New Life Church And Haggard Reach New Agreement

COLORADO SPRINGS - The New Life Church has announced that former Pastor Ted Haggard has requested to end his official relationship with the New Life Church Restoration Team. The church has accepted his request.
According to those familiar with the arrangement, the agreement releases Haggard from restrictions imposed on him in November 2006 after he was removed from the New Life Church leadership. Haggard was the lead pastor and founder of New Life Church until it surfaced he had visited a gay male escort and had bought methamphetamine.
9Wants to Know first reported the story after interviewing the escort, Mike Jones, and talking with then Haggard.
Haggard and his wife and part of their family are now living in Phoenix.
The change in the status of the relationship between Haggard and leaders of the church who were in charge of his restoration process means the legal contract initially signed by both sides is no longer in place. One person familiar with the arrangement said it's less of a separation between Haggard and the church and more of a trust that both sides will abide by any further agreements.
The news release from the New Life Church was first sent to parishioners on Tuesday night and then sent to the media. New Life Church states it "recognizes the process of restoring Ted Haggard is incomplete and maintains its original stance that he should not return to vocational ministry. However, we wish him and his family only success in the future."
from Nine News

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

'Ex-gay' movement: Saved? Or Shoved Back Into The Closet?

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO - The Rev. Ted Haggard story has reignited discussion about what makes a person gay - and whether someone can switch sexual orientation and become an "ex-gay."
On one side are organizations like Focus on the Family and Exodus International, which at conferences across the country teach that homosexuality is a lifestyle that can be overcome.
On the other are groups such as Truth Wins OUT, formed specifically to counter such ministries and whose director, gay activist Wayne Besen, says there's no such thing as an "ex-gay."
"It's a recloseted homosexual," Besen said. "I have never met an ex-gay who isn't on the payroll of a group like Focus on the Family or Exodus."
Besen monitors both ministry groups, sometimes attends their conferences and said he has exposed "ex-gays" - including a former Focus on the Family employee - in compromising situations. Just last week, Truth Wins OUT posted two videos on YouTube aimed at further debunking what Besen calls "the ex-gay myth."
A video released Thursday features Robert L. Spitzer, a Columbia University psychiatry professor who says Focus on the Family is using his research on homosexuality out of context. And on Valentine's Day, Besen posted a nine-minute video that features a Mormon couple who are divorcing after 25 years because the husband is gay.
Besen said the movement to reform gays by encouraging marriage ends up hurting spouses and children.
"There is a lot of pressure to be normal and get married," Besen said. "They treat the spouse as collateral damage in their social experiment."
Besen said no amount of therapy - he calls it "praying away the gay" - can turn a gay person straight.
"It's about denial. If you look at the programs themselves, it's about actors playing roles," he said.
"All roads run through Colorado Springs," Besen said of the ex-gay movement. "James Dobson's calling the shots."
Besen's Web site calls the "Love Won Out" conferences sponsored by Focus on the Family "the single biggest ex-gay threat individual communities face."
