Mike Jones Talks About His New Book

On a sunny Sunday morning in Denver's Cheesman Park, Mike Jones thumbs through a freshly-printed copy of his book, "I Had to Say Something: The Art of Ted Haggard's Fall." He picks out an excerpt, one of many detailing his alleged relationship with former New Life Church pastor, Ted Haggard-- and reads it out loud.
"I figured out that he (Haggard) lived in Colorado Springs, and that he worked for a church there," read Jones. "I knew he really liked sex toys and methamphetamine. Other than that, he was a mystery."
Jones closes the book and squints into the sunlight, thoughtful about Haggard, the man he says he knew simply as "Art," until he saw him on a religious television show. He says for nearly 3 years, Haggard had been a regular client of his massage business. In 256 pages, Jones details the monthly hour-long sessions he says Haggard paid him for, sessions that he says included sex, drugs and denial.
"After we would finish, he (Haggard) would always have an expression on his face, almost like guilt," said Jones. "He acted like what he was doing was wrong, probably because he had a wife, a family, and worked for the church."
Before deciding to write the book, Jones says he agonized for months over whether or not to go public with his story at all. He says he felt bad for Haggard's family, but ultimately worse for people in his own family: the gay community.
"The book is about more than Ted Haggard," said Jones. "It's about the Evangelical Church, and how they deal with homosexual issues. The problem is, they don't deal with them because they don't want to talk about it."
Jones says Haggard's public condemnation of the homosexual lifestyle is not what drove him to write his book, but rather, what Haggard didn't say in public.
"If he would have come out with the truth right away, he could have worked with the gay community, maybe even kept his job at his church, but that didn't happen," said Jones. "Instead, he twisted it around and brought everything on himself."
Haggard was fired from New Life Church in November. Co-pastor Rob Brendle says the congregation-- which has dwindled about 25 percent since then-- is moving on.
"We've made quite a bit of progress as a family," said Brendle. "Obviously, some of us are in different places along the healing path."
Some New Life members see Jones' book as an unwelcome round 2 of the scandal that rocked their church. Jones sees things differently.
"You know what, I'm going on round 50. Be a gay man and hear all the stuff I've had to listen to all my life. It's more than just round 2 for me."
from KKTV

Phoenix Is Haggard's New Home

The Rev. Ted Haggard moved Wednesday from his longtime home in Colorado Springs to Phoenix, where the disgraced minister will join the same church that helped fallen televangelist Jim Bakker.
Haggard, 50, resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals last year, after a former male prostitute alleged a three-year cash-for-sex relationship. The man also said he saw Haggard use methamphetamine. Haggard confessed to undisclosed "sexual immorality" and said he bought meth but never used it.
As part of his severance package from New Life Church, a 14,000-member congregation he started in his basement, Haggard agreed to leave Colorado Springs, a city he helped make an evangelical center.
"When he moved out of town today, there was a kind of relief on the part of the church that life can get back to normal," said the Rev. H.B. London, one of three ministers overseeing what has been called Haggard's "restoration." "For the Haggards, it is the beginning of a huge new chapter. It's a brand new start for them, the beginning of a new beginning."
Before his fall, Haggard was an emerging voice in evangelical politics. He took part in White House conference calls and fought to broaden the movement's agenda to include environmental issues.
In Phoenix, Haggard plans to pursue a graduate degree in counseling at an area university, said London, who heads an outreach effort for pastors through Focus on the Family, the Colorado Springs-based conservative Christian group. London was not sure where Haggard would be studying. The Haggards and two of their children - another three are grown - are expected to live in a home made available by a supporter.
Ted and Gayle Haggard have ties to Phoenix. The couple spent three weeks at secular treatment center in the area after the scandal broke. And the Pentecostal church they will attend, Phoenix First Assembly of God, is led by the Rev. Tommy Barnett, another member of Haggard's restoration team.
Bakker, the televangelist, found refuge at Barnett's church after being released from federal prison for bilking supporters of $158 million. He volunteered at a Los Angeles church mission run by Barnett's son.
London said he believes Barnett told his congregation Sunday that Haggard would be joining them. Barnett and officials at his church did not return calls seeking comment.
Haggard faces a test in going from being on the pulpit to becoming just another face in the pews, London said.
"Once you were in charge of a megachurch and a mega-staff and making mega-decisions, now your main decision is where you're going to school, where to eat and what you're going to do on your day off," London said.
The Rev. Mike Ware, a member of a separate panel of pastors that investigated the claims against Haggard, said: "We've all been in agreement that Ted should have a fresh start, gain some fresh perspective, and it's very difficult for them to get the kind of healing they need staying in Colorado Springs."
Ware said Haggard is continuing to receive counseling, which officials said will include an exploration of his sexuality. Haggard has told his advisers he does not believe he's gay.
As part of a severance package that will pay Haggard through 2007, Haggard agreed not only to leave town but to refrain from discussing the scandal publicly. He did not return messages Wednesday. Haggard's most recent annual salary was about $138,000, benefits excluded.
His former congregation has felt the sting of the scandal. Since Haggard's fall, attendance has fallen 20 percent and giving has dropped 10 percent, said Rob Brendle, an associate pastor. As a result of the decline, the church laid off 44 employees, or 12 percent of its work force.
from The Associated Press

