was this guy foley's minister, lol
"'Megachurch' leader with White House ties quits, admits indiscretions
Mike Sheehan
Published: Friday November 3, 2006
The leader of an influential Christian 'megachurch' who has ties to the White House has resigned his authority amid allegations that he had used drugs and had a homosexual affair with a male prostitute.
The Rev. Ted Haggard, who until Thursday was President of the National Association of Evangelicals, has apparently admitted to some of the claims made by Mike Jones, a bodybuilder and personal trainer based in Denver, Colorado.
Jones claimed Wednesday on a Colorado radio talk show that he'd had a sexual affair with a prominent pastor, but did not give names at the time. Jones and Haggard were later identified by a Denver TV news station.
Rev. Haggard, a graduate of Oral Roberts University, at first denied the charges, telling the station on Wednesday night that he'd "never had a gay relationship with anybody, and I'm steady with my wife. I'm faithful to my wife."
With scrutiny intensifying, on Thursday Haggard resigned from the evangelical association and took paid leave as senior pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. He said in a statement that he could "not continue to minister under the cloud created by the accusations" and was stepping down to let the church conduct its own investigation. The statement did not include a denial of Jones' allegations.
The Rocky Mountain News described Haggard as a "giant of the conservative Christian movement, with direct access to President Bush." In May 2005, Harper's Magazine ran a piece on Haggard reporting that the pastor talked "to President George W. Bush or his advisers every Monday." Harper's also noted that when he was asked why Bush "had not apologized for the false assertions used to justify the Iraq war, or for the dishonest smears marshaled on his campaign's behalf," Haggard replied:
I think if you asked the President these questions once he's out of office, he'd say, 'You're right. We shouldn't have done it.' But right now if he said something like that, well, the world would spin out of control! ... Listen, I think [we Christian believers] are responsible not to lie, but I don't think we're responsible to say everything we know. |
