EVANGELICAL LEADER CONFESSES TO GAY SEX

[Suldaanka]

Reverend Ted Haggard, one of the most senior and influential evangelical leaders in the United States, admitted on Sunday to "sexual immorality" after he was accused of having sex with a male prostitute.

 

The confession came 24 hours after Haggard was fired from the church he founded, the New Life Church, which conducted an investigation into claims made by former prostitute Mike Jones.

 

Jones alleged Haggard, who is also leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, paid him for sex many times over a three-year period and had also taken the drug methamphetamine.

 

Haggard rigorously denied the claims until yesterday.

 

“I am so sorry for the circumstances that have caused shame and embarrassment for all of you,” he said in a written statement to his congregation in Colorado Springs, Colorado, The New York Times reported.

 

“The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality. And I take responsibility for the entire problem. I am a deceiver and a liar. There's a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life."

 

Haggard, who is married with five children, is one of the most influential Christian leaders in the US. According to CNN he holds a weekly conference call with White House staffers and other religious leaders.

 

The National Association of Evangelicals represents more than 45,000 churches and around 30 million members around the US.

 

Last Thursday Haggard denied he had ever had gay sex or taken methamphetamine, as Jones alleged. But he stepped down from the pulpit while the church conducted their internal investigation.

 

On Friday Haggard said that he had paid Jones for a massage and for methamphetamine, but that he didn’t have sex or use the drugs.

 

Jones said he decided to go public because of Haggard’s support of an amendment to ban gay marriage in Colorado, which will be voted on this week.

 

“I think I had to do the moral thing in my mind, and that is expose someone who is preaching one thing and doing the opposite behind everybody’s back,” Jones, who said he is no longer a prostitute, told KUSA-TV.

 

“It made me angry that here’s someone preaching about gay marriage and going behind the scenes having gay sex.”

 

He claimed Haggard visited him for sex around once a month in Denver. Asked if he had proof, Jones said he kept several voicemail messages from Haggard on his answering machine.

[Suldaanka]

Pedophile preacher: I am a liar

 

FIRST it was: "I never meet this man." Then it was: "I bought drugs off him but I never used them, and I never had sex with him." But by Sunday, it was time for confession.

 

Ted Haggard, former head of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals — the man with President George Bush's ear — finally told all: he was a hypocrite and a liar. The overseers of the New Life Church in Colorado, which he founded, sacked him for "sexually immoral conduct".

 

It was the most spectacular downfall of an evangelical leader since the Reverend Jim Bakker was embroiled in a sex and accounting scandal in 1987.

 

In a letter read out to the Sunday congregation at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Pastor Haggard said: "I am guilty of sexual immorality, and I take responsibility for the entire problem. I am a deceiver and a liar."

 

He said he wanted to clarify "my heart's condition" after telling reporters a series of stories since male prostitute Mike Jones alleged that the pastor had been paying him for sex every month for the past three years. Mr Jones also alleged that Pastor Haggard used methamphetamine to heighten the sexual experience.

 

The prostitute said he went public to expose the churchman's hypocrisy because of his support for measures to ban same-sex marriages.

 

In Pastor Haggard's letter to his parishioners, he said: "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, and I would find myself thinking thoughts and experiencing desires that were contrary to everything I believe and teach."

 

He said he had sought help, but it had not been effective.

 

"The public person I was wasn't a lie, it was just incomplete. When I stopped communicating about my problems, the darkness increased and finally dominated me."

 

Not all the accusations levelled against him were true, he said, "but enough of them are true that I have been appropriately and lovingly removed from ministry".

 

He asked the congregation to forgive his accuser, saying: "He is revealing the deception and sensuality that was in my life. Those sins, and others, need to be dealt with harshly. So, forgive him and, actually, thank God for him."

 

He said that he loved his wife.

 

"What I did should never reflect in a negative way on her relationship with me. The problem was not with her, my (five) children, or any of you. It was created 100 per cent by me."

 

His wife Gayle also wrote a letter to the women of the congregation, saying: "I know your hearts are broken; mine is as well." She said she still loved her husband.