Mercy Me: Ted Haggard and His Accusers
Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 12:36PM | by Otter 
Not Pictured: Cloven HoofThe Internet Monk, one of the most influential Christian chatter-blogs out there (and a fine one it is), caught my attention with this post on Ted Haggard.
I don't follow the fortunes of Christian pastors much, but from what I understand, the man had a gay affair of some sort, went into therapy, found Jesus (again), straightened up, and came back out the other side ready for battle, so to speak. Now he's back in ministry.
I've absolutely no opinion (or right to an opinion) on whether Ted Haggard should be restored to ministry. That's up to people who are in authority over him, if any, and up to the people he's in authority over. I'm sure there are very good reasons for the man to retire gently to the countryside to grow begonias or something.
But when you see the exfoliation of indignation set up in the place where it ought not to be (that is, in the comments section of an evangelical blog) it's usually worth a second look.
My interest in this is purely ironical. It seems to me that Evangelical Christianity offers itself to the world as an articulation of the sole means by which one's sins and offenses may be forgiven. Peter is restored to Jesus after a good weep-fest, David is a man after God's own heart even though he's a murderer and adulterer... there's a sizable list of offense-and-restoration tales in scripture. Note that most of them are not merely "forgiveness" in some theoretical sense, but a canceling of debt and penalty together. David remains king, though in a troubled way, and Peter still gets to be the rock on which Jesus builds his church.
And that's a faith I could theoretically get behind.
And yet, here we have a stable of Christians who don't know the particulars of Haggard's case and who seem to me to be engaged in a war to the knife to protect their right to say that he is not worthy of restoration to his post.
Maybe he's not: I imagine his support groups, family, wife, close confidantes know the truth of the matter.
I doubt anybody else does, or could.
But the assumption that Christianity's business is to play the devil's advocate makes me think of Satan.
He wasn't always the devil, and he certainly wasn't always a fallen angel.
He was at one time in Hebrew literature the one who stood before God and accused the people of God, who made mischief in the court of Yahweh.
When Jesus sees him fall from heaven (Luke 10:18), he is saying that there is no longer anyone making such mischief in the court of God, nobody to accuse the forgiven people of God to God's face.
Well, evidently Jesus hadn't met the Christian Church yet.
Reader Comments (5)
Interesting. My knee-jerk reaction is to be cynical and doubtful of Haggard's motives. But I did some googling, went to Haggard's website, and read some of what he had to say. You know what? He seems sincere to me. I hope that he is, and that he will be able to help some people. I wish him the best. I'm sorry that people still feel the need to judge him so harshly.
While I do not judge Ted for his sins that led to his fall, I am skeptical of Ted and his "calling" at this point.
I know Ted Haggard, and I know his wife. While I do not pretend to be close to either of them, I have spent time with them both socially and in ministry situations pre-fall.
I defended him when the first allegations originally surfaced. I forgave him and remained supportive when he admitted to buying the crack and having sex with the male prostitute. When he parted from his restoration team, started asking for donations in a manner that was not in alignment with his restoration agreement or in a way that reflected integrity, lied about how and why he violated the severance contract he made with New Life Church, appeared on Oprah the same week we learned of NLC having paid off a young male intern to keep quiet about his relations with Haggard, and then he danced, avoiding Oprah's question if there were going to be others who came forward with similar allegations....... I just don't know what to think of Ted any longer.
Illicit sex, drugs, lying..... I look at these things and think "there but for the grace of God go I", but Ted's unwillingness to be anything in the future but the published pastor of a mega church, leader of the NAE with a bragged about "hotline to the president", causes me to be very wary.
Tanya, I think for those of you who know Haggard, it's a much different ballgame. Your comments are much elevated by the "I know Ted Haggard" part.
The rest of us have to rely on a very dodgy media information system that can ruin a life without being answerable for it.
My own issues are not so much with Haggard: those of you who know him and have to (or get to) live with him can sort that out.
My difficulty is with the weirdly casual condemnation of people who are unwilling to admit that they have no right to comment at all but who use their status as children of God and Christians to condemn someone they don't even know.
I doubt you'd want me to condemn him based on hearsay from you. You have that right: you're part of his circle or whatever. But I'm not. Family quarrel. Totally wrong for me to take a side in it, and if I were a Christian it would be doubly wrong for me to be glad to believe in the side that speaks evil of him. That would be dangerously close to self-righteousness (which is boring) and self-congratulation (which is repulsive).
I was just coming back to add that I know my