At this point another gay outing associated with Bush/Cheney’s GOP shouldn’t come as much of a shock to anyone, except to maybe their core evangelical base. But after today, the jig’s probably up for that demographic now too, despite what Falwell may try spewing to Paula Zahn on CNN. Hypocrisy has a way of cutting to the chase.
It seems that Pastor Ted Haggard, the head of the ultra conservative National Association of Evangelicals and founder of the New Life (mega) Church in Colorado Springs, has been caught having an affair with a gay male prostitute for the last three years. There are also allegations that Haggard used methamphetamine. Haggard abruptly resigned this afternoon shortly after these allegations surfaced.
For those who’ve seen that creepy Jesus Camp movie trailer, this is the guy behind that movie. The New Life Church is also one of the churches that’s preying (praying?) on the US Air Force Academy cadets in Colorado Springs. But he’s far more than that. He’s the single most influential evangelical in the United States. From Harper’s:
Pastor Ted, who talks to President George W. Bush or his advisers every Monday, is a handsome forty-eight-year-old Indianan, most comfortable in denim. He likes to say that his only disagreement with the President is automotive; Bush drives a Ford pickup, whereas Pastor Ted loves his Chevy. In addition to New Life, Pastor Ted presides over the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), whose 45,000 churches and 30 million believers make up the nation’s most powerful religious lobbying group, and also over a smaller network of his own creation, the Association of Life-Giving Churches, 300 or so congregations modeled on New Life’s “free market†approach to the divine.
As someone who vividly remembers the downfall of myriad southern evangelical hypocrites in the 80s, nothing this group gets caught doing would surprise me. After all, Haggard’s just following the path forged by the cretinous likes of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Jim Bakker, James Dobson, and Jimmy Swaggart. Nothing really new here except that this twit held weekly conference calls with the White House and is said to have had direct access to the President. Back in the 80s we put these people in jail. Today, they’re advising the President and setting public policy. Can you say, faith-based abstinence-only eduction?
There was a time when I thought it would sure be interesting to find out why the White House Secret Service logs show repeated overnight visits by Jeff Gannon, the $600/night gay male prostitute who was caught posing as a reporter in the White House press corp., but I think it’s pretty clear now what’s been going on. Of course the press will eat this story, just like they did the Gannon story. Yet somehow I suspect that real evangelicals have had about as much of these clowns as they can take.
Update: hear the voicemails, here.
