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"Father, give us grace and mercy. Father, help us this next week and a half as we go into national elections, and Lord we pray for our country. Father, we pray that lies would be exposed. We pray that deception would be exposed."
Pastor Ted Haggard’s Sermon, October 29, 2006
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Pastor Ted Haggard’s Letter, November 5, 2006
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[Transcript] There’s a tragedy in this story. It’s not the fall of Pastor Ted. It’s in the interpretation of his apology that he and his fellow Christians make of this story. He says in his apology, "There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I’ve been warring against it all of my adult life. For extended periods of time, I would enjoy victory and rejoice in freedom. Then, from time to time, the dirt that I thought was gone would resurface, and I would find myself thinking thoughts and experiencing desires that were contrary to eveything I believe and teach." The tragedy in this story is not in his homosexuality. That is a fact of nature. The problem is in his interpretation of the meaning of that nature.
I would suggest to Pastor Ted, the Ex-Gay movement, and all of the Fundamentalists who believe their incredibly concrete interpretation of the obscure parts of the Bible they use to sentence this man to endure this kind of self-loathing, that they listen to the simplest teaching of their faith: "judge not, that ye be not judged." "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." If you’re going to love Pastor Ted, love him as he is. Leave homosexuals alone to find a life with the same avenues for self-esteem and religious practice that are available to the rest of us. By any reading of the Biblical story, Jesus was a rebel against "the Law" or rules. He spoke of a deeper understanding of the morality of human interaction, a loving understanding, and focused the attention of his followers on their own behavior, not the behavior of others.
There is great shame in this story – not for Ted Haggart the human being, but for Ted Haggart the Religious Leader and everyone else who participates in this attack on a group of people for something inborn. This made up business of "homosexual lifestyle" and "choice" is simply baloney. All Ted Haggard is guilty of is being Ted Haggard. He’s correct when he says "The public person I was wasn’t a lie; it was just incomplete." Would that he only really understood what he was saying…
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