I’ve known about Pastor Ted Haggard for a couple years now so I’ve been closely following the recent revelation of his drug-fueld tryst with a gay man.

For those of you who only read my blog and nothing else, he started his New Life church in the basement of his home with only one church member. He then built it up over many years to a 14,000 follower behemoth that holds services in a stadium. (New Life also has affiliates in other countries.) He led the National Association of Evangelicals which represents 30 million Americans. He had policy discussions with President Bush. He was an extremely powerful man. His decisions not only affected his followers, but Americans not under his leadership. Short of becoming President himself, there are not many ways he could have increased his power here in the United States. This is why his downfall is so amazing. How can a man so close to God have so little self-control?

A lot of people like reading stories of how people succeed. But I like stories of how people fall. And it’s not because I’m a sadist, but because the success that everyone loves to praise and masturbate to is often built on weak character that cannot survive the test of time. The success is a fluke, an aberration. In a couple years Pastor Ted will be that crazy guy on a university campus trying to get the attention of passerby’s. The next hypocrite who replaces him will lead people who memorize thousands year old scripture as fact, but can’t seem to remember how many religious leaders have fooled them in the past twenty years.

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I loved Jon Stewart’s take on this on the Daily Show. And it came out so close to the election . . . brilliant!

Now if only I could get past the New York Times firewall to read Dan Savage’s editorial “The Code of the Call Boy.” Yes, here is one (more) time in history when the prostitute can claim the moral high ground.

Hypocrites definitely walk among us, both seen and unseen. While everyone has skeletons in their closets, some have a larger collection of bones than others.

What if you wanted to run for public office some day? Would you be proud of your blog? Ashamed? Blame it on youthful indiscretion?

I’ve also enjoyed the Haggard story, but I wouldn’t say that being gay reflects “so little self-control”.

The drugs, though, clearly . . .

I don’t think he’s saying that being gay reflects little self-control. I think it’s more that since he’s so powerful he’s got a lot to lose. Since he’s married, screwing around with anyone, including gay call boys, is going to lose him lots of credibility and meth is obviously also a mistake. Was the sex really worth it?

I love it also how the prosititute admitted his motivation was purely about sexual politics. That’s honesty. And I have to agree that Haggard is clearly deeply disturbed. No idea who is he is or what he really believes. Amen. Or something.

Dont forget that he often spoke out against gay marriage, and was in favor of the CO proposed ban on such marriages.

It really scares me that this guy had such a profound influence within the whitehouse, separation of church and state would seem to preclude such behavior. I understand that legislation was not being passed based on this guys conference calls, but in the modern US government, administrative agencies and actions have almost as much clout as legislative action. It seems to me that Haggards opinions should not have been any part of the exectuve branch, 30 million crazy americans or not.

It is fascinating to me to see the driving forces behind some of the harshly Authoritarian figures out there, past and present.

awesome punchline.

there is always truth in jest.