Ted Haggard Confesses

[This is an email just received from the New Life Church email list. Ted Haggard has confessed.]

From: Pastor Ross Parsley Mailed-By: newlifechurch.org
To: n.prophet@gmail.com
Date: Nov 2, 2006 10:59 PM
Subject: Update from Pastor Ross
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Dear New Lifers and friends of New Life Church,

Many of you have expressed concern about today's news regarding our pastor. Thank you all for your prayers and support, and for your concern for our church family.

As you've likely heard by now, Pastor Ted has voluntarily placed himself on administrative leave as New Life's senior pastor to allow our external board of overseers to work effectively. Below is the statement that we released to the media on Thursday afternoon.

Since that time, the board of overseers has met with Pastor Ted. It is important for you to know that he confessed to the overseers that some of the accusations against him are true. He has willingly and humbly submitted to the authority of the board of overseers, and will remain on administrative leave during the course of the investigation.

I am serving as the acting senior pastor of New Life Church. I met with the pastoral staff and elders Thursday night, and I assure you that the leadership team is strong and united. We remain resolute in our commitment to serving New Life Church and the people of our community.

Please continue to keep Ted and Gayle and their family in your prayers.

I love serving God with you all,

Ross Parsley

November 2, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
From New Life Church
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Rev. Ted Haggard, Senior Pastor of New Life Church, stated today that he could "not continue to minister under the cloud created by the accusations made on Denver talk radio this morning." He, therefore, placed himself on administrative leave, pending investigation, spiritual counsel, and a decision by the church's board of overseers. Pastor Haggard said, "I am voluntarily stepping aside from leadership so that the overseer process can be allowed to proceed with integrity. I hope to be able to discuss this matter in more detail at a later date. In the interim, I will seek both spiritual advice and guidance."

Under the governing structure of New Life Church, there is a board of overseers consisting of four senior pastors of other congregations. Those overseers have authority to conduct an inquiry, to discipline the senior pastor, to remove him from his position, or to restore him to ministry. The overseers of New Life Church are: Rev. Larry Stockstill, Senior Pastor of Bethany World Prayer Center, in Baker, Louisiana; Rev. Mark Cowart, Senior Pastor of Church For All Nations in Colorado Springs; Rev. Tim Ralph, Senior Pastor of New Covenant Fellowship in Larkspur, Colorado; and Rev. Michael Ware, Senior Pastor of Victory Church in Westminster, Colorado.

In the interim, New Life Church Associate Senior Pastor, Rev. Ross Parsley, will serve as Acting Senior Pastor of the church. Rev. Parsley has served in senior ministry positions at New Life Church for fifteen years. Rev. Parsley requested the community's compassion and prayers for the person who came forward with accusations, for the Haggard family, and for the New Life Church community. He also said, "New Life Church long ago adopted an overseer model of governance for situations just like this. People need to be patient and allow this process to unfold as it was designed to do."

Pastor Haggard also resigned today as President of the National Association of Evangelicals.

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Comments

[Pete]

Damned! I was right that he was gay!

Now it's true.

For three years, that bastard has deceived church goers and making money..

And preaching religion on stage when he is a fairy.

What an asshole

[A Curious Stranger]

Incoming!

[A Curious Stranger]

Based on the transcripts which 9 News just released, I'm betting on the meth.

[Zen]

You teach people to always point the finger of judgement and blame, sooner or later you're gonna get yourself poked in the eye. Or the ass. What comes around truly does go around.

The only reason Dobson hasn't been fingered is because sheep and goats can't talk. :0)

[gracie]

Hey - those commenting here seem to have forgotten that he is just another human getting caught for doing what all humans do - sin. All have fallen short - there is no such thing as falling 'shorter' than anyone else. Compassion, sadness, love, and grace... none of us deserve it but it's what God gives. Which prayer will you be praying? "Thank God I'm not like Ted Haggard, I would never do that"... or "GOD HAVE MERCY ON ME..."

[Baconeatingatheistjew]

Ted has been dumbing down America by pretending the earth is young and that evolution is crap. He was ruining peoples lives by denying reality.

This is why I shed no tears, in fact, I am happy that he is suffering right now.

[Giulianna Maria Lamanna]

It's kind of hard to not feel some schadenfreude. In case no one else saw this guy in "Jesus Camp," there was this one scene towards the end where this little boy named Levi, who was an aspiring preacher, was really excited to meet him. Levi told Haggard that when he preached, people seemed to really respond. Haggard, without hearing Levi preach once, asked him, "But do people respond because you've got good content, or because you're a kid?" Then, because he hadn't broken the kid's heart enough yet, he added something like: "Maybe someday you'll write good content and until then, you can ride the kid angle."