Mike Jones Needs To Leave The Stage

Mike Jones needs to go away. Fifteen minutes ago.
Has there been a more shameless grab for fame than the aging prostitute/masseur/drug liaison's ongoing effort to parlay his exposure of now-disgraced evangelist Ted Haggard for his own aggrandizement?
Jones has been on an ongoing campaign of self-promotion designed to paint himself as some kind of a hero/victim, when he could just as easily be seen as nothing but a hooker with a heart for gold.
Jones made the news three times just last week: First for appearing with sleaze-talker Montel Williams, then for auctioning the massage table on e-Bay that he used to oil up Haggard. Then for e-Bay's decision to yank the auction from its site.
To me, Haggard is the worst kind of religious hypocrite. The former head of a 14,000-strong Colorado Springs megachurch and president of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals was a staunch opponent of the statewide referendum that would have provided basic legal rights for same-sex couples.
But Jones sent Haggard - and any chance of Referendum I's passage - down the toilet by accusing Haggard just six days before the election with paying him for three years of meth-fueled sex. (Haggard admits only to massages and buying drugs from Jones.)
Pro-I Mayor John Hickenlooper's election message of "It's not marriage, it's fairness" had been carefully tailored to emphasize equal legal rights and responsibilities, mostly to benefit long-term, monogamous, same-sex couples.
Jones thought shining a light under Haggard's bushel so close to the election would bolster I's chances, but it more likely torpedoed it: His tawdry tale introduced stereotypical images into voters' minds intertwining homosexuality with drugs and prostitution and seedy, back-alley sex. Goodbye, I. But at least Haggard had the decency to go away.
Jones hired a publicist.
I am not making this up: In December, I was pitched the chance to sit with Jones through a performance of Boulder's Dinner Theatre's "Crazy for You." Seriously: Offering up Jones to a theater critic is scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Then last month I was invited to a screening of the documentary "Conviction" at the Skylark Lounge. It tells the story of three Dominican nuns who staged a peaceful protest against the Iraq war and served federal prison sentences of up to four years.
"As an amusing bonus," the press release said, "Pastor Ted Haggard is featured throughout the film to explain why supporting war is the genuine Christian choice. Of course, nobody knew what the future held for him when the film was made."
And so who did they line up to host the screening and lead the discussion afterward? Mike Jones, described in the press release as "Ted Haggard's former 'business associate."'
That turned my stomach.
This film was the story of three courageous people imprisoned for acting on their beliefs - hosted by a man whose entire life had been conducted in opposition to the teachings of any church.
It's not that Jones is evil - he's just offensive. And icky.
This sordid affair has left a trail of victims, starting with Haggard's family and all those who put their faith in a flawed, tormented man.
The only decent thing Jones can do now is take a cue from Haggard and go away - before he proves to be the bigger hypocrite.
from The Denver Post / John Moore