Focus on the Family holds six such conferences a year that average 1,000 attendees each, according to Melissa Fryrear, the ministry's director of gender issues and self-described former lesbian. The most recent conference was Feb. 10 in Phoenix.
"We're addressing a number of topics related to homosexuality from an orthodox Christian viewpoint," Fryrear said. "We're offering attendees an explanation as to what we think is the development of same-sex attraction."
Fryrear and others in the movement believe environmental factors, temperament, childhood influences and a person's interactions with peers all can contribute to the formation of same-sex attractions.
She said a disproportionate number of people she's worked with have had a breakdown - real or perceived - in their family relationships.
"Understand we're not saying that in every case. We've talked with some men, for example, and their father wasn't able to be really physically and emotionally present to them."
The result, she said, is that some men then seek out the affirmation of other men in homosexual relationships.
"We don't believe there's a gay gene. We also believe that by and large, men and women don't choose these feelings," she said.
Fryrear said she spent 10 years immersed in the gay community, beginning at age 16. In 1992, when she was 26, she said she "made a conscious decision that homosexual behavior was wrong" and began intensive work that included counseling, support groups and conferences.
"I've come out of so many closets, it's a wonder I can find my shoes," she said. "And by the way, they're pumps now instead of Army boots."
Fryrear believes her attractions to women were influenced by the fact she was adopted and by other childhood issues.
She said that even if science can prove a genetic link to homosexuality, it would not change what Focus teaches.
"The reason why is because homosexuality for us is also a moral issue," she said. "It's really what we believe and what we're for is sexual behavior expressed within the boundary of marriage between one man and one woman."
Fryrear said she has not talked with her former partner in more than a decade. She said she is very happy with her life and has a preference for red-headed men.
She doesn't have a boyfriend, but is "accepting proposals."
At Focus, she has the position once held by John Paulk, whose story of leaving homosexuality and getting married was on the cover of Newsweek in 1998. Paulk also was on the board of Exodus International and became the face for the organization's cause.
He made national news again in 2000, this time when Besen photographed him at a gay bar in Washington, D.C. He resigned from Focus in 2003 and moved with his family to Oregon, where he is a chef and owner of a catering company.
Paulk declined a request for an interview, saying he is living a normal life out of the media glare with his wife and children.
Floyd Godfrey, director of Family Strategies & Coaching in Phoenix who works with men wanting to change their sexual orientation said he, too, spent several years in counseling. He said he's now been married 14 years and has three children.
Godfrey, like Fryrear, cited "a constellation of factors" behind same-sex attraction, which often includes "a disruption in the connection with their father," and that his work focuses on the emotional issues behind those factors.
"If a young boy misses the bonding or insufficiently bonds with the same-sex mentor, that need for bonding doesn't go away," he said.
"This is not a fast therapy," he said, adding he only works with people who want to change. "If a kid is coming (to therapy) and their parents want them to change, we don't do that."
Besen believes no amount of therapy or prayer will make someone straight.
"I think Haggard has done more damage to the ex-gay cause than any activist could do in a hundred years," Besen said.
"If this guy couldn't pray away the gay, who can?"
from The Kansas City Star

