Not again! Ted Haggard stars in another Pelosi film AND another sex scandal

The premise for the first film was strange enough: Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of the Speaker of the House, not much of a believer by her own admission, palling around with fundagelicals while making a HBO documentary called "Friends of God."

Her secret weapon in making that film -- and its sequel, airing this week on HBO -- was the Rev. Ted Haggard, a hugely successful pastor in Colorado and president of the National Association of Evangelicals. While another documentary, "Jesus Camp," depicted Haggard as a kinda creepy fire-and-brimstone type, Pelosi found him to be helpful, accommodating and, well, fun.

"If 'Friends of God' is able to overcome the doubters and become a useful document of today's Bible Belt, much of the credit must go to Haggard," I wrote in 2007. "Pelosi said he took her into his family and on trips through the evangelical world; opened doors to Jerry Falwell, who allowed her to film inside his Thomas Road Baptist Church; and turned her on to subculture phenomena like Christian wrestling, which looks just like the blood-and-guts version on cable TV, except there's an altar call at the end."

But just as she was putting the finishing touches on that film, a scandal brought down Pastor Ted. He admitted to having sex with a male escort (and church volunteer) and purchasing crystal meth from him. One of those will get you kicked out of your pulpit. The other, apparently, gets you kicked out of Colorado.

"The Trials of Ted Haggard," Pelosi's new documentary airing at 7 p.m. CT Thursday on HBO, offers glimpses into the ex-pastor's new life since leaving New Life, the megachurch he built. At about 40 minutes running time, "Trials" cannot offer a comprehensive overview of Haggard's nearly two years of exile since losing his pastorate.

Pelosi's film is long on sympathy and short on insight. We learn that he agreed to leave the state, along with his wife Gayle and two teenage sons, even though it would require them to shuffle from one supporter's spare bedroom to the next. We learn that the gay escort, Mike Jones, is milking his fame for what it's worth.

Word of the impending documentary's broadcast, however, seems to be the impetus for a second man to come forward alleging that Haggard, while still pastor of New Life, had an inappropriate relationship with him. The Gazette of Colorado Springs reports that the victim, who received a generous cash payout from the church (which is calling it "compassionate assistance"), plans to hold a news conference next Monday. Meanwhile, Haggard is scheduled to appear with Larry King on Thursday night. Meanwhile, an HBO spokesman tells TVB that there will be a "chyron" (graphic) tacked onto the end of "The Trials of Ted Haggard" explaining "that since the completion of the film, additional allegations have surfaced about Ted Haggard's inapproproriate sexual behavior."

Pelosi's film is notable for what it doesn't bother telling us, either: that Haggard received cash and parting gifts worth nearly $1 million, if you count the house he left behind but still owns. (In the real world, an asset you can't enjoy for a few years is known as "retirement.") And only at the very end of the documentary are we told that the Haggards were cleared to reoccupy their house, if not their old church home.

Clearly it was degrading for Ex-Pastor Ted to be carting around his worldly effects in the back of a minivan and interview for menial jobs. And I'm sure the humiliations of being dragged through the news cycle a few times -- not to mention explaining to one's children why their comfortable lives have suddenly turned into the movie "Running on Empty" -- are genuine.

But none of that is really what this film is about. "The Trials of Ted Haggard," at its core, is about denial. Strip away all the particulars of his subculture and Haggard's response to his ordeal is a very American one. It's a bump in the road, a speck in his eye, an Old Testament thorn in his New Testament side. He's not letting it get him down, even as he calls himself a "loser" and berates himself for not developing a just-in-case second career along the way. He's still in a great marriage; he's not underqualified, he's overqualified; and as for this health insurance he's selling door-to-door -- well, it just might be the best policy he's ever seen.

Haggard is not letting his struggles shake his faith in God, nor is Gayle the least regretful about her decision to marry Ted. I find this wholly admirable. Less admirable is the worldview they cling to, one that sees homosexuality as something to be avoided at all costs. Though it's clear that his much-publicized attempt to "pray the gay away" was less than a resounding success for Haggard, and he now considers his sexuality to be a complex matter, nothing he says to Pelosi challenges the conservative evangelical credo of hetero today, hetero tomorrow, hetero forever.