Hopefully he'll drop the whole "Pastor Dimmsdale" vibe and go the same route as Rev. Mel White. Or maybe he'll get sucked into the whole "ex-gay" thing and end up divorced, alone, crying into an old bloody shirt, etc. etc. etc.

[Kevin Jones]

"I was right that he was gay!"

Technically, he'd be a bisexual. Wife and kids, remember? The cynical hairsplitter in me says that only ranting against bisexual marriages would have made him truly hypocritical.

[El Brucé]

This is what happens when you "choose to be straight." Freud was wrong about a lot, but he was right about this - your sexuality will come out, one way or another. The harder you try to suppress it, the more messed up you'll be when it does.

[Cory]

"...in fact, I am happy that he is suffering right now."

I just wanted to repeat that, as it was so eloquently stated with the compassion and love of a reasonable and intelligent human being.

[Kevin Jones]

"Freud was wrong about a lot, but he was right about this - your sexuality will come out, one way or another. The harder you try to suppress it, the more messed up you'll be when it does."

Freud said no such thing! He held that sexual drives must be sublimated for society to cohere and progress. Explosive libidos "letting it all hang out" were for him a sign of arrested development, indeed even infantilization.

This is a nutty Zombie Error that won't die.

[wob]

Been a while since I've posted here, but I could not resist on this.

This guy, after passing judgement on others, while at the exact same time living a hypocritical life about the issues he was passing judgement on.

Yes, I'm giddy. At least I'm honest in how I feel. Hopefully this wakes some of these sheep out of their sleep and changing things.

[leah]

kevin said: "technically he'd be a bisexual. wife and kids remember?"

Personally I have doubts as to whether he is actually bisexual. I think it's much more likely that he's gay, but because his religious beliefs are so firmly against homosexuality, he's forced himself to marry a woman, and he's had a sexual relationship with her as a way of trying to fulfil his marital duties, and so he can have kids.

The reason I think this, is because if he was truly bisexual, he wouldn't necessarily need to have sexual relations with a man- he'd be happy with monogomy because his current sexual relationship would be fulfilling. Whereas, if he's gay, then the unsatisfactory nature of his relationship with his wife would be a spur for him to find some sort of relationship that could satisfy his sexual desires, even if it was as unfulfilling as seeing a prostitute.

The sad thing about that is that instead of having a loving, monogamous relationship with a man that could make him sexually and emotionally happy, he's opted to deceive his wife, in a way which has probably caused problems in their relationship, and denied her the chance to be in a relationship with someone who truly loves her, and he's also denied himself the chance at the same, instead settling for shameful meetings with a prostitute in order to satisfy some of his physical (but not his emotional) needs.

Of course, I could be wrong, he could be genuinly bisexual and just like straight men who cheat on their wives with other women, or it's possible (but pretty unlikely according ot this email) that he's just used drugs, but not had gay sex (which would seem wierd, becuase who buys drugs from a gay male hooker? and why would the hooker then claim he'd had sex with him? If he's only admitted some of the allegations, then maybe he's denying the meth use, although those phone calls seem pretty damning on that front).

Regardless, I'd agree with both gracie and guilanna- my intial response is one of schadenfreude- because I despise hypocrites who preach one thing and do another, and as a gay agnostic, I hate the fact that christians want to impose their own set of morality onto my life, based on the bible, when in a secular society with freedom of religion, in my opinion laws should be based not on a religious text, but on what allows individuals freedom and equality and the best chance to be themselves, without harming others.

So I hate the religious rights opposition to allowing people like me the chance to marry, as opposed to allowing the legal right for those of us who want it, but preaching to their followers not to avail themselves of that right. And in that sense, seeing the downfall of a hypocrit like this guy makes me very happy.

BUT- I also think gracie is right- even though I don't believe in god, I think the phrase 'But for the grace of god, there go I' is very useful- we all sin, and do the wrong thing sometimes, and we need to temper our satisfaction in seeing others fail and the moral superiority it allows us to feel, with a recognition that we're all pretty bloody fallible, and sympathy, compassion and forgiveness are virtues we ought to strive for.

So too bad Pastor Ted, I think you deserved to be uncovered, but I sincerely wish you the best in making amends with your life.

Although, one unfortunate aspect of this is that although the drug use and adultery were definately mistakes (with the assumption that they did in fact occur), I don't see homosexuality in and of itself as something to be ashamed of, and if he is gay, then pastor Ted is going to have a very lonely and self-loathing future to look forward too, and I grieve for the fact that because he can't allow himself to see a gay relationship as acceptable, that he's going to deny himself to ever have the kind of loving relationship that we all want.

this post has turned out a bit longer than I planned, if anyone is still reading at this point, thanks, and I'd be interested in hearing your responses.

