This is what makes Ted Haggard a terrible human being.

It's not that he's gay and closeted, lied about it, etcetera. Plenty of people have trouble with their orientation, but it doesn't make them bad people.

It's not the fact that he cheated on his wife. That's bad, but it's not unforgivable.

It's not that he bought and took illegal drugs. It's not having sex with a gay prostitute. It's not even the fact that he dragged his wife through this awful mess--that's awful behavior, but she could at least leave him.

No, what makes Ted Haggard a terrible human being is the fact that he subjected his children to this whole ghastly affair. Children are traumatized enough when their parents have ordinary affairs--now his kids are going to be subjected to a special kind of hell, where everyone knows what their father did, and in that kind of ultra-evangelical bubble where they no doubt live, it will get them subjected to non-stop hatred.

If he had simply had the courage to be honest with himself, Haggard could have lived a lifestyle of his own choosing and no one would have objected. He could have gotten out at any time up to now. But because he wouldn't do so, and instead wrapped himself in religious fervor to repress his base urges, he's ended up destroying not only his own life, but those of his wife and children too, ground up inside the religious right's hate machine.

Haggard was half-way right: his problem is the result of weakness. Too bad he doesn't understand that it was a weakness of honesty, not of the flesh.

and didn't shy away from the gay stuff or the meth stuff (the topics at least, he wasn't admitting everything then).

Now that what they were blackmailing the dipshit with is no longer useful, it's time to Cheney him.... :P


:evilgrin:

i'm not sure it matters which one pushes it over the edge, or whatever.

for gays, shooting ammo at us from within his own sick little closet.

They are not likely to fall for the preacher schtick later on in life.

But yeah, right now I'm sure they're miserable.

This is why it's not about him being gay. It's about the climate of hatred he helped create to cover for himself.

Now his kids will have to suffer in that climate. Sad.

Unfortunately, you cannot pick your parents. Children have the most to fear from their parents, which is why when there is a crime against a child the police will look to eliminate the parents as suspects first, and for good reason.

This man conned people out of their hard earned money week after week bombarding them with a backward and hateful interpretation of humanity while practicing exactly what he was preaching against.

Sure he was wrong to discuss this with a journalist in front of his children but Haggard was a hypocrite and a con man long before he exposed his kids.

he seeks forgiveness for that. He hasn't changed. He just got exposed. He is a hypocritical asshole. His fellow phony Fundies will forgive him if he swears that he won't be Bi or Gay anymore. They believe that a person can change their sexual orientation through prayer. I bet his life isn't ruined as many believe that it is. He will land on his feet and be back in the fold in a year or so and cash in some more.

who condemned Bill Clinton. As Mark Jones said they want the best of both worlds. If he had noy been exposed last week, Haggard would have been telling his sheeple why they should vote for Bush. Fugg all of them.

THAT's what makes Ted Haggard so bad. He demonized people for his own greed and ambition when he was exactly the same as the people he was throwing into the fire.

End. Of. Story.

Let's keep this stuff simple people.

Not all of them anyway. He's a meth user, sex addicted closet case liar with psychologicalself-loathing issues who's creating hatred and evil in the world in the image of his own projected shadow. He's nothing like the average openly gay man at all. Nothing like it. Point taken that he did demonize people just like himself too, but he also demonized normal people who happen to be gay, unlike himself.

Other than that, you're right - it's his demonization of openly gay men who are perfectly normal when he's a sexual addict and drug using phoney, as well as an immoral basket case that's the problem.

:evilgrin:

Not only to your wife, family and friends...but to YOURSELF.

Living on the "downlow" is a lie.

If you are a man and you are attracted to and have sex with other men...you first have to accept your homosexuality....then you can determine if you still enjoy male female bonds...then you can live true to yourself.

Deception to yourself leads to a unhealthy lifestyle and damages everyone around you.

Accepting one's homosexuality is the first step to being a whole person, that is not a "lifestyle" choice.

Hypocritical greedy bastard!

But I will say that this is an inevitable outgrowth of the closet. So many things in Mr. Haggard's life were telling him that something very basic to his nature was wrong. Sinful, even. His upbringing, his religious convictions, the dominant message of the society around him all told him that in his innermost being there was something wrong with him.

Some people can overcome those messages, and some people can't. But nobody gets through that sort of gauntlet unscathed. Even the most well-adjusted and comfortable-with-themselves gay people I know have a certain residual, lingering effect about them from all of this opposition. I’ve heard stories from people in the same situation as Mr. Haggard, and the possibility of a solution, a cure for what ails them, proffered by the evangelical Christians seems to be the answer to their prayers (and I’m saying that literally). The mechanism varies in case to case, but the root of the solution is held out just out of reach, it seems. “If I pray earnestly enough, I’ll be ‘cured’ of this sin.” “If I get married to a good Christian woman, that will take these desires away from me.” “I have children, I can’t possibly be gay.”

And yet those feelings persist, and they never completely go away. They’re like the cop on the beat, lurking around the corner, waiting for you to litter or jaywalk. In the inevitable moment of weakness, those feelings leap out from they shadows and they’re on you again like a ravening beast.

Haggard would love to give in, would love to be true to himself and his inmost nature. But he’s at war with himself, convinced that that inmost nature is “sinful” or “abhorrent” and that a loving God couldn’t possibly have saddled him with this; it must be the work of someone or something other than God. And this particular strain of evangelical Christianity identifies that source in nice, neat package. It also provides him with a framework that holds out the possibility for a solution to the demons that dog his psyche and through that solution, redemption.

He’s so desperate to believe, so frantic for that chimera, that he may never give up on it. Even the soul-crushing inevitably of public exposure and humiliation may not be enough for Mr. Haggard to come to terms with himself. It is, at bottom, quite sad and tragic. I’m not inclined to pile on such a tortured man even if his actions have been so very hurtful to so many around him.

rail against homosexuality - not because ole' Ted believed it, but because it bought him fame and fortune and political access. After listening to the "preacher" talk about how wrong and sinful they were, a young human being went home and committed suicide because they didn't see any other way for themselves. I don't know the child's name, but it doesn't stop me from being certain that it happened - the number of queer and questioning youth that commits suicide in this country is astronomical already.

And for that I will hate Ted Haggard and those like him who wish to use me and those like me for political power and profit. I do feel sorry for his kids, don't get me wrong. But they, unlike some other kids, will wake up tomorrow or a year from now and put this bad episode behind them. A year from now, a lonely mother will put a flower on her child's grave and still not know "why".

Haggard is too unique a name--I don't think I had ever heard of that name before this scandal.

Brainwashed and now ultimately humiliated.

He gave in to dark side, Haggard says in letter:
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/0-0&fp=455025897589d9c7&ei=0XpQRa6jC4fyoQLUppmLDg&url=http%3A//www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C11069-2440039%2C00.html&cid=1110834516