Man claims 3-year sexual relationship with pastor

Discussion in 'Politics' started by ZZZzzzzzzz, Nov 2, 2006.

  1. Pastor confessed
    Church review panelist says admission came Thursday
    By Chuck Plunkett
    Denver Post Staff Writer
    DenverPost.com
    Article Launched:

    Colorado Springs - Ted Haggard, the beleaguered pastor of one of the nation's most influential evangelical churches, was fired Saturday after admitting "sexually immoral conduct."

    Haggard's New Life Church issued a statement saying he had been removed. But the church's oversight board, which was investigating accusations Haggard had sex with a gay prostitute and used methamphetamine, offered no details of its findings.

    Church officials said that Haggard was out of town with his family Saturday and that a letter and an apology from him would be read to the congregation today.

    Haggard had denied publicly that he ever had gay sex, saying he had been faithful to his wife. As late as Friday morning, he continued to publicly deny sex with his accuser.

    But a member of the four-member oversight board said in an interview Saturday night that Haggard admitted Thursday to sexual misconduct.

    The board member, the Rev. Michael Ware of Victory Church in Westminster, said the board first met with Haggard and his wife Thursday and Haggard immediately confessed to sexually immoral conduct.


    Ware would not describe what Haggard admitted to but made clear the probe was limited to allegations by Michael Forest Jones, an admitted gay prostitute from Denver.

    Ware said more details would be shared with the congregation today.

    "It was an easy decision once we discovered there was a sexual immorality," Ware said, noting that Haggard agreed dismissal was the right course. "He has a concern and a love for this church. He knows he has hurt people and he needs to heal."

    Ware said he believes Haggard was not honest in his statements to the media last week because of the stress and pressure on him.

    "This is a clash between divinity and humanity," Ware said. "We're all human, and we make mistakes."

    The oversight board will continue to investigate Haggard so "a plan of healing and restoration can begin."

    A rising star in the evangelical movement, Haggard, 50, was at times a consultant to the White House, the author of several books, and, until he stepped down last week, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents more than 30 million worshipers.

    "I'm heartbroken," said Lance Coles, the church's administrative pastor. "I'm sad for him and the people who are deeply wounded. But because our church is built on the Scriptures and not a man, the potential for everyone to recover and be stronger as a result is high."

    Coles said Haggard will remain a member of the church. He said there has been no talk of a severance package.

    Haggard's salary for 2006, minus benefits, was to have been $138,143.

    "I am proud of Ted for being honest and coming clean," said Patton Dodd, who helped Haggard write seven books and who serves as Christianity editor for Beliefnet, a religious news website.

    Dodd said he talked with Haggard Saturday, but the two did not discuss the details of the sexually immoral conduct that the investigative board said had been proved.

    "It could be hard to open up to your deepest, darkest secret all at once," he said.

    Citing the bylaws of the 14,000-member church Haggard started 26 years ago in his home, the overseers said his conduct required them to remove him from his job.

    The church's bylaws allow for the senior pastor to be disciplined or dismissed for demonstrating immoral conduct, financial misdeeds or preaching heresy.

    The oversight board, composed of Haggard's peers from other churches, is charged with determining whether behavior fits those categories and which punishment is proper.

    Haggard's fall from power began Wednesday, when Jones, 49, a bodybuilder, said Haggard had paid him for sex. Jones said that the relationship was built over monthly visits for three years and that Haggard also used methamphetamine.

    "I hadn't heard," Jones said when told of Haggard's firing. "I'm sad. I didn't want to ruin his life or his family's life."

    Jones said he went public because he believed there was too much at stake.

    Haggard has been a vocal supporter of Amendment 43, which, if voters approve it Tuesday, would add to the state constitution the definition of marriage as being strictly between a man and a woman.

    Jones has said he didn't know who Haggard was until five months ago. But once he realized who the man who went only by "Art" was and that Haggard preached against homosexuality, Jones said, he couldn't keep his silence.

    In the immediate hours after the board's decision, a steady trickle of somber worshipers stopped by the World Prayer Center on the New Life Church campus.

    Many were overheard discussing Haggard's troubles. Several said they would reserve judgment until they heard from Haggard himself. A pair of teenage girls cried and held each other for comfort.

    "I'm really sad about it," said Jessica Smith, 16, at the prayer center. "I think non-Christians are going to have a view of us Christians as hypocritical.

    "It could give Christians a bad name," Smith said. "But I think we all do make mistakes, and I feel awful for his family, and I don't want to believe it's true."

    The investigative board's decision to fire Haggard came during a tumult of national media attention that ramped up significantly Friday morning when Haggard spoke to reporters from the driver's seat of his truck outside his home.

    With his wife and three of his five children seated with him, Haggard denied having sex with Jones but admitted he once bought methamphetamine, decided not to use it, and threw it away.