Comments

[g]

I wish Pelosi and her mom would just join the Republican party - where they belong.

From signing off on torture, to Bush promoting, and now an apologist for the twisted and corrupt "Christianist" right, they are wrong.

[Jack E. Jett]

Pelosi and her Mother have been on a non stop mission to gain sympathy for Ted Haggard so he can create even more homophobia.

Did you ask how she felt about the fact that Ted lied to her, over and over?

Did you ask Lil Pelosi why she told Mike Jones to fuck off and that he wasn't relevant to the story?

Why did she hide the fact that the church has paid out several 6 figure pay outs of hush money to cover his his sexual abuse charges? WHY?

Why does Lil Pelosi say that she doesn't think Haggard is gay or straight, but "somewhere in between". This lady lives in San Francisco and can't tell a gay man when she sees one. How about this....he is a man that like to have penis shoved up his bung hole. Lil Pelosi, we call that gay.

This HBO documentary is a slap in the face to the entire GLBTQ community.

[Watt Smith]

I can't believe this is happening. How can people who continually do this sort of thing be happy? How can the unhappy be in a position of leadership?

http://www.wattsmith.com/awesomevideos

Watt Smith

[Thinkingoutloud]

For Ted Haggard and the church that he led, the blows just keep coming.

[Mark Jerome]

To paraphrase the Jane's Addiction song, "Ted, just admit it!". You're gay. Get over it.

[Kathy Balmer]

He has a serious sex problem that his wife has chosen to tolerate - even at the expense it takes. She loves him, obviously. His bigger problem may be that of lying - which says very little for his past peer associates. It's ruining the Christian church. When one pillar goes, the rest go, too, it seems, and so "Christian" becomes a designer name for whatever you want it to be. The gays can't stand being left out of "Christian" life, for whatever reason, so they have to remake it to suit their preferences and choices.

[Janet Greene]

I grew up the daughter of a fundamentalist pastor in Canada. I know all about denial and rigid doctrine that destroys people. After many years of reading, talking, and otherwise searching, I have found FREEDOM in atheism that I could never have imagined in my christian days. I am so sad for Haggard; that he and his family cling to this very sick and immoral worldview that represses and demonizes people for normal human needs.

[Heather]

All organized religion is based on belief and not rational thinking. All religions continue to exist out of feeding misinformation to control people, increasing profits like all major corporations. They promote fear,racism, and oppression. There is no organized religion that has any respect for knowledge based on evidence based information or any one that has a differing view.

Whether it's the Roman Catholic Pope, this week, forgiving and reinstating some ignorant dude who's statement that there were no gas chambers killing Jews during the Holocaust or whether it's about homosexual's, or Jews, or Asians, or Aboriginal peoples, or woman, or stem cell research. Christian church is promoting hated and making uninformed ideas about homosexuality that flies in the face of science. Any day now I expect that there will be a news release by organize religion that the earth is really flat. Maybe the only way to get rid of organized religion is to tax them all, money, power, control seems to be what drives them all. In these tough times we could use their tax money.

[Frank]

hyp·o·crite
Pronunciation: \ˈhi-pə-ˌkrit\
Function: noun Date: 13th century
1 : a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion
2 : a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings
3 : see also; Jim Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, Paul Barnes, Joe Barron, Ted Haggard

heterosexual with complications
1 : a married man that has gay lovers
2 : see also; Ted Haggard

If Brother Ted practiced what he and the other evangicals preach, then he would have stood up and confessed that he "CHOSE" to have homosexual relations. Instead, he took the ultimate hypocrite route and tried to defend his actions. So do all of the gays in the world "choose" to be gay, except for Brother Ted? Come Haggard, admit that you are a bisexual married male that likes gay sex. You're only making yourself look more stupid by giving us this crap that you're a "heterosexual with complications!" GEEZ!!!!!!!!

