Friday, November 14, 2008

Ted Haggard, victim

All aboard the Pity Express:
Haggard appeared Nov. 2 at the Open Bible Fellowship in Morrison, Ill. . . .
Haggard spoke about how his "struggle with sin," involving a male prostitute and drug purchases, grew out of a sexual incident with a man employed by his father when Haggard was 7 years old. . . .
Haggard said in the sermons that although he was living a wonderful life with his wife, Gail, five children and his New Life family, he suddenly found himself caught in sin's trap.
"When I became 50 years old, I don't know if it was pressure, or if it was midlife crisis, or if it was just psychological determinism (as) Freud would say, or whatever — I don't know what it was — but for some reason what happened to me as a child started to produce fruit," he said.
Uh, I'm 49, so I guess next year I'll have to hire a bodybuilder to bring some meth and meet me in a motel room, right? And that will be all right, so long as I can tell some scary story from my childhood to justify it.

It's probably cruel and wrong to mock Haggard, and I don't mean to ridicule the idea of penitence and redemption. But what he's really saying is, "Hey, it's not my fault. I'm OK now. Can I please go back to my influential multimillion-dollar megachurch ministry?"

Well, no you can't, Pastor Ted. You've brought shame to the church, and your career as a minister/evangelist is over. Permanently. Finito. Ended. Eighty-sixed. Finished. Did I already say "over"?

Go to work at Wal-Mart and get over it.

1 comment:

  1. Did Swaggart and Bakker get theirs back?

    As one who had a father that was a minister and pastor, please let me appeal to you not to judge those who have been called and have fallen too harshly. They and their children endure attacks the congregation and the outside world can never imagine.

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