Conservative Culture Warriors Looking Haggard

Conservative Pat Buchanan was asked by TIME magazine recently if conservatives were losing the culture wars. Buchanan said, " Traditionalists still have the upper hand, but there's no doubt which way the trend is going. And it is not going the conservative way. ... Those of us on the right have been losing ground since the 1970s and '80s. Can we ultimately win? I think you would need a reconversion of the country to a traditionalist, Christian point of view--and I don't see that coming."

A reconversion. Not going to happen. And if there was a tipping point, historians might look back to the smart bomb that exploded in Denver, Colorado, four days before the mid-term elections in 2006.

Ted Haggard, pastor of a mega-church in Colorado Springs, and president of the National Association of Evangelicals (he has now resigned) was accused by a male prostitute of paying for gay sex and buying crystal meth.

Haggard's life, ministry, career, reputation just imploded and with it any hopes that conservatives will be able to stop the trend toward gay marriage, gay rights. Haggard is toast, and so is the conservative agenda, and so is the Republican control of Congress. And a conservative right wing Christian, not a flaming liberal, not Bill Clinton, not Hillary, not a humorless John Kerry, not the ACLU, not a Democrat--made it happen.

When I first heard the news I hoped for Haggard's sake that it was another chapter from the files of the late Cardinal Bernadin. The Chicago Cardinal was falsely accused of child molestation a number of years ago by a young man in Indiana--who later recanted his story.

But Haggard has admitted: 1) being tempted, 2) getting a massage from Jones, the prostitute, 3) buying crystal meth." And the prostitute failed a polygraph when deception was indicated on two key questions: "Did you lie when you said you had a three year sexual relationship with Ted Haggard?" And, "Did you lie when you said you had sexual contact with Ted Haggard for a period of three years?"

But Haggard's admissions are enough. The betrayal and hypocrisy is palpable. He was a man who thought he was standing, but he was falling, who preached the truth but lived a lie. A man who forgot his own words in his book, Primary Purpose: "If someone visits a prostitute, an adult bookstore, a bar or a meeting promoting anti-Christian attitudes, that person gives the devil a foothold in his or her personal life."

When there's that kind of hypocrisy--whether you're gay or straight, blue or red--the damage is huge.

Observations:

1. We must pray for this man and his family.

2. If we believe in the sanctity of marriage we need to shut up and pay more attention to our own marriage and less about the laws of the country concerning marriage. Your marriage can survive a gay couple living next door.

3. The story is still unfolding: more revelations are imminent.

4. Conservatives and Republicans, in the wake of the Foley-Haggard scandals, have a major, major credibility problem.

5. There's been too much conservative self-righteousness, holier-than-thou--in this country for too long, and if there's a ton of schadenfruede right now in the liberal and gay community over "how the mighty have fallen," they are entitled.

6. I suspect the gay community has a ton of compassion for Haggard.

7. The perils of high profile pastoral leadership are huge.

8. The respect for clergy just took another hit.

9. "Organized religion" just took another hit.

10. We must pray for Mike Jones.

11. As we approach All Saints' Sunday, we must remember that in the Protestant tradition, we are all "saints,"--although usually living far below that to which we've been called, and for which we've been "set apart."

Comments

[Paul Walter]

Great posting.

[Elane]

The real danger for us Christians is when we divorce our faith life from our real life. Our faith life becomes a place of pedestals and purity; our real life becomes hidden holes of denial and shame.

If we are lucky, eventually our multiple lives meet, and we are forced into redemption. If we are not, we lead lives of not-so-quiet desperation, and pharisaically "make [others] twice as much a son of hell as [we] are."

My heart aches for Haggard -- for the spiritual schizophrenia he suffers -- and for all who are tempted to hide from our own humanity.