[pete]

How could you ever have doubted this, NP?

[Jim]

American Christians, in particular evangelical and fundementalist Christians are the worst bunch of moralizers and hypocrites on the planet. Of course they have a great tradition of being hypocrits and jerks - look at the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims were such jerks that they got kicked out of England and had to leave Holland because the Dutch were so loving and tolerant.

The evangelicals need to work on themselves and stay out of politics - they are destroying the U.S.A and turing it into a Christo-fascist republik. Quit telling your neighbors about the splinter in their eye, and worry about the log in your own!

[where are the gatekeepers???????]

You mean to tell me in the years this man has led this large church no one NO ONE had any idea of this? I believe it is time to have the accountability that Billy Graham had he never went anywhere alone he had a witness to all his comings and goings and it is about time the top leaders of the church have some restrictions on them. I am so ashamed and I do have such compassion for his family God have mercy on this man he knew better.... Carolyn

[John-Paul Pagano]

Pete Yellin' and Screamin' is working himself into an almost sexual lather of schadenfreude.

[Non-Prophet]

"How could you ever have doubted this, NP?" -Pete

I don't know why, but I have always been predisposed to not believing the worst about people. Perhaps it is my own naiveté, but I really thought that this was a smear. I feel terrible for Ted's wife and family but at the same time I think that there is a valuable lesson to be learned here. Spirituality should be a personal voyage of exploration and discovery. As soon as it is built into an empire, as soon as the service is focused on feeding sense pleasures (New Life had ~1.2mil in lighting equipment alone, complete w/ smoke machines) then the quest for truth has been totally lost. We must simplify our lives and awaken, not bounce up and down to "Pop Jesus" while a spikey haired faux-punker snarls at the teens. I've spent time in the senior pastors wing of the church and let me tell you, it is a really freaky world in there.

Spiritual questing and exploration should be personal, humble, gnostic and without a man taking on the role of a guru. NLC was a long way from an honest, simple and humble spiritual path. (imho)

I think more of this kind of thing needs to happen.

[pete]

Like the schadenfreude you experience every time one of our troops dies in Iraq? 11 so far this month, and it's only the 3rd, I imagine you must be worn out. Nah, this story's not all THAT.

[Lorna]

let's pray for all involved. I hate cover ups and a pastor whether cheating on his wife (with anyone!) or taking drugs is not good for any of us ... but we can honestly say - hand on heart - that it could be anyone of us, but for the grace of God.

Pray for healing. Pray for honesty. Pray for the truth to set us free. Pray for the church to love this man anyway ... even though they are severely disappointed.

ok?

[Mike]

Lol, it's *impossible* for me to have one shred of sympathy for this lying, cheating piece of crap. He helped perpetuate the very hatred that he's now a victim of. How's it feel, Ted?

Thos who stupidly believe in this age-old mystical nonsense call "religion" deserve what they get.

Mike
http://pages4fun.com

[ha-ha-ha-ha-ha]

This whole situation makes me want to laugh hysterically. I'm sorry. This is not about me judging Ted. I don't even know the guy. It's just sweet that after watching this man judge those of us who are in committed, monogamous, drug-free relationships to see him get NAILED literally and figuratively, but not in a Christian martyr sorta way. What comes around goes around, as they say. What swings around...goes...what?
As the great comedian, Andy Kaufmann said, "And the dog goes... WOOF. And the cow goes... MOOO. And THAT's the way it goes."

[Not at all surprised.]

We shouldnt be shocked. I mean, after all, one of the tenets these people all shove down throats is "practice what you preach".

He preached hypocracy, and thus, practiced it. If anything, it was inevitable. Although, I am more than sure the bible will be consulted in order to properly "spin" this story.

One has to wonder, though, how the Bushies over on Pennsylvania Ave are handling this. This guy was making weekly conference calls to the oval office. They have got to be crapping the great wall of china about now.

[Joel]

I want to know, confessed to WHAT? We don't even know exactly what the allegations against him are, let alone what he's confirmed or denied to his church board. For all we know, the only allegation that's true is that he failed to renew his license tabs.

I'm not saying he's innocent; for all I know, he COULD be patronizing an almost 50-year-old male prostitute. But until I know what he confessed to, or even exactly what he's accused of, I'm not going to assume it was that.

[Eric]

I'm wondering if what he's confessed to is the meth part but not the sex part. That would be in accord with not only the phone messages but also the lie-detector test.