    Also Friday morning, Jones had failed portions of a lie- detector test concerning his answers to questions about the sex he said took place. Haggard seized on the failure, saying Jones had been deceptive.

    Haggard insisted that he met Jones simply wanting a massage.

    Ross Parsley, who had stepped in as interim pastor when Haggard was placed on administrative leave, will continue to run the church until a replacement can be found.

    The overseers said they hoped to replace Haggard by the end of this year.

    The $18 million sanctuary, with seating for 7,500, is the largest worship space in Colorado.

    Officials carted in crates of tissue boxes Saturday evening in preparation for today's services.
     
    #31     Nov 5, 2006
  2. this guy was as queer as a $3 dollar bill..........just watching his mannerisms is enough to creep you out....& he was the spiritual advisor to the white house?unreal......i can`t wait for the bush files to be leaked & someone steps up to let it all out....it`s only a matter of time,imo.
    what i really can`t understand are the 30 million brainwashed followers that are loyal to this morally corrupt sideshow......can`t these people out there see it for what it is?.....
    i guess what my father informed m of when i was young is coming to fruition............he`d never,ever let me attend things like church due to the pedophilia priests...at a time where there was no such thing or even the thought of such.
    his thoughts,unfortunately,were the cracking of america through it` faith in Christianity,of which this country was founded,.....2nd was record levels of debt,which has brought down every society in history to date....as well as political greed & corruption...much like we see every day by the bush administration.
    his basic theory was to equate us to the fall of the roman empire in every way possible & it seems to be so.

    with that being said,what is it with the "crusades" like RM speaks about......why is it that these people need to have faith in such a rigged institution? can`t they see it for what it is?i guess not,i believe it`s people from different parts of the country may be gullable & easy to persuade.........i mean i`d need all of 5 seconds to figure ths f*g out & turn the other way vs attending that freaky gerbil loving ,hand holding freakshow in CO.
     
    #32     Nov 5, 2006
  3. Manong

    Manong



  4. Bush is big time Queer. Once he leaves office it'll start leaking out. Rove is positively flaming.
     
    #34     Nov 5, 2006
  5. Haggard and the White House: Both Living in Denial (39 comments )
    READ MORE: New York Times, 2008, Investigations, Global Warming, George W. Bush, Iraq, Dick Cheney, 2006, Evolution, Mark Foley

    Let's face it: the Bush administration is sick. The fall of Ted Haggard is just the latest manifestation of the central disease of President Bush and his cohorts: the pathological refusal to accept reality, and the delusion that reality can be changed by rhetoric.

    As Andrew Sullivan said last week on CNN, "this is not an election anymore, it's an intervention."

    But while it's the administration that's sick, it's the whole country that's suffering.

    How many more examples of this disease do we need? The insurgency is in its "last throes," we've "turned the corner" in Iraq, gutting Social Security would "save" it, global warming doesn't exist, evolution is just "a theory," Rumsfeld and Cheney are "doing a fantastic job" etc., etc., etc.

    Mark Foley and Ted Haggard are textbook examples of how the relentless denial of reality perverts judgment and rots the soul. Same with the Bushies.

    Was Ted Haggard's absurd claim this week that, yes, he saw Mike Jones, but only for massages and that, yes, he bought meth from Jones but never used it, really that different from Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld continuing to claim we're winning in Iraq?

    That both the Reverend's and the administration's claims were made with the expectation that the public would buy them shows what the chronic refusal to acknowledge reality does to one's judgment.

    I have little doubt that Haggard's homophobia was real (seen here in a particularly creepy clip), and that his desire to not be gay was real too. But facts are stubborn things. Instead of accepting those facts, Haggard chose to deny them, suppress them, and attack those who exposed them.

    Sound like a familiar M.O.? Just before the Haggard hit the fan, the New York Times broke the story about a classified briefing that included a PowerPoint slide, prepared by U.S. Central Command, showing that Iraq was edging closer to "chaos." It's not like that's something the entire world didn't already know. But what was Rumsfeld's response? To start an investigation into who leaked the document.

    Doesn't the public have the right to know how close Iraq is to chaos? If Rumsfeld were summoned to Capitol Hill and asked if Iraq were closer or farther to chaos than a year ago, would he lie? I guess we have to assume he would, since, to Rumsfeld, to tell the truth would be giving away "classified" information.

    But the larger point is this: it ultimately doesn't matter if Rummy would fess up or not, because facts are facts. That Iraq is in chaos is a fact, and no amount of denying or spinning will change that any more than Ted Haggard's gay bashing will magically make him into a heterosexual.