[Donald Colhour]

In the 1960's I was a pre-seminary student at the University of Kansas, In Care of the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference of the United Church of Christ. Attending a seminar at The University of Chicago, the first lecture I heard was on "The Incompatibality of homosexuality and the Bible". At the time I was wrestling with my own sexuality. That was my turning point and I realized that I could not live a lie. I abandoned my ministerial call and became a journalist. That was nearly 40 years ago. I spent many happy years in the television/entertainment industry (at ABC Television) where I was able to be myself establish an open relationship with my partner which has lasted for 35 years. The church was nowhere in sight untill I fell ill from overwork and had a heart attack at 35. With my parents and partner I returned to First Congregational Church of Los Angeles which I had attended on spartan occasions. In that moment God placed me in the hands of a pastor and his wife and a group of people who embraced both my partner and I and our relatiohsip. That was in 1982.

In 1994 the call to ministry returned and I went to the University of Edinburgh to be part of a research in "Theology and Ethics of Communication". I was open to the university about my lifestyle and they were openly accepting of my honesty. I am greatful that I grew up in the environment of Congregationalists and The United Church of Christ. It enabled me to be honest and my family to be understanding. Coming from a small town in western Kansas that was not what most who were in my situation experienced.

In 1998 I was openly ordained by First Congregational Church of Los Angeles and that same year I was called, again openly, to be Sr. Minister of Wilshire Christian Church in Los Angeles. It has sometimes been challenging to be honest about this very private matter, but in the long run, I realize that it brings strength to my ministry and to the congregation I serve. My prayers are with Ted and his family and all pastor's who are brainwashed into believing that they must live a lie. We need to remember, regardless of who we are, God's Grace is still unconditional. We all fall short. Admitting that is the first step to admitting God's Grace to work in our lives. We must all remember God cares more about how we love than who we love.

Donald Colhour
Wilshire Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)
Los Angeles, Californai

[Donald Colhour]

In the 1960's I was a pre-seminary student at the University of Kansas, In Care of the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference of the United Church of Christ. Attending a seminar at The University of Chicago, the first lecture I heard was on "The Incompatibality of homosexuality and the Bible". At the time I was wrestling with my own sexuality. That was my turning point and I realized that I could not live a lie. I abandoned my ministerial call and became a journalist. That was nearly 40 years ago. I spent many happy years in the television/entertainment industry (at ABC Television) where I was able to be myself establish an open relationship with my partner which has lasted for 35 years. The church was nowhere in sight untill I fell ill from overwork and had a heart attack at 35. With my parents and partner I returned to First Congregational Church of Los Angeles which I had attended on spartan occasions. In that moment God placed me in the hands of a pastor and his wife and a group of people who embraced both my partner and I and our relatiohsip. That was in 1982.

In 1994 the call to ministry returned and I went to the University of Edinburgh to be part of a research in "Theology and Ethics of Communication". I was open to the university about my lifestyle and they were openly accepting of my honesty. I am greatful that I grew up in the environment of Congregationalists and The United Church of Christ. It enabled me to be honest and my family to be understanding. Coming from a small town in western Kansas that was not what most who were in my situation experienced.

In 1998 I was openly ordained by First Congregational Church of Los Angeles and that same year I was called, again openly, to be Sr. Minister of Wilshire Christian Church in Los Angeles. It has sometimes been challenging to be honest about this very private matter, but in the long run, I realize that it brings strength to my ministry and to the congregation I serve. My prayers are with Ted and his family and all pastor's who are brainwashed into believing that they must live a lie. We need to remember, regardless of who we are, God's Grace is still unconditional. We all fall short. Admitting that is the first step to admitting God's Grace to work in our lives.

Donald Colhour
Wilshire Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)
Los Angeles, Californai

[Dennis Meaker]

Timothy:

Why would you refer to this quote?

"Those of us on the right have been losing ground since the 1970s and '80s. Can we ultimately win?"

Do you see the Church at war with society? Do you see that there is something WE are to win or that the Church is to have a republican, "conservative" agenda? My understanding of Christian theology is that the Victory is God's and already won in Christ. We are called to be faithful to the Gospel and respond to the Grace we have received by living lives in this world that reflect God's Love. We are to point to the Cross and the Table as symbols of our salvation and the life available today in the Kingdom of God. We are to offer Christ. We are not called to win victories and wage war on society. That mindset is what is tearing the Church apart today.

The peril of every pastorate , large or small profile, is allowing the ministry to be about the pastor and what he or she says and does, instead of about God and what God did through Christ. I will probably refer to Haggard in a sermon baded on the Shema and the Mark text. We are called to serve the Lord alone, not pastors, political leaders or nation states. That Great Cloud of Witnesses contains a rainbow of faces, all serving the one God, not just Americans.