[John]

I really don't understand people's hatred of Christians that screw up. Are you guys all perfect? Is everyone 100% consistent (never hypocritical)? Have you ever said something is wrong and then gone out and done it? If we've all failed and been hypocritical and done wrong, why are you guys ragging on Ted Haggard so much?
And what's up with this "he had sex with a guy so he must be gay" mentality? If a gay guy has sex with a woman, is he a closet straight?
And to the young lady that was raised by the fundamentalist pastor: OK, you were mistreated and saw the hypocrisy of some (or many) in the church. None of that will matter when you stand before your Creator at the final judgement. You will stand alone and just because you've been done wrong and just because you don't "believe there's a God," it won't matter. Read Hebrews 9:27.

[Denece]

I too am shocked at the many who judge. Absolutely he has issues...who doesn't have issues to one extreme or the other? How many others are in society just as guilty or worse? I understand the position he held in the Church and in society. Yet, he has shown that he is human, he makes mistakes like we do. Maybe his sermons on the very subjects he is guilty of, were prepared with such desire on his part to do the "right thing"? Knowing in his heart what is "righteous" and fighting to control the urges within. Along with those struggles come more lies and offenses, thus hurting the ones that look up to him. There are a lot of polished Christians in the world whom you believe to have it all together, but they don't! He is trying very hard to right the wrong. As fellow Christians, we need to embrace and support him and his family.

[Frank]

John, I will be the first to admit that I've "sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." I know I am a sinner, but I have never stood up in a pulpit and preached that a group of people is going straight to hell when I in fact am a member of that group. A hypocrite is one the condemns an action while practicing it, which Haggard obviously did many times with many men. Do you realized how many innocent people have been hurt by his preachings? How many parents have turned against their own children because Haggard and others like him preached that all gay people are sick and going that to hell because they "chose" to be gay? That is what's wrong with this situation. He put himself on his almighty pedestal as above sin, when he was actually living a lie and lying to everyone around him. I have no more sympathy for "Brother" Ted Haggard than I do for Mike Jones, who is upset because people are calling him a whore!

[Suzie]

Wow, I truly command Haggard. For a man who has fallen so short from grace and still remains faithful deserves all my respect. I am a believer, but I am not sure if my faith is strong enough to with stand the constant blow that Haggard and his family have received. We all are sinners, but we tend to keep our sins well hidden. That wife of Haggard is truly a Godly woman. Other than Hillary Clinton no other woman would take that crap. That woman deserves a medal…

[James Wilcox]

Frank, the words you are saying Ted preached came not from him but from the bible, Ted also had said on many occasions that he was just a man, a man that was born into sin and a man that will continue to sin. FOR THIS REASON is why we need Jesus. Ted has said that he is a Hetrosexual who struggles with same sex attraction, does this make him gay? I believe that if he should choose to continue sexual relationships with men then he is in fact gay, if he does not then I believe he is a Hetrosexual who is struggleing with same sex attraction. As you said above, would a gay man who had sexual relationship with a woman be a closet stright man? We need not pigeonhole people like that, we are all sinners, in my youth I stole on a few occasions, today I do not, I am not tempted to steal nor would I ever again, for ANY reason, I have been tempted as we all are, but that does NOT make me a thief, because I dont act on my temptation. I was NOT born a thief, but I WAS born a sinner and will continue the rest of my life being tempted by sin, again it does not make me a Thief

[Donald]

'To err is human, To forgive is Divine' Ted is not unlike anyone of us being vulnerable to temptation and faced with choices each day on what to do. However there is a difference in his visibility which increases his feelings of responsibility. This man is responsible to millions; letting down millions was not an option and at some point told himself that he could handle it and find his way back to his heterosexual self. On a much smaller scale I've felt where he has been and I guarantee his hypocrisy was what damaged his spirit most. He was not OK with lying to his congregation and his family thus the drugs were introduced to cover the pain and humiliation.

Regardless of what is said here, he has a very difficult road ahead of him to find his way back to where he believes in himself and the ability of GOD to restore everything that was taken. When and If that happens is in Ted's hands only and really doesn't require anything from John Q Public.

Concerning Homosexuals... I have friends that have chosen that lifestyle and I could love them no less because of their choice than if they chose a whopper over a big mac.
Love is completely without condition and so should be the country's treatment of gays; however in relation to the bible it is not a healthy lifestyle for anyone and has thus been deemed a sin. We all are tempted by things that are unhealthy for us for whatever reasons to different degrees and different avenues. There is a hymn..'Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin. Each victory will help you, some other to win'