Mike Jones Still Stuck To Ted Haggard Massage Table

Just hours before online bidding was to close on the purple massage table Mike Jones calls “the table where it all happened” with Ted Haggard, eBay removed the listing.
The online auction site sent Jones an e-mail Sunday afternoon saying the listing violated its policy for charity, an action he believes was prompted by complaints from a Delaware-based ministry called Transforming Congregations.
The ministry, on its Web site, had urged people to fax eBay about the listing. “If you contacted eBay to express your concerns or register a complaint, please contact them again and thank them for doing the right thing,” read a message on the site Monday morning.
Haggard, founder of New Life Church in Colorado Springs and former head of the National Association of Evangelicals, is undergoing what the church calls “restoration therapy” after Jones revealed the two had a threeyear relationship. Haggard resigned from the NAE and was removed from his church post in early November after revelations of his visits with Jones, a former escort and masseur who claims Haggard paid him for sex.
Jones said he planned to give all money from the auction to Project Angel Heart, which provides services to people with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.
Bidding on the table started at $400 and reached at least $1,275 before the item was taken off the site.
“It’s just sad,” Jones said Monday morning. “I wasn’t going to make any money off of it. It was for a good cause. Who it hurts is Angel Heart. It doesn’t hurt me.”
Hani Durzy, a spokesman for eBay, said the item was pulled solely because it violated the site’s fundraising policy.
Items being sold for charity belong at eBay’s online platform called “Giving Works,” he said, and it’s possible Jones could relist the table there. EBay works with a charitable organization called Mission-Fish, which makes sure auction funds raised for charity go directly to the charity and not to the seller.
Durzy said he did not know how the violation came to the auction house’s attention.
“That would have absolutely nothing to do with why that listing was pulled,” Durzy said of the Delaware ministry.
The Rev. Karen Booth, executive director of Transforming Congregations, said in an e-mail to The Gazette that she complained to eBay.
“I am a registered eBay buyer/seller and I thought the auction promoted sleazy business ethics,” Booth wrote. “I also believed that Jones’ listing was in violation of eBay’s charity regulations, so I personally filed a complaint about that through the eBay website.”
Booth said she became aware of the eBay listing while doing online research about a “Montel” show that aired last week featuring Jones and the president of Exodus International, a ministry that promotes “freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ.”
As for the table, Jones said it’s still in his Denver apartment.
from The Gazette

Old Cum Spotted Massage Table For Sale

-
Do you really need to have the massage table that Ted Haggard was on?
I don't want it. Not to mention the color matches nothing in my house!
Well the money does go to an HIV charity and don't forget that Mike Jones needs to keep his name in the news since his book will be coming out in June.
Garibaldi...

Layoffs At Haggard's Church

Beset by scandal and a subsequent decline in giving, New Life Church in Colorado Springs has laid off 44 people - or about 12 percent of its workforce - a church official said today.
The nondenominational megachurch had experienced attendance and financial growth in each of its 22 previous years, said Rob Brendle, an associate pastor.
That came to end in early November, when its charismatic founding pastor, the Rev. Ted Haggard, was fired amid allegations he used methamphetamine and paid a male prostitute for sex.
Brendle estimated church income has been down 10 percent since then, forcing the layoffs. The layoffs range from pastoral staff to support staff and nursery workers. Brendle said the cuts took place last week and were announced today during Sunday services.
"We recognize a church is an institution of trust, and that trust has been bruised," Brendle said. "So we're committed to serving people faithfully and earning it back in any cases where it might have diminished."
The state's largest church with about 14,000 members, the non-denominational New Life is cutting 44 people from a workforce of about 350 full and part-time workers, Brendle said. Considering the breadth of the scandal, the financial impact could have been worse, he said.
"We are pleased so many people are staying faithful to New Life," Brendle said, "The reality is, we ask our people to be faithful stewards of their money and living within their means. We have to do the same. So we are reorganizing."
Previously a rising star on the evangelical scene, the 50-year-old Haggard was fired from New Life and resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals after Denver male prostitute Mike Jones alleged a three-year cash-for-sex relationship.
Haggard confessed to undisclosed "sexual immorality," and admitted to buying meth but said he never used it.
Last month, a New Life oversight board also identified "a few staff members struggling with unrelated sin issues." Brendle said the layoffs were not discipline-related, and none of those "few" staff members lost their jobs in the cutbacks.
"These are all fine people who have served faithfully and have done wonderful work," Brendle said. "We are simply not able to pay people to do those functions now."
from The Denver Post

