Glenden BrownAll worn out and Haggard
Ted Haggard - in the interest of honesty - is just another moralizing hypocrite whose public stance was so at odds with his private behavior that something had to give eventually; that he was willing to ride the bigot train to wealth, influence and material comfort is absolute condemnation of his personal hypocrisy and the institutional corruption of conservative religion. I realize that he is a victim of a bigoted theology built on a delusional misunderstanding of human sexuality so basic as to beggar the imagination - according to the conservative thinking, no one is actually gay - they’re just so inherently weak that they engage in gay sex. But, he’s also an adult, supposedly an educated adult, and his inability to reconcile his sexual orientation with his beliefs is his burden and had unfortunately cost his wife and children and will continue cost them.
Being attracted to persons of the other gender (heterosexual), being attracted to persons of both genders (bisexual) and being attracted to persons of the same gender (homosexual) are normal and natural expressions of human sexuality. Sexual orietntation is not chosen; the choice persons make concerns the way in which they will respond to their inborn sexual orientation. Will you live your sexuality in a healthy, consensual, nonexploitive way? That means, if you are gay or lesbian, accepting your sexual orientation as an integral part of yourself and establishing healthy relationships. It’s not easy in our society to do that, but as a matter of personal integrity you have to. Otherwise, you do things like hire male prostitutes and use crystal meth to keep having sex for hours and hours and hours. Or, god forbid, IM’ing adolescent boys and asking them for photos of their roommates in their underwear.
I think Foley and Haggard are different aspects of the same problem: in the conservative movement, the only unforgivable sin is being gay. In a movement that willingly forgives almost any indiscretion - especially financial ones - actually being gay and living your life with integrity is the one unforgivable sin. Ted Haggard now has a problem: He can continue to pretend he’s a straight man tempted by gay sex and he’ll be received back into the fold - and eventuality will have another, inevitable crash. Ted Haggard, IOW, can continue to live in denial and delusion and will have to reap the rewards.
He could, however, accept his sexual orientation honestly and face the liberating consequences. I know of a few couples who have successfully carved out a life for themselves in mixed orientation marriages. It’s not easy but it can be done so he doesn’t necessarily have to divorce his wife. I know other couples for whom it was impossible.  Either way, for Ted Haggard, living with integrity, publicly claiming his identity as a gay or bisexual man, will lead to a better, more spiritually fulfilling life.Â
 For Haggard’s wife there’s no turning back. Finding out her husband likes sex with men is an unimaginably horrible blow to her ego. Another woman she might “compete†with - a man? No way. Her identity as a woman has taken the kind of blow from which there is no return. She will never be the same person. Her world has shifted beneath her with a mind-numbing, emotionally shattering quake. In this squalid affair, she and her children are the only innocent victims. Ted Haggard used them. He probably feels genuine affection, even love for them, but he used them to hide his own sexual immaturity. And the cost of that choice is not small.
November 6th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
Here is one point i would like addressed by someone with true understanding.
How long have the dem party private investigators/operators known about this guy? I’d bet that they have known about him for at least two years and just pulled him off the shelf now to demoralize the republ. evangelical crowd.
There are probably a lot of fag preachers out there but his guy also appears to have been on meth and he is kind of unattractive to boot.
Any thoughts Cassandra?
After all, the only thing worse than a fag is a preacher who is a fag but spends all his time denouncing homosexuals while getting his blank blanked at the same time.
November 6th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
America and Christianity are better off without Ted Haggard for reasons that extend far beyond his homosexual hypocrisy.
The mixture of government and religion corrupts both. Here’s to hoping that tomorrow ends the control that literalist Christians have had in both the Republican Party and Congress.
I want the old Republican Party back! The one that advocates limited government, lower taxes, states rights and restrained spending! (The things that literalist Christian Republicans don’t give a damn about)
November 6th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Meryl, it may surprize you that it might just as easily have been either karl or george who outed this perv, since he spent so much time ‘hanging out’ at the whitehouse, counselling and whatever. But then, you know how that goes. You did mention ’someone w / true understanding’…it wouldn’t be that crowd. As for ‘the only thing worse than a fag…’, I think you’re forgetting rove, gw, rummy, cheney, et al, all blankers of the worst kind.
November 6th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
Meryl/Unitary Ann
In the interest of civility, please try to refrain from using the word “fag”. Your points, ideas and intellect are best served by your clever and respectful, however dry, humor.
Thanks
Cliff
November 6th, 2006 at 8:45 pm
It is just a word. Don’t try to claim ownership of the english language. You don’t make the rules.
If you want a rule how about this one: You must henceforth refer to all married males with children as “Your wonderful greatness”. If you don’t you will cause me to be ‘SOOOOOOOOO OFFFENDED”.
So the answer if FU and the fag, i mean the horse, you rode in on.,
November 6th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
Dear Cliff:
Pls don’t accuse me of wanting to have sex with meryl cooke. I know he is kind of hot, but I am a committed lesbian … at least until my boyfriend takes me back. He want me to weigh in at under 225 before he will be seen in public with me.
You can have sex with meryl but i won’t.
November 6th, 2006 at 8:57 pm
Glenen Brown says it best in his closing paragraph.
As a society we rarely talk about the harm to innocent victims. In this case, the harm to spouses and children who are permanently scarred because of homosexuals’ “immaturity” (the adjective Glendenused)…I’ll add cowardice, unevolved, conformist path. And who nurtures that? Fear is a powerful motivator.
For the Iraqi people, we’re three years from our invasion and only now beginning to acknowledge the hundreds of thousands of lives that have been ruined by the U.S.’ “immature, unevolved, selfish” actions.
We have a chance to be a voice, to take action that permits others to brave their path, to see that being a maverick is admirable. Just as Joseph Campbell lived out his life as a self-described maverick in the field of studying and understanding religion and its part in the development of humankind. It brings hope that there can be more appreciation for seeing religion for what it is, an avenue that brings comfort through mythological storytelling. Religion used to suppress and judge and condemn others is dangerous.
Will we choose to evolve beyond that?
November 7th, 2006 at 8:52 am
I would bet dollars to donuts that Haggard will re-emerge in a few months, claiming to be “cured” of his previous sexual orientation problem. But I’m guessing no more White House conference calls for him.
November 7th, 2006 at 9:30 am
Richard - I agree. I don’t think we’ve seen the end of him, although ala John Paulk, I do expect him to find himself in hot water on a regular basis - maybe he’ll get sex for free rather than paying for it but it will be something.
And as far as conservative politics go, he’s pretty much done beyond being a useful idiot poster boy for the “you can cure homosexuality” crowd.