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

Secret Life Claims Another Pastor

In a tearful videotaped message Sunday to his congregation, the senior pastor of a thriving evangelical megachurch in south metro Denver confessed to sexual relations with other men and announced he had voluntarily resigned his pulpit.
A month ago, the Rev. Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel in Douglas County preached to his 2,100-member congregation about integrity and grace in the aftermath of the Ted Haggard drugs-and-gay-sex scandal.
Now, the 54-year-old Barnes joins Haggard as a fallen evangelical minister who preached that homosexuality was a sin but grappled with a hidden life.
"I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy," Barnes said in the 32- minute video, which church leaders permitted The Denver Post to view. "... I can't tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away."
His wife, Char, cradled his hand. Barnes declined an interview request through the church.
Unlike Haggard, who had the ear of the White House, Barnes is not a household name. He is a self-described introvert who avoids politics, preferring to talk about a Gen-X service at the nondenominational church he started 28 years ago in his basement, church officials said.
Barnes and Grace Chapel stayed out of the debate over Amendment 43, a measure approved by Colorado voters last month defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
"I can't think of a single sermon where he ever had a political agenda," said Dave Palmer, an associate pastor.
Palmer said the church got an anonymous call last week from a person concerned for the welfare of Barnes and the church. The caller had overheard a conversation in which someone mentioned "blowing the whistle" on evangelical preachers engaged in homosexuality, including Barnes, Palmer said.
Palmer met with Barnes, who confessed. At an emergency meeting Thursday, a board of elders accepted Barnes' resignation after he admitted "sexual infidelity," violating the church's code of conduct. Church leaders also must affirm annually that they are "living the moral and ethical teachings of Scripture in my public and private life."
Asked for details of Barnes' transgressions, Palmer called them "infrequent events in his life" that to his knowledge did not take place in recent months.
Sitting cross-legged in jeans and an open-collar shirt, Barnes spoke in his video about evolving feelings growing up in a firm moral family: from confused little boy to adolescent racked with self-loathing and guilt.
In their only talk about sex, Barnes said his father took him on a drive and talked about what he would do if a "fag" approached him.
Barnes thought, "'Is that how you'd feel about me?' It was like a knife in my heart, and it made me feel even more closed."
When Barnes experienced a Christian conversion at 17, it gave him a glimmer of hope. But his homosexual feelings never went away, he said. He said he cannot accept that a person is "born that way," so he looks to childhood influences.
Barnes said he asked God many times why he was called to ministry, to start Grace Chapel, carrying a "horrible burden."
The soft-spoken Barnes is an unlikely big-church pastor.
After graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary, Barnes and his wife moved to Denver and began a Bible study. His church met in a school and a mortuary, bought property at Colorado Boulevard and Arapahoe Road, and now occupies a campus off County Line Road that used to be a car dealership.
Barnes described struggling with what he believes is the biblical teaching that homosexuality is an abomination. Over the years, he grew to accept that "this is my thorn in the flesh."
Barnes expressed hope for a future where one can "be who you are" and be accepted and loved in the Christian community and also spoke about "separating some of the teachings from Scripture" from Jesus Christ.
Palmer said he wasn't sure what Barnes meant, but Barnes told him that he believes God views homosexuality as a sin.
Barnes said he has been in counseling three times and never found anyone he could talk to.
His wife said on the video that she didn't know about her husband's struggles until he confided in her last week. The couple has two daughters in their 20s.
Char Barnes said she feels "like I'm living someone else's life" but was grateful her husband revealed himself. The couple said they hope to stay in Denver. Near the tape's end, Paul Barnes says, "This is what it is, it's right, and it's time."
Church elder Russ Pilcher said the reaction at services Sunday was largely concern for the couple. "I thought, 'Where did I fall short in making myself so unapproachable that he couldn't come to me?"' Pilcher said.
Paul and Char Barnes will get counseling, but unlike Haggard, they will not go into seclusion or report to a board of reconcilers, Palmer said. He said it will be more personal and that church members will play a role.
Associate pastor John Zivojinovic is the interim senior pastor, and choosing a successor is still months away, Pilcher said.
Given the Haggard story, Palmer was asked whether Barnes' fall from grace would expose the evangelical community to further charges of hypocrisy.
"The criticism is valid if you look at perfection being the mark, because the next person who stands at our pulpit is going to be guilty of not being perfect as well," he said. "Does that mean we have to change what we say about the word of God? We can't do that."
from The Denver Post