More On Ted Haggard

Even the Great Flood only lasted 40 days and 40 nights.
Yet here we are, 116 days and a really long winter later, still obsessed with Ted Haggard's obsessions.
This is what we have so far: Haggard is "completely heterosexual" after three weeks of therapy at an Arizona facility.
As if. Oh wait. Those three weeks actually were just "the launching point by which years of counsel and fruits of true repentance may be demonstrated.
"There should be no confusion that deliverance from habitual, life-controlling problems is a "journey' and not an "event,'" the Overseers in charge at New Life Church told the congregation last Sunday. "Ted will need years of accountability to demonstrate his victory over both actions and "tendencies."
Translation: You can't be "cured" in just three weeks of homosexuality, which is, according to the Overseers, sinful, habit-forming and a big problem. But you can try really, really hard not to be gay, and pray.
Years from now, we will still be checking up on Haggard and his sex life.
Also, remember that part of the letter Haggard wrote to his congregation right after he got canned, where he said, "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"?
Well, it turns out that his time with male escort Mike Jones was just the tip of the iceberg. Sunday, the Overseers reported their months-long investigation into Haggard's sex life turned up everything from "sordid conversation to overt suggestions to improper activities to improper relationships."
Translation: Pastor Ted was a busy, busy boy.
In related news:
• The Overseers announced they "found a few staff members struggling with unrelated sin issues."
• A few months back, another New Life Church pastor, Christopher Beard, was axed after admitting to some kind of sex with someone several years ago, before he was married.
• Mike Jones plans to sell the "Haggard-was-here" massage table, where it all supposedly happened, on eBay and donate the proceeds to Project Angel Heart, which delivers food to people suffering from HIV/AIDS, cancer and other illnesses. Also, his tell-all book will be out this spring.
•—The geographic area of relocation for Ted and Gayle (and their children) has now widened. In addition to Missouri and Iowa, they are considering Minneapolis and the Phoenix area. Also, they will get $140,000 this year from the church.
How much more can we take? Well, if you ask the Overseers, we're all supposed to stay in this "Ark" for months — possibly even a full year and 10 days from the day the Haggard flood started.
Think this is a joke? Here is what they told the congregation last Sunday:
"When God judged the world in the time of Noah, Noah's family entered the Ark. It was not until five months had gone by the waters began to decrease. It was after seven and a half months the first sign of the tops of the mountains appeared. It was not until one year and 10 days had gone by that Noah and his family exited the Ark.
"In a similar way, we see the exposure of your pastor [Haggard] as the moment of judgment. Five months from that day will be Easter ... seven and a half months will be Father's Day ... one year and 10 days will be Nov. 14. Our encouragement to you ... is, "Stay in the Ark.'"
In addition to Easter and Father's Day — and St. Patrick's Day and Mother's Day and Purim and Memorial Day and the Fourth of July and Labor Day and the entire month of Ramadan and Yom Kippur and Halloween — by Nov. 14 we will have navigated through elections for City Council, mayor and local school boards.
Yet, through it all, the Overseers expect us to stay on this ship, getting fuzzy updates about Haggard's sexual orientation, ostensibly while the animals get smellier and smellier, until the waters finally recede far enough and we can finally disembark?
It's enough to make anyone want to relocate.
from The Independent / Cara DeGette

