Here’s what I still want to know about Ted Haggard: Before his downfall last week, was he an anguished sinner, as he now maintains, or merely a calculating pleasure seeker? Was he kicking himself for his weaknesses or laughing at a world full of chumps?
Was he sorry all along for risking his family and ministry on sordid self-indulgence? Or was he – is he – a man without a rudder, a master of the universe who rejects all boundaries?…
Not that the answer will alter this episode’s deeper lessons: Man is a fallen creature; perfection is unattainable; forgiveness is essential. But since Haggard will command a footnote in any record of this era’s evangelical movement, it would be helpful at least for historians to know how he should be appraised: as the man he now says he was, racked with contradictions, or as a primping egoist who deep down never gave a hoot about much of anything but himself.
The choices offered in this article are:
| anguished sinner | calculating pleasure seeker |
| kicking himself for his weaknesses | laughing at a world full of chumps |
| sorry all along for risking his family and ministry on sordid self-indulgence | a man without a rudder, a master of the universe who rejects all boundaries |
| racked with contradictions | a primping egoist who deep down never gave a hoot about much of anything but himself |
Raised in a strong Christian environment, he became "born again" at age 16. He was sent to Oral Roberts University. He was "called" at age 19. He married at 22, and has spent his life as a Fundamentalist Pastor [see Haggard’s Biography]. This article leaves out the most viable answer – a homosexual man, embedded in a world where that’s not an okay thing to be. He is unlikely to get much help with that from the panel of Fundamentalists he’s been assigned to for care. They aren’t going to consider the simple and obvious answer. It’s not allowed…
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