfall, Ted Haggard rises again in Colorado Springs
by Bill Forman



Silent no more: Haggard says New Life originally prohibited him from visiting or even speaking of his former church.

"This is Judah," says Ted Haggard as his family's Brittany Spaniel greets me at the door. "Not Judas — Judah."

But it's Judas — not Judah — who's been on the former New Life Church pastor's mind lately. In fact, earlier today, he'd read a Bible passage describing the ways in which two of Christ's disciples handled their respective disloyalties. Judas' suicide, Haggard believes, served the interests of church leaders, while Peter's recovery enabled him to go on and expose the religious hierarchy's own deceptions.

It was the path of Judas (the Bible's best-known traitor) in which Haggard (the Evangelical church's best-known exile) nearly followed. The scandal-plagued pastor fell into an extended depression after he and his family relocated to Phoenix in 2007, following the very public exposure of his liaisons with a male escort and his purchase of methamphetamines.

According to the terms of an agreement he signed with his former church, Haggard was not only banished from New Life but also — in a provision more typical of TV westerns and medieval decrees — forbidden from ever returning to the state of Colorado. As chronicled in The Trials of Ted Haggard, an HBO documentary that aired last January, the Haggards moved through a series of temporary lodgings as the pastor-turned-insurance-salesman roamed Phoenix neighborhoods, growing to resemble the Willy Loman character in Death of a Salesman.

So virtually no one expected to find Haggard and his family back in their comfortable Colorado Springs home, less than a mile from the mega-church that started nearly 25 years ago as a basement gathering of worshippers. Gayle, Ted's wife for the last 30 years, has written a book called Why I Stayed, which is slated for January release by Christian publisher Tyndale House. Ted, meanwhile, has begun speaking at churches around the country and recently posted to the Internet that he's "motivated for the first time in 2.5 years to re-enter full-time ministry

. . . . . .

http://www.csindy.com/colorado/the-resurrection-of-pastor-ted/Content?oid=1450688

[SpiralHawk]

11. "At least I wasn't having diaper sex with hookers." - Teddy Haggard (R)

"An aBomInaTiOn that other republicons have, um, perpetrated, and that earned them Standing Ovations from their republicon 'christian' comrades (aka Latter Day Pharisees) in the US Senate. So there -- Neener, neener, neener."

- Teddy Haggard (R - Redemptionist)

[Javaman]

6. Thank God!!!

:rofl:

[niyad]

7. why the HELL would anyone un'rec this? haggard is a hypocritical loon, who deserves to be publicly

ostracized, but, instead, is growing another hate-filled "ministry"

try living down the street from these nutbars.

[niyad]

8. and yet another un'rec--do we have haggard supporters here?

[Le Taz Hot]

9. We have lots of blind followers of Christianity on this board.

If you have any questions, just put up a post about abortion and watch them come out of the woodwork. Well, that and gays. They keep telling us we have to "go slow" and civil unions are EXACTLY the same thing as marriage. :eyes:

[niyad]

13. abortion, gay rights, women's rights, feminism--anything that threatens the patriarchy.

[madrchsod]

16. really..... care to name them?

[Le Taz Hot]

23. That would be against DU rules.

[Turbineguy]

10. What else is he going to do?

He can't get a real job.

[niyad]

12. he was a door-to-door salesman in phoenix during his "exile"--guess that didn't go too well.

[Turbineguy]

27. Well, a little

taste of humble pie might have done him some good.

But once the money starts rolling in, he'll probably get up to his old tricks again.

[TlalocW]

14. Unfortunately, he'll be able to make a comeback

If you preach the "correct" right-wing slant of Christianity and unequivocally state that God has forgiven you for your sins, the vast majority of lay-people who believed in you before are going to forgive you, which is what Christianity is supposed to be about (the forgiveness part, not the being selective part). That and he's living "proof" that you can be cured of "teh gay" guarantees his future success.

The only possible derailment will be if he can't keep it in his pants, and he has another homosexual tryst.

TlalocW

[Hubert Flottz]

17. I guess Gawd found out he couldn't get by without Ted telling him

how to do shit?

Edit...The books of 'Dime Bags; and 'Reach Around' still haven't been written?

[hayu_lol]

19. Ut Oh! Someone quickly put...

chastity belts on them cows in that barn.

[Hubert Flottz]

20. I think if Teddy ever gets 'hung' it might be for...

High Speed Gerbil Rustling. He could start the 'Gerbils For JeeBus' cult. I think all that meth he was using had something to do with his Armageddon Diet.

[Nikki Stone1]

21. And there are people stupid enough to listen to him. That's the real crime in all this.

...

[ChickMagic]

22. LOL

"He remained married to his wife, Gayle, who today helps him with services in the barn."

I don't know why, but I nearly fell on the floor laughing at this. I feel badly that
they are both in denial, but that statement cracked me up.

[edbermac]

24. Back down on his knees again, eh?

[RedCloud]

26. Yes. Make no buts about it.

[glen123098]

25. Anyone watch the documentary on him, "the Trials of Ted Haggard"

Its quite sad really. You have to feel bad for his wife and for him for trying to live a lifestyle that he just doesn't fit in with. It shows how the church abandoned him and lied about him. I know Ted Haggard isn't popular here at all, but I have hope that he will preach the real gospel of Jesus and not what he has been doing for 25 years.

[niyad]

28. welcome to DU--as a matter of curiousity, how did "new life" lie about him?

nothing I heard from them in the endless coverage was lies--coverup for his disgusting hypocricy, yes, but not lies.

no, he isn't popular here because he is a lying, sanctimonious, hypocritical, unremorseful charlatan. his only aim was enriching himself--would doubt he would know the words of a jesus if they bit him.

and let us not forget that he is an oath-breaker as well. not only breaking his oath to his wife (wonder how much she has been paid to stay with him??), he broke the agreement he signed after the male escort/meth incidents to never come back to colorado.

[glen123098]

29. They lied about him claiming that he is cured of homosexuality.

If you'll watch the documentary, you'll see he claims to be bisexual. Yes Ted Haggard has done some very scummy things. But he gets the blame for some things he hasn't done because his former church is even more scummy than him.