Mike Jones's Apartment Building Catches Fire

DENVER - A fire broke out this morning in a fourth-floor apartment near Cheesman Park, sending one man to the hospital with minor injuries, authorities said. Three others were being examined for smoke inhalation.
The fire was reported at 8:10 a.m. in a unit of the high-rise Coachman Apartments at 1044 Downing Street.
Firefighters extended truck-mounted ladders to various balconies to access the fire and to evacuate some tenants.
The fire was out 20 minutes later. The unit was heavily damaged and other units received smoke and water damage, authorities said.
One of the building's evacuated tenants was Mike Jones, the former male prostitute who brought down Colorado Springs minister Ted Haggard for alleged sexual encounters.
On Tuesday, Haggard, a nationally known evangelical leader, announced he is "completely heterosexual" after three weeks of intensive therapy. Jones is writing a book about his three-year professional relationship with Haggard.
The cause of the fire has not been determined.
from The Denver Post

Haggard Says He's Not Gay

The Rev. Ted Haggard emerged from three weeks of intensive counseling convinced he is "completely heterosexual" and told an oversight board that his sexual contact with men was limited to his accuser.
That is according to one of the disgraced pastor's overseers, who on Monday revealed new details about where Haggard has been and where he is headed.
The Rev. Tim Ralph of Larkspur also said the four-man oversight board strongly urged Haggard to go into secular work instead of Christian ministry if Haggard and his wife follow through on plans to earn master's degrees in psychology.
Haggard broke a three-month silence in e-mails over the weekend to select members of his former church. New Life Church interim senior pastor Ross Parsley forwarded Haggard's message to the wider church body Monday.
In the message, Haggard revealed that he and his wife, Gayle, intend to leave Colorado Springs and pursue master's degrees through online courses.
Haggard mentioned Missouri and Iowa as possible destinations. Another oversight board member, the Rev. Mike Ware of Westminster, said the group recommended the move out of town, and the Haggards agreed.
"This is a good place for Ted," Ware said. "It's hard to heal in Colorado Springs right now. It's like an open wound. He needs to get somewhere he can get the wound healed."
Sex-addiction program
Haggard, 50, resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was fired from the church he built from nothing into a 14,000-member congregation after a former male prostitute in Denver alleged a three-year cash-for-sex relationship.
Haggard admitted to "sexual immorality" and a long battle against feelings contrary to his beliefs. He admitted buying methamphetamine but said he never used it. Haggard did not respond to interview requests.
Among other things, the overseers urged Haggard to enter a 12-step program for sexual addiction, Ware said.
Ralph said three weeks of counseling at an undisclosed Arizona treatment center helped Haggard immensely and left Haggard sure of one thing.
"He is completely heterosexual," Ralph said. "That is something he discovered. It was the acting- out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing."
Why Haggard chose to act out in that manner is something Haggard and his advisers are trying to discern, Ralph said.
In investigating Haggard's assertion that his extramarital sexual contact was limited to former male escort Mike Jones, the board talked to people close to Haggard and found no evidence contradicting him, Ralph said.
"If we're going to be proved wrong, somebody else is going to come forward, and that usually happens really quickly," he said. "We're into this thing over 90 days, and it hasn't happened."
Steering Haggard away from a return to ministry was based, in part, on Haggard's high profile, Ralph said. He cited biblical passages about holding influential figures to a higher standard.
"Nobody is saying he can't go back into ministry," Ralph said. "Somewhere down the road, that could very well happen, and that would be wonderful."
Counseling continues
Haggard is being asked to join a church wherever the couple moves and continue the Christian counseling he receives twice a week, Ralph said.
The oversight board that includes Ralph is focusing on New Life Church's future but continues to counsel Haggard.
What has been termed Haggard's "restoration" is being overseen by another panel: H.B. London, who runs a Focus on the Family ministry to pastors, and megachurch pastors Tommy Barnett and Jack Hayford.
London said he was not surprised Haggard was considering the psychological field.
"Many of us that go into the healing, helping professions do so out of some sort of dysfunction or traumatic event in our lives, and we want to do what we can to help other people avoid what we've gone through," he said. "He is certainly gifted and intelligent and has an intuitive side to him. And he has life experience. Those are good credentials."
from The Denver Post