    The refusal by the Bush administration, its supporters in Congress and its "spiritual advisers" to acknowledge reality is sick -- and potentially lethal to the well-being of our country. But it's clear they're not going to get better, because to do so would require they acknowledge reality enough to know they're sick in the first place. And they're not going to do that. They actually believe there's an alternative to the "reality-based world," and that they live in it.

    Yesterday, the New Life church fired Ted Haggard as its pastor because they felt it was "proven without a doubt that he has committed sexually immoral conduct."

    Those darn facts again, coming home to roost.

    The country can't rid itself of Bush until 2008, but on Tuesday it can begin to get rid of this sickness.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/haggard-and-the-white-hou_b_33324.html
     
    #35     Nov 6, 2006
  6. oh,i know it & i can`t wait for it to all come out so everyone can see the anti christ for what he is.................i bet he can knock back an 8 ball of the powder in a 3 hour session with no prob........i can only imagine the skeletons in that sick bastards closet....& i`m sure they`re of male gender without a doubt.
     
    #36     Nov 6, 2006
  7. Sorry guys- Bush isn't gay.

    As a young man, his self-control skills were nil.
    He let loose; driving drunk and riding the white rails all night.
    If he liked sex with men, he'd have done that rather openly too, don't you think?

    Not defending him. Just being logical...
     
    #37     Nov 6, 2006
  8. Escort says Haggard's apology "hollow"
    By Mike McPhee and Felisa Cardona
    Denver Post Staff Writers
    DenverPost.com
    Article Last Updated:

    Mike Jones, the gay prostitute who brought down a Colorado Springs evangelical pastor with allegations the two had a three-year homosexual affair, said today that he feels the minister still hasn't been completely honest.

    Pastor Ted Haggard, founder and leader of the 14,000-member New Life Church, admitted Friday he had purchased methamphetamine while in Denver to receive a massage from Jones but said he never ingested the drug. Church overseers said Saturday that Haggard had confessed to them some sexual indiscretions but didn't specify what he had admitted.

    "He's still lying to himself," Jones said of Haggard, who was fired by church overseers Saturday for "sexually immoral" conduct. "If he's not truly honest with himself, he'll never be over it."

    Jones, 49 and a self-admitted gay man all his life, told talk show host Peter Boyles on radio station KHOW he believes Haggard has "more demons and dirt" he needs to clean out.

    On Sunday, church overseers read to the congregation a letter of apology from Haggard, which Jones called "hollow."

    "If I was going to issue an apology, it would be a paragraph long," Jones said. "He was definitely pulling the emotional strings for his followers."

    Jones said he had sex monthly with Haggard for three years, ending in August. From those sexual encounters, Jones said he believes Haggard is a homosexual, despite having a wife and five children.

    "Ted, you need to be honest with yourself," Jones said over the air. "If you're a gay man, you're a gay man."

    Haggard and his family have left town and were unable to be reached for comment.

    Jones said he has received two death threats since identifying Haggard on Thursday.

    "I have not jumped up and down," Jones said. "I have not partied. This is not a fun time."

    Despite the negative reactions, Jones said he also has received support from all over the world, including messages from Sweden, Australia and Great Britain.

    Jones, who said Friday he works part-time as a model and a fitness consultant, said he is broke now and needs a job. He said he stopped working as a male escort about six months ago.

    Jones also expressed a desire to clear up reports that he is a drug dealer, even though he admits working as a go-between to obtain methamphetamine for Haggard. He has not been contacted yet by Denver police about his escort services or the drug sales.

    "I've never been a drug dealer so they won't find anything or drugs in my house," he said. "I have nothing to hide."

    The former escort predicted Haggard would disappear for a while, then emerge as a man who has been "cured" of homosexuality. Jones also believes Haggard will use the opportunity, write a book and make millions.

    Jones' suggested title: "Hypocrisy in America."

    Jones said he would visit the New Life Church if he was invited. "I'd love to go down and sit in on services and see how I'm received," he said. "I would like them to see that I am a human being. What I feel sorry for is they still believe in him."
     
    #38     Nov 6, 2006
  9. There have been frat boy athletes that have been closet gays. It is more about survival than self-control skills for many to admit they are gay. (or do you forget GW was a Cheerleader?)

    How many NFL players have come out of the closet?

    Certain things are just not done...

    I am not saying Bush is gay, but there really is no way to know from appearances.

    How many thought Rock Hudson when he was kissing Elizabeth Taylor in "Giant" was gay?

    I don't think your pattern recognition skills are going to work on this one...

    If GW was gay, do you really think he would have come out and let mommy and daddy know that?

     
    #39     Nov 6, 2006

  10. OK, you made your point without including any insults or mock laughter. That's a big improvement, for real. When you phrase it that way, people are more likely to respect & consider your opinion, as I am doing now.
     
    #40     Nov 6, 2006