{"id":2863,"date":"2009-01-24T17:20:11","date_gmt":"2009-01-24T22:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=2863"},"modified":"2009-01-24T17:20:11","modified_gmt":"2009-01-24T22:20:11","slug":"stereotypical-boxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2009\/01\/24\/stereotypical-boxes\/","title":{"rendered":"stereotypical boxes…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Disgraced pastor faces more gay sex accusations<\/strong><\/a>
By ERIC GORSKI
The Associated Press
Saturday, January 24, 2009<\/div>\n

Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard’s former church disclosed Friday that the gay sex scandal that caused his downfall extends to a young male church volunteer who reported having a sexual relationship with Haggard _ a revelation that comes as Haggard tries to repair his public image.<\/p>\n

Brady Boyd, who succeeded Haggard as senior pastor of the 10,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, told The Associated Press that the man came forward to church officials in late 2006 shortly after a Denver male prostitute claimed to have had a three-year cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard. <\/p>\n

Boyd said an "overwhelming pool of evidence" pointed to an "inappropriate, consensual sexual relationship" that "went on for a long period of time…it wasn’t a one-time act." Boyd said the man was in his early 20s at the time. He said he was certain the man was of legal age when it began…<\/p>\n

David Clohessy, national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests _ which has largely focused on the Catholic sexual abuse scandal but also speaks out on cases involving Protestant clergy _ said the new disclosures about Haggard are more disturbing because they involves a church volunteer. <\/div>\n

"Technically, legally, they were both adults," Clohessy said. "Psychologically and emotionally, Haggard was dramatically more powerful. … By definition, any sexual contact between a congregant and minister is inherently abusive and manipulative." <\/p>\n

In an AP interview this month before an appearance in front of TV critics in California, Haggard described his sexuality as complex and something that can’t be put into "stereotypical boxes."<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I disagree with Haggard’s comment in the last paragraph. When this "scandal" first broke, like most people I saw it as a paradigm of a modern problem that didn’t need to exist. In my lifetime, both men and women who are homosexual have gained the freedom to live their lives openly instead of behind closed doors or "in a closet." Then, it seemed out of the blue, the fundamentalist Christian Community rose up as a collective anti-Gay coalition determined to demonize homosexuals as pedophiles and sinners. The most remarkable part was a paranoia that homosexuals were "recruiting" people. Somehow the "Pro-life," "anti-Stem Cell Research," and "anti-Gay" battle cries coalesced with the a"nti-Birth Control" dogma of the traditional Catholic Church and the Religious Right was on fire.<\/div>\n

So when the Ted Haggard story broke, it became a symbol for the absurdity of this Religious Right position. Here was a leader of the Evangelical Community that was knee deep into the Religious Right’s war on sex, preaching on Sunday against homosexuality, who was a "closeted" gay man. The disgrace was not his homosexuality. It was his preaching. The sex part wasn’t complex. Human beings are driven to have sex with each other. That’s biology, plain and simple. People have to choose to preach ill of others. That’s of greater interest.<\/p>\n

Now, we’re about to learn that he was sexually involved with a young man in his church. How many times have we heard about that? A preacher involved with some young thing in his church; a therapist involved with a younger client; a teacher involved with a student; a President involved with a young intern. These are situations where a person takes advantage of a position of authority for purposes of seduction. It’s not against the law, but in some of those instances, it is against the ethical mandates of the position. The sex part isn’t complex. Human beings are driven to have sex with each other. That’s biology, plain and simple. But people have to choose to be exploitive. And since we haven’t heard this story yet, we don’t know if that’s the case.<\/p>\n

But as for Haggard’s comment, "Haggard described his sexuality as complex and something that can’t be put into ‘stereotypical boxes’." It’s not Haggard’s sexuality that’s complex, it’s the culture in which he was raised that has told him that the sexual feelings that he’s had since childhood are evil. The ‘stereotypical boxes’ are a creation of man, and he’s joined in that creation. His struggles are no different from the struggles of homosexual people since the dawn of time. His wish to be a good father and the biological urges within him are no different than those of countless men and women who came before him. <\/p>\n

At this point in his life, it’s about time for him to recognize that he’s nothing special.. He’s just like millions. He is a biologically gay man. He’s a parent in a heterosexual marriage. And he is a man of God who wants to disseminate his beliefs to like-minded people. There’s a box big enough to hold all of that waiting for him. He’s the one that needs to get rid of the ‘stereotypical boxes’ that have strangled him [and his wife]. And I expect he does feel strangled<\/em> at this point, but he’s the guy who has both ends of the rope in his hands. And there are plenty of others that he could help who have spent untold painful hours grappling with the same dilemma. It’s the ‘boxes’ that have always been the problem…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disgraced pastor faces more gay sex accusations By ERIC GORSKI The Associated Press Saturday, January 24, 2009 Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard’s former church disclosed Friday that the gay sex scandal that caused his downfall extends to a young male church volunteer who reported having a sexual relationship with Haggard _ a revelation that comes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}