Mike Jones Visits New Life Church

COLORADO SPRINGS - As soon as the visitor from Denver walked through the church doors Sunday morning, heads turned. Word spread quickly: He was here.
Just about every person who offered him a handshake said the same thing: Welcome, thank you and God bless.
About 14,000 people pour into New Life Church in Colorado Springs each Sunday, so anonymity is not difficult to achieve.
One exception is when you are Mike Jones, the former male prostitute whose allegations of a three-year sexual liaison with church founder Ted Haggard triggered national scandal and led to Haggard's fall.
Jones attended services Sunday at New Life Church on a reconnaissance mission for his forthcoming book and said he was greeted warmly. Haggard, in an apology to the church, had urged members to forgive and thank Jones for exposing deceit.
"I had read a lot about the church, but there's nothing like seeing it for yourself," Jones said. "It wasn't to rub anyone's face in it by any means. I was wanting to get some perspective, to see where they are coming from, what the magnet is."
Jones had been invited to New Life several times by church members since Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was fired from the church after admitting in November to "sexual immorality."
Jones was accompanied Sunday by members of a New York- based theater troupe, the Civilians, who are in Colorado Springs researching a project on evangelicals. Church leaders were told in advance of the visit.
"A couple of ladies cried when they were touching me," Jones said. "I was thanked for exposing the church, for helping Ted Haggard. A couple of them said they hoped I get God into my life. And they all said 'God bless you,' every one of them."
But Jones - who came forward out of anger toward Haggard's political stances against homosexuality - said he wasn't impressed on the whole. If the Gospel message is enough, he said, why the loud music and MTV-quality production?
"There seems to be something missing, some realism, in my opinion, because it's so vast, like some kind of self-contained city," said Jones, who said he was raised Methodist but is estranged from organized religion.
When associate pastor Rob Brendle encountered Jones in the foyer, he commented, "The last time I saw you was on the other side of a split screen" during TV interviews.
Brendle characterized Jones' presence as a reminder of both grief and God's faithfulness.
"I told Mike, 'I don't want to impose my religious beliefs on you, but I believe God used you to correct us, and I appreciate that,"' Brendle said. "The church's response to him was overwhelmingly warm. One of the wonderful and enduring truths of Christianity is to love people the world sets up to be your enemies."
Haggard and his wife, Gayle, have completed a counseling program at an Arizona treatment center and are back in Colorado Springs awaiting direction from a panel overseeing what has been termed Haggard's "restoration," Brendle said.
from The Denver Post

Mike Jones Gets His Book Deal

Gay ex-escort Mike Jones has signed to write a sexually explicit memoir about his relationship with fallen evangelist Ted Haggard.
''It's going to review my encounters with Ted and other people who are similar,'' Jones told The Miami Herald Thursday from New York.
''It's not a book about bashing Ted at all. It's humanizing him as a person with feelings and emotions and desires,'' Jones said. ``I'm going to be explicit as far as what happened in our encounters, but not to rip him apart or be mean to him. He's a man who has faults like all of us.''
Jones, 49, won't say how much the book deal is worth.
Just before the November election, the muscular massage therapist went public and told the world that he had a three-year relationship with Haggard -- married president of the 30-million member National Association of Evangelicals, a confidante of President Bush and a leader in the anti-gay political movement.
Haggard, 50, paid $200 cash per session, ''plus tips,'' said Jones, who said he also helped Haggard buy methamphetamine.
At first, Haggard denied even knowing Jones. Within days of the scandal breaking on Nov. 2, Haggard amended his story, saying that he had paid Jones only for a massage and that he did buy meth -- but that he had thrown it away, unused. The reverend soon resigned from all church leadership positions and publicly called himself ``a deceiver and a liar.''
Seven Stories Press plans to publish the still-untitled book in June. ''It was Mike's courage and strength of conscience that ultimately led him to come forward about the hypocrisy of Haggard's life,'' publisher Dan Simon said in a news release. "We're proud to be publishing this important story from an articulate and brave man.''
from The Mimi Herald