'Restoration' After The Fall

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO - The Rev. Ted Haggard this week formally begins his long journey toward recovery from a drugs-and-gay-sex scandal that forced him to step down as one of the most influential evangelical leaders in the nation.
Haggard, 50, has turned himself over to a team of counselors who are "assessing his spiritual, emotional and mental condition," said the Rev. H.B. London, who is helping to guide Haggard through the process. London and two other pastors will then set out a rigorous "restoration plan" requiring Haggard to spend hours each week in counseling, Bible study, prayer and soul-baring talks — by phone or in person — with his mentors.
The team's first task will be to push Haggard to acknowledge any addictions and come to an honest understanding of his sexuality. "Ted is not in touch with reality," said the Rev. Mark Cowart, a friend. The mentors can confront Haggard or rebuke him forcefully; they may also ask him to submit to a polygraph test.
"Ted says he's not a homosexual," said the Rev. Mike Ware, a good friend. "The restoration team wants experts to evaluate that."
Haggard's high-profile ministry collapsed last month after a male prostitute went on talk radio to allege that the pastor regularly paid him for sex over the last three years. Mike Jones — who advertised in gay publications as a masseur — also said he had seen Haggard take methamphetamine.
Haggard denied the accusations. But when Jones produced two voice-mail messages from Haggard, the pastor said he had hired the prostitute for a massage and had purchased meth, only to throw it away. In a letter to his congregation, Haggard admitted that he had succumbed to "desires that were contrary to everything I believe and teach."
"I am a deceiver and a liar," Haggard wrote. "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."
Haggard resigned as president of the National Assn. of Evangelicals, a powerful post that brought him in frequent contact with the White House. He was also dismissed as senior pastor of New Life, the church he founded in his basement and grew to a congregation of 14,000.
Since his public confession, Haggard has secluded himself with his wife, Gayle, and their five children. Those close to him say he's humbled, ashamed and grieving — yet prayerful that the scandal might strengthen his family and his faith. "It seems to be a time of hope," said Carolyn Haggard, his niece.
New Life's trustees are working on a severance package to sustain Haggard (who earned about $140,000 a year) and his wife (who earned about $50,000 a year for her work with women's ministries). Associate Pastor Rob Brendle said the Haggards had also received a "generous outpouring" of gifts from congregation members, including donations.
Those close to the restoration will not say whether Haggard will undergo therapy to try to eliminate same-sex attractions. But the conservative Christian leader James C. Dobson, a close friend, has said the healing process — which could last years — will probably aim to eliminate any homosexuality.
White evangelicals as a group tend to view homosexuality as a lifestyle choice, not an inborn trait, with 56% holding that sexual orientation can be changed, according to a poll taken this summer by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. (By comparison, the same poll showed 31% of Catholics and 22% of white mainline Protestants believe change is possible.)
In many evangelical congregations, men and women with same-sex attractions are expected to use prayer and Bible study to help them resist the temptation to sin. Haggard comes from a charismatic tradition that puts particular emphasis on the devil's corrupting influence. He has described supernatural visions of demons waiting to infect newborns with sinful desires.
This theology of constant spiritual warfare has led some of his followers to blame Haggard's fall not on any personal weakness but on Satan's cunning. As congregation member Jan Long, 60, put it: "The enemy wants to destroy us."
Such constructions worry the Rev. Tony Campolo, a liberal evangelical leader who helped guide President Clinton's spiritual restoration after the Monica S. Lewinsky affair. "The idea that this is a matter of some evil spirit taking hold of him is setting Ted Haggard up for disaster," Campolo said. "He may have a tendency to pretend that he's been delivered from his homosexual feelings … and all is well."
Campolo said he hoped the restoration team would impress upon Haggard that "there is no easy fix. These are problems he will struggle with for a lifetime."
Haggard has been more liberal than many evangelicals on gay-rights issues; for example, he backs domestic partner benefits. But he has preached unequivocally that homosexuality is immoral and that those who persist in same-sex relations will not be welcome in God's kingdom.
His restoration team largely shares this theology. It includes two veteran pastors of evangelical mega-churches: the Rev. Jack W. Hayford, 72, of Van Nuys and the Rev. Tommy Barnett, 69, of Phoenix. Both pastors — like Haggard — draw on the charismatic tradition, including speaking in tongues.
The third member of the team, London, 69, serves as vice president of Dobson's conservative ministry Focus on the Family, which promotes therapy to help gays and lesbians change their sexual orientation.
As director of pastoral outreach for the Colorado Springs-based ministry, London has counseled hundreds of clergy with admitted moral failings; up to half don't make it through the rehabilitation. "They grow weary of the regimen and drop out," he said.
Those who stick with the process often feel almost unbearably isolated. "Many have run for years on the adrenaline that comes from power and recognition — and suddenly it's gone," London said. "The phone's not ringing. People don't need you."
The restoration team will not aim to return Haggard to ministry. Addressing the New Life congregation last month, Haggard's mentor the Rev. Larry Stockstill laid out a much more modest goal: for Pastor Ted to recover enough to serve God "with joy, with dignity, with hope in his heart."
The congregation responded with a standing ovation.
from The Los Angeles Times

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

James Dobson Says Haggard Is 'At War With Himself'

