Ted Haggard Is Back: Gay Sex, Drug Scandal Can't Keep Evangelical Leader Down
David Gibson
Religion Reporter
Posted:
06/2/10
Christianity is all about second acts, and disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard is the latest conservative Christian to exploit that role to the hilt.
Haggard announced Wednesday that he is starting a new church in the same town -- Colorado Springs -- that he left in humiliation in 2006 following a gay sex and drugs scandal. And he says this church will be for people like himself, "a church for sinners -- for people who have hit rock bottom and people who want to help people who have hit rock bottom. ... It is not a gathering for the righteous, except those who are righteous by faith."
"Everybody is welcome: Democrats, Republican, independents, gays, straights, tall, short, addicts and recovering addicts," Haggard said at a news conference at his home, flanked by his wife, Gayle, and facing an array of camera and television crews, much as he used to do as a Christian power broker for years and then as the center of a media maelstrom.
"I think I am qualified to hold their hand," he said, according to The Denver Post account.
Gayle Haggard will also be preaching at the church, called St. James, which will operate on the grounds of their home, which is how they started New Life Church in Colorado Springs three decades ago. That home church grew into a megachurch with a membership of some 14,000, and served as a platform for Haggard, who became head of the National Association of Evangelicals, and one of the nation's most prominent Christian crusaders for conservative values.
But his 2006 campaign against a gay marriage initiative prompted a male prostitute to announce that he and Haggard had hooked up a number of times and also used meth. Haggard and his family dropped out of sight for two years -- he now says he is "a heterosexual with issues" -- and then gradually returned to preaching at churches around the country.
Last November the Haggards held two prayer meetings at their home in Colorado Springs, drawing more than 100 people each time to their living room. Subsequent assemblies were held in the barn on their property.
On April 29, Haggard and his wife incorporated a new church, called St. James, at their home address. Haggard insisted it was for accounting purposes -- in January, Gayle released a memoir, "Why I Stayed," and is also a sought-after speaker. But he also told The Colorado Springs Gazette that he could see St. James becoming another full-scale church with membership roll and choir.
"Sometime, somewhere we will do some type of ministry," Haggard said.
It turns out that sometime is now, and the type of ministry is much as he did before, and in much the same place. The name of the church, Haggard says, connects to the Epistle of St. James in the New Testament, and the famous passage that "faith without works is dead."
For an evangelical leader who was know as one of the bigger scolds in American Christianity, yet was found to have feet of clay, the Bible passage could resonate -- or fall flat.
"Locally it is being called 'Second Church of the Hypocrite'." a commenter at the Christianity Today website wrote when news of the incorporation broke in April.
Just as problematic could be the reaction of the leadership of Haggard's neighbors at the New Life megachurch he founded.
Haggard's scandal devastated and infuriated many in the church, which has suffered a drop in membership and donations. Haggard and New Life negotiated a severance package stipulating that Haggard would undergo counseling with a team of Christian leaders they appointed and that he would leave the area and not start a rival church.
But Haggard left the counseling arrangement before New Life said he was done, and they barred him from a future ministerial role there. Haggard was at one time reportedly selling insurance as he worked toward a degree in counseling, and he also began asking the public for donations to support him and his family.
In June 2008, when the conditions of the severance package expired, Haggard and his family moved back to Colorado Springs.
Last year the couple launched what some call a "repentance tour," appearing on Oprah Winfrey's show, with Larry King, and on Good Morning America and other national broadcasts -- even "Divorce Court."
Haggard also appeared in an HBO documentary about the scandal titled "The Trials of Ted Haggard," by Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Ted Haggard also announced Wednesday that he's being filmed by a documentary crew from Los Angeles for another show about -- Ted Haggard.
Haggard announced Wednesday that he is starting a new church in the same town -- Colorado Springs -- that he left in humiliation in 2006 following a gay sex and drugs scandal. And he says this church will be for people like himself, "a church for sinners -- for people who have hit rock bottom and people who want to help people who have hit rock bottom. ... It is not a gathering for the righteous, except those who are righteous by faith."
"Everybody is welcome: Democrats, Republican, independents, gays, straights, tall, short, addicts and recovering addicts," Haggard said at a news conference at his home, flanked by his wife, Gayle, and facing an array of camera and television crews, much as he used to do as a Christian power broker for years and then as the center of a media maelstrom.
"I think I am qualified to hold their hand," he said, according to The Denver Post account.
Gayle Haggard will also be preaching at the church, called St. James, which will operate on the grounds of their home, which is how they started New Life Church in Colorado Springs three decades ago. That home church grew into a megachurch with a membership of some 14,000, and served as a platform for Haggard, who became head of the National Association of Evangelicals, and one of the nation's most prominent Christian crusaders for conservative values.
But his 2006 campaign against a gay marriage initiative prompted a male prostitute to announce that he and Haggard had hooked up a number of times and also used meth. Haggard and his family dropped out of sight for two years -- he now says he is "a heterosexual with issues" -- and then gradually returned to preaching at churches around the country.
Last November the Haggards held two prayer meetings at their home in Colorado Springs, drawing more than 100 people each time to their living room. Subsequent assemblies were held in the barn on their property.
On April 29, Haggard and his wife incorporated a new church, called St. James, at their home address. Haggard insisted it was for accounting purposes -- in January, Gayle released a memoir, "Why I Stayed," and is also a sought-after speaker. But he also told The Colorado Springs Gazette that he could see St. James becoming another full-scale church with membership roll and choir."Sometime, somewhere we will do some type of ministry," Haggard said.
It turns out that sometime is now, and the type of ministry is much as he did before, and in much the same place. The name of the church, Haggard says, connects to the Epistle of St. James in the New Testament, and the famous passage that "faith without works is dead."
For an evangelical leader who was know as one of the bigger scolds in American Christianity, yet was found to have feet of clay, the Bible passage could resonate -- or fall flat.
"Locally it is being called 'Second Church of the Hypocrite'." a commenter at the Christianity Today website wrote when news of the incorporation broke in April.
Just as problematic could be the reaction of the leadership of Haggard's neighbors at the New Life megachurch he founded.
Haggard's scandal devastated and infuriated many in the church, which has suffered a drop in membership and donations. Haggard and New Life negotiated a severance package stipulating that Haggard would undergo counseling with a team of Christian leaders they appointed and that he would leave the area and not start a rival church.
But Haggard left the counseling arrangement before New Life said he was done, and they barred him from a future ministerial role there. Haggard was at one time reportedly selling insurance as he worked toward a degree in counseling, and he also began asking the public for donations to support him and his family.
In June 2008, when the conditions of the severance package expired, Haggard and his family moved back to Colorado Springs.
Last year the couple launched what some call a "repentance tour," appearing on Oprah Winfrey's show, with Larry King, and on Good Morning America and other national broadcasts -- even "Divorce Court."
Haggard also appeared in an HBO documentary about the scandal titled "The Trials of Ted Haggard," by Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Ted Haggard also announced Wednesday that he's being filmed by a documentary crew from Los Angeles for another show about -- Ted Haggard.