I do pray for Haggard, and especially that he is not addicted to Meth. Meth is not a recreational drug and his story of buying it once and throwing it away is suspect. I fear that he may have bought it and used it many times. If he is addicted to Meth, the sexual allegations are the least of his worries.

[Jeff Jones]

I too pray for Rev. Haggard and all those who have tried to say the right thing in times like this. But I hope and pray we will find those who can live out what they teach and preach, doing the public talking out. Don't we realize that hypocracy in what ever form it takes does more harm to the cause of Christ, than any powerful deliberation or ranting about the evil in the issues we raise?

I'm not perfect, that's for sure, even as I strive to bring perfect love and the idea of moving toward perfection, like John Wesley taught us. As we face All Saint's Day and the Markan passage about the great commandment to love the Lord our God with all our heart soul mind and strength, we have to be thinking if we are not sure we can do that, we had better not make any public statements and proclamations knowing inside we are liars.

I hope and pray that all of us who hold positions of public witness, promonent pastors and famous people who have openly professed their Christianity will take extra seriously the responsibility of being responsible for the actions that match their words. If you know you have a skeleton in your closet, by all means do something about that before making pronouncements that could destroy everything the church has tried to do up to now.

Our example should be that you can trust that what we say we mean. That's it. Don't let your actions hurt a weaker brother or sister because you take your freedom to an extreme. That was about eating meat from the idols, but it sure has a powerful message to give to us now, especially in an election time with so match at stake.

Come on brothers and sisters, let the truth come from us backed by our actions. Or let us be quiet so that we don't destroy the very thing we are trying to do.

Maybe humility is the only way we will learn the lessons of God's love.

[Rita]

Timothy,

Like you, my thoughts turned to the allegations made against Cardinal Bernadin and the pain it caused to him and to the young man who made those allegations. I, too, remember the grace-filled way in which Cardinal Bernadin faced that difficult time and found it in his heart to forgive and to reconcile.

At this moment in time we do not know the truth that will be revealed through the investigation and the unfolding of events surrounding Ted Haggard and Mike Jones. I am concerned that the "spin" has already started particularly with regards to the political fallout and possible motivations. Have we become so callous as a nation that we must use the deepest of personal tragedies to promote our own political agendas.

My deepest prayer is that we will follow the path that Cardinal Bernadin followed and offer forgiveness and grace to both of these men.

[Dan Paul]

In the gospels, the one thing for which Jesus had absolutely no tolerance is hypocracy. I really don't care what Haggard's sexual or pharmaceutical habits are ... but I am outraged that he is far from practicing what he preaches... far from the Kingdom of God, indeed!

[Dennis Meaker]

Dan Paul writes: "In the gospels, the one thing for which Jesus had absolutely no tolerance is hypocrisy. I really don't care what Haggard's sexual or pharmaceutical habits are ... but I am outraged that he is far from practicing what he preaches... far from the Kingdom of God, indeed!"

All have sinned, all have fallen short. A lot of preaching is a combination of proclamation and confession. For instance, the Gospels are pretty clear on how material wealth gets in the way of our relationship with God and others. I can preach those passages, but only when I confess that I too struggle with my desire for "security", to "have good things for my family", to "hold on to what I have." Most of us live on the fringes of the Kingdom of God at our best.

Haggard's situation is tragic, but it reminds the Church that the pastor is just one more redeemed sinner in need of God's Grace. Jesus might have condemned Haggard's hypocrisy, but would also have shared a meal with him and had compassion for him.

[John]

In your observations # 6. you say "I suspect the gay community has a ton of compassion for Haggard."

But Haggard in his letter his congregation said “The fact is, I am guilty of sexual immorality, .... 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. For extended periods of time, I would enjoy victory and rejoice in freedom. Then, from time to time, the dirt that I thought was gone would resurface.."

This kind of reference to homosexuality is not likely to endear Haggard to the gay community.

[Norman Prather]

I will not speak about Mr. Haggard because few if any in my congregations know who he is.