James Dobson said Wednesday that disgraced evangelical Ted Haggard was not a hypocrite for preaching against homosexuality while engaging in "sexual immorality" with a gay escort, but was a man "at war with himself."
Dobson, the founder and chairman of Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, told CNN's Larry King Live that evangelicals are not perfect.
"Well, he obviously was, again, at war with himself," said Dobson, a child psychologist and Christian media advocate.
"He was involved in activities that I think horrified him. He said that he fought against it, but he also knew what he believed. It was not hypocrisy. It was a struggle between behavior and a belief system."
Haggard was fired earlier this month as senior pastor from his 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs after he admitted to purchasing illegal drugs and practicing "sexual immorality" with a male escort in Denver. He also was forced to resign as leader of the powerful National Association of Evangelicals.
He is supposed to be undergoing a "restoration" and will be counseled by a three-member panel. Dobson had been picked as a panelist, but withdrew because he and Focus board members felt he simply didn't have time to aid Haggard.
Dobson strongly criticized liberals for playing judge and jury on the issue and reiterated that even evangelical Christians are not infallible. The key, Dobson said, is for those who have committed a great disservice to undergo the restoration similar to what Haggard is doing.
"Everybody gets exercised when something like this happens, and for good reason," Dobson said. "It's deceit. It's betrayal. It seems that those who are on the left approach this with glee.
"But I would say what else is new? If you just look at humankind. We're flawed. Go back to the greatest men in the Bible. Look at King David. He killed a man to get his wife for sexual purposes. He repented. He said, 'I've sinned before God.' "
Nonetheless, Dobson agreed that Haggard had managed to live a double life and keep it hidden from his family, friends and congregation.
"He sure has," he said. "That's a very sad circumstance. I feel terrible for him. I feel bad especially for his wife, Gayle - she's a wonderful lady - and their five children. We had no idea that this is the case. I've known him for many years, and this was a very private kind of thing, you know, this double life that you call it.
"It has now resulted in the loss of just about everything. His dignity, his work, his influence. He was a powerful influence in the Christian community. So we're all very very sad about that."
Dobson said he has not had contact with Haggard since the founder of New Life Church admitted his sexual escapades. A successful restoration partly will involve helping Haggard stop being gay, he said.
"That'd be part of it," he said. "It's a spiritual restoration, too. It's a personal and marital restoration. It involves every aspect of life."

Dobson quotes

• On forgiving Ted Haggard
"His sin was not against me. God has to do the forgiving. I continue to love him. He is a friend. He will always be my friend, and I'm sorry for what happened, but God has to forgive him. I mean his relationship with his wife has to be one of forgiveness. It's not my job to do that."
• On whether one becomes gay because of genetics
"What homosexual activists especially would like everybody to believe is that it is genetic. That they don't have any choice. And if it were genetic, identical twins would all have it. If you had homosexuality in one twin, it would be there in the other. So it can't be simply genetic."
• On disgraced Florida Republican Congressman Mark Foley
"That was most unfortunate. I thought the media did everything they could to discourage values voters from voting, and I don't think Mark Foley had anything to do with that."
• On Republican electoral losses
"Republicans were given a marvelous opportunity. They had a 10-vote margin in the Senate - that's about as good as it gets, and a 29-vote margin in the House. And they essentially sat on it and did very little that so-called values voters care about. And I think people remember."
• On his support for the Iraq War
"I don't believe it was a mistake. You know if you go back to World War II, people have been very critical of (President) Roosevelt for not responding earlier to the holocaust that was going on. In fact, he was tone deaf to that misery. Well, that's what was happening in Iraq. You know, Saddam Hussein killed, as far as we know, a million people. Murdered them in cold blood. And that required some kind of response. I think what the president did was right and correct to do that. But now we're in a mess, and I admit that, and I'm very concerned."
• On liberals
"Those again on the liberal end of the spectrum are those who have no value system, or at least they say there is no moral and immoral. There's no right or wrong. . . . But when a religious leader, or especially an evangelical, falls, guess who is the most judgmental of him and calling him a hypocrite? . . . Those that said there is no right and wrong in the first place. The truth of the matter is there is right and wrong. And we all within our midst have failures, and they do occur."
from The Rock Mountian News