Haggard Accuser Questioned By Police

DENVER - The attorney for a former male prostitute who says he had sex with disgraced Colorado Springs pastor Ted Haggard says he doesn't expect his client will face criminal charges.
Attorney David Lane tells the Denver Post Denver police tried to question his client, Mike Jones, but Jones is referring all questions to Lane, who is NOT talking.
Jones publicly admitted serving as Haggard's prostitute and to helping the pastor obtain the drug methamphetamine. Lane says those admissions could have been used against him.
Jones' statements led leaders at Colorado Springs' New Life Church to fire Haggard earlier this month. Haggard founded the New Life Church in the 1980s and rose to prominence in a powerful alliance of conservative ministers.
from KKTV

Man Who Outed Haggard Stands By His Decision

Mike Jones hates the word "prostitute.''
''I was an escort, all right? Not everyone I went with wanted sex,'' said Jones, who this month brought down evangelist Ted Haggard. "I think I give escorts a good name.''
Jones just spent three days in Miami Beach, where he did a photo shoot and interview for an upcoming book by South Florida writers David Leddick and Heriberto Sanchez and photographer David Vance. The title: Escort.
''Forty profiles with photographs of men who sell sex. I'm not taking a moral position myself. It's fascinating,'' said Leddick, who finds the escorts in magazine and website ads.
Each escort in the book will be paid $100 and get copies of his photos, he said.
Jones, 49, is Leddick's star. Three weeks ago, the muscular massage therapist went public and told the world that he had a three-year relationship with Haggard -- married president of the 30-million member National Association of Evangelicals, a confidante of President Bush and a leader in the anti-gay political movement.
Haggard, 50, paid $200 cash per session, ''plus tips,'' said Jones, who said he also helped Haggard buy methamphetamine.
At first, Haggard denied even knowing Jones. Within days of the scandal breaking on Nov. 2, Haggard amended his story, saying that he had paid Jones only for a massage and that he did buy meth -- but that he had thrown it away, unused. The reverend soon resigned from all church leadership positions and publicly called himself ``a deceiver and a liar.''
Jones said a man named Art first called him about three years ago.
Six months ago, Jones saw Haggard on television discussing the Antichrist. 'I said, `Oh my God, that's Art!' ''
Haggard helped lead a successful election battle this month to ban gay marriage in Colorado. ''He was reaching millions of people and that was difficult for me to swallow,'' said Jones, who decided to out Haggard at a local newspaper and radio station.
Jones life has ''been a whirlwind'' the past few weeks since he has become a minor celebrity.
Many, though, decry him for ruining Haggard's career and hurting the reverend's family.
''People have scolded me for that, particularly right-wing people,'' Jones said. 'But did Ted Haggard go to his wife and say, `I'm going to have a gay affair. Is this going to hurt you and the kids?' I don't want to have this guilt over my head.''
Jones' fellow sex workers are not happy, either.
''All the escorts are [angry] with me. This was such a unique situation. I could have ruined many careers in my day. A lot of politicians and athletes and clergy. But none of them got up and ranted and raved about homosexuality,'' he said.
Jones said his relationship with Haggard was strictly business.
Jones says that he retired from sex work two years ago, but that Haggard ''begged me'' to continue their sessions.
''I'm sure he regrets begging me now,'' he said.
Jones got into the sex business as a young gay man.
''Gosh, when I started going to bars, I had a fake ID at 19,'' Jones said. ``As time went on, more and more people offered me money.''
Jones eventually posed nude for gay men's magazines and made one porn film. He doesn't remember the title.
He has no issues with getting paid for sex and says prostitution should be legal.
Still, he holds being an escort above being a street prostitute.
''That's what people have in their heads, streetwalkers and such. I never, never did that,'' he said. 'I hate to use the word, `classier,' but it is in a way.''
from The Miami Herald