Ted Haggard Had a Boyfriend, Not Just a Crystal-Supplying Hustler

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/25/09 at 11:46am

Just in time to mess up Haaggard's perfect storm of his HBO documentary and confessional Oprah, his former mega-church reveals that the good pastor also had "improper relationships" with several other young men.

Maybe we should all join his church! Looks like it's a great way to meet cute guys!


Disgraced pastor faces more gay sex accusations

[Scripps2]

Posted: 1/26/09 at 2:54pm

There was a documentary on British TV 3 or 4 years ago where British god-disprover Richard Hawkins met up with this guy to try and convert him to atheism. It made for spectacularly distasteful, uninformative and and cringe-inducing television as the pseudo-intellectual and the pseudo-spiritual egos started locking horns.

It came as no surprise to later learn of double standards in Haggard's life. What eminent biologist Hawkins gets up to in his spare time remains to be discovered.

[pab]

Posted: 1/26/09 at 3:01pm

Since most people had pretty much forgotten about him one would think that his former church must be getting a cut from his HOB documentary to release this information and bring his name back in the public spotlight just in time for the airing.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 1/26/09 at 3:11pm

I read an article about Ted Haggard in the Washington Post yesterday, and I have to say I actually feel kind of bad for the guy-- and for his wife. It's painful enough for a married guy to come to terms with sexuality, more painful if he's a religious conservative dude, and even more if he's going through it in the public eye. I'm not saying I like him, but I feel bad for him. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/23/AR2009012300879.html

Plus, the article was sub-titled "Ted Haggard: Down, But Not Exactly Out." What kind of title is that supposed to be?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/26/09 at 3:13pm

That was obviously a typo Schmerg- it was supposed to read "Ted Haggard goes down but isn't exactly out."

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/26/09 at 3:18pm

pab--if you read the articles, it's actually the opposite. Not only do they NOT get a cut out the HBO documentary, but it also breaks the understanding the church had with him that he would NOT publicize the matter. In return for that understanding, they agreed not to publicize the additional complaints they had.

But girlfriend couldn't keep her mouth shut. AGAIN.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/26/09 at 3:21pm

So the Church bought off this volunteer that Haggard had the relationship with on the condition that he remain silent, and now he's coming forward because of Haggard's attempts to rehabilitate himself as the "victim" with this HBO documentary and public appearances.

Charming bunch of people.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/26/09 at 3:23pm

All press is good press. This story breaking now is good for Ted. Anything that might get his name on the news again and remind people about his upcoming HBO special, I mean documentary.

[pab]

Posted: 1/26/09 at 3:24pm

It's nice to know that we can always depend on the church to do the right thing?

Updated On: 1/26/09 at 03:24 PM

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 1/26/09 at 3:27pm

That was obviously a typo Schmerg- it was supposed to read "Ted Haggard goes down but isn't exactly out."

See, that's just the kind of concise, to-the-point journalism that the Washington Post needs!

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/26/09 at 3:29pm

Folks, feeling bad for Ted Haggard is a waste of good solid pity. The man lived a life of total hypocrisy, condemning gays while paying for sex and drugs from a male hustler. And then, like a real Christian leader and true Man Of God, he lied about it.

The man is not, repeat NOT to be pitied. Nobody put a gun to his head and forced him to be a pathetic scumbag lying drug-using closet case. He brought every last bit of it upon himself.

Updated On: 1/26/09 at 03:29 PM

[Scripps2]

Posted: 1/26/09 at 3:31pm

"It's painful enough for a married guy to come to terms with sexuality, more painful if he's a religious conservative dude"

If he was part of the church's congregation then yes. But this guy was a leader in that church, presumably preaching against the practices he was secretly pursuing. That makes him a hypocrite by his own standards and on a number of levels. Not only was he screwing himself up (ahem), he was encouraging homophobia in a place where there were undoubtedly other religious conservative dudes struggling to reconcile their faith to their sexuality.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 1/26/09 at 3:31pm

Meh, I know I shouldn't feel bad for him, but he seems so pathetic and pitiful in the articles I've read about him, like a scared, cornered rabbit or something. Mostly, though, I feel sorry for his wife and the rest of his family. They didn't have anything to do with this mess.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/26/09 at 3:34pm

Shmerg, that is exactly what he wants you to feel: oh poor little Teddy, he's really sorry, he's really the victim, aw his poor family, pass the kleenex, here let's give him some money and forget his drug-using exploitation of male prostitutes and church volunteers.

The guy's a DOUCHE. Another Bible-thumping DOUCHE.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 1/26/09 at 3:38pm

Ha, it's not that I feel SORRY for him or sorry that other people are being offensive to him, but I feel BAD for everything he's had to go through. I don't know if I can explain what I mean, but I feel bad that he's having such a hard time accepting his sexuality, coming clean, and moving on. He's a total scumbag, but you've got to feel bad for someone clinging to such pathetically tattered shreds of denial and so unable to be honest with himself.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/26/09 at 3:43pm

Shmerg, well, maybe. If the guy wasn't such a total DOUCHE, I could see something like pity being a valid reaction.

But no: he didn't ever try to deal with his feelings or his sexual orientation. He chose the scumbag closet-case path. He knew what he was doing. And he used his position to actively demonstrate against others who had done the work that he himself was resolutely refusing to do.

Pity SQUELCHED. Let him rot in poverty and misery.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 1/26/09 at 3:45pm

Ahhhh, when you put it like that I see where you're coming from.

I'm reminded of Mrs Birling in An Inspector Calls after the Inspector has wiped the floor with her. She is so pathetic in her broken-ness that it is almost impossible not to feel sorry for her, no matter how despicable her earlier behaviour.

But also remember how quickly she recovers after the Inspector has departed...

[pab]

Posted: 1/28/09 at 12:41am

Ted Haggard's Wife, Gayle, Discusses Husband's Same-Sex Attraction

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/28/09 at 2:04pm

I am with Roscoe on this one.
And did anybody see the Anderson Cooper interview with (I believe) the director of the doc? She was...very nutty.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/28/09 at 3:28pm

The nutty director is Nancy Pelosi's daughter, Alexandra Pelosi.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/28/09 at 3:41pm

The nut doesn't fall far from the tree, evidently.

[Tag]

Posted: 1/28/09 at 3:49pm

On Oprah I thought it was somewhat poignant when she asked if he was cured and he said he never believed it was a sickness.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/28/09 at 3:51pm

So did Oprah ask Haggard why he thought God made him want to have sex with men when he was chief of one of the main evangelical Christian organizations in the country? Why would God do that to somebody, except maybe to give a good laugh to all the real out and proud gays when the truth came out, as it inevitably would? Is God just a mean son of a bitch?

Yeah, right. Oprah, asking tough questions. Ha.