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

Hurting Gays, And Ourselves

We're all familiar with the headlines involving homosexuality. The names of Jim McGreevey, Mark Foley and now Ted Haggard have become known throughout America because of admitted or alleged homosexual "indiscretions." We have not heard as much about their families. That's where I come in. I understand something of what their families are going through because I've been there.
We all understand that reputations were ruined, careers lost and families hurt by these scandals. Apparently what we don't understand is that we are all part of turning these disclosures into scandals. And our clucking and condemnation after they emerge, while a contributing factor, isn't where our real culpability lies. The root of the problem is in our denial that gays and lesbians are as worthy and unworthy, flawed and gifted, as heterosexuals. The root belief that homosexuals are "less than" the rest of us stretches long and deep in this society.
Our condemnatory attitudes began in the latter part of the Middle Ages. Until then the Christian church in Western Europe, and thus the general culture, had largely tolerated or ignored homosexual acts. But everything changed when Thomas Aquinas and other religious writers labeled not only homosexual acts but all non-procreative sexual behavior "unnatural." The Roman Catholic Church continues to promote this idea today, even though most critical thinkers appreciate the relational bonding, tension release and joyous pleasure that sexuality affords along with the possibility of procreation. Of course any practice of sexuality that harms, takes advantage of or demeans another person is wrong, no matter who is involved. Nonetheless, instead of dealing with this and other related issues in a straightforward way, many join the church in simply rejecting gays and lesbians.
Let me hasten to say that I do not intend to single out the Roman Catholic Church for criticism. For several years my own denomination, the United Methodists, has presented invitational ads on national television proclaiming the church to be one of "open hearts, open minds, open doors" while declaring in its Book of Discipline that "the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching." Thus the United Methodist Church, like many others, remains deeply divided over this issue.
It took the Catholics 171 years to accept Copernicus's insight that Earth revolves around the sun. Today too many people are hurting and too much damage is being done to continue to wait for any church to step up and admit it is wrong about its condemnation of the "practice" of homosexuality. It's time we did our own critical thinking and rejected outdated science and theology. For, ironically, the anguish of our rejection of gays and lesbians, as horrible as it is for them, affects us all.
I know this because I have suffered deeply as a result of America's prevailing views about homosexuality. You have as well. I was married to a closeted gay man for 15 years, and we had three children before the truth of his sexual orientation emerged. The emotional devastation of that revelation and our subsequent divorce has been profound for me, my children, my former husband, our extended family and our friends.
I was fortunate to be able to move forward with my life instead of remaining, as one friend recently put it, "a puddle of violated humanity." I remarried, became an ordained clergywoman and served the church for 25 years as a pastor, district superintendent and dean of the cabinet of the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church. Broken relationships with family have been largely, if not totally, healed.
But many people are not as fortunate. They, and our society at large, miss out on the fullness of life that is tragically denied to so many because the rest of us don't want to deal fairly and fully with such a difficult and embarrassing subject. Families are torn apart, careers ruined, gifts and graces underutilized, and lives destroyed. Thus, ironically, the anguish that gays and lesbians suffer because of their rejection isn't visited just upon them, as horrible as that is. It affects us all.
This Election Day the citizens of our country demanded change by voting for different leadership in Congress. Now I would urge us all to seek actively to inform ourselves and change our attitudes about gays and lesbians. For only in this way will we begin to address the real problems that our condemnation has visited upon them, upon those who love them and, indeed, upon us all.
from The Washington Post / Ermalou Roller

Haggard Counseling Team Loses Dobson

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO - Citing a lack of time, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson withdrew Tuesday from the team overseeing counseling for the Rev. Ted Haggard, the evangelical pastor who was fired amid allegations of gay sex and drug use.
"Emotionally and spiritually, I wanted to be of help - but the reality is I don't have the time to devote to such a critical responsibility," Dobson said.
The other two members of the team, Pastors Jack Hayford of The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, Calif., and Tommy Barnett of First Assembly of God in Phoenix, declined to comment.
Haggard was forced out as senior pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church on Saturday after a former male escort alleged they had sex repeatedly and that Haggard used methamphetamines.
In a statement read at the church Sunday, Haggard confessed to unspecified "sexual immorality," accepted responsibility for his actions and asked forgiveness.
The counseling process, called restoration, could take years, said H.B. London, vice president for church and clergy at Focus on the Family.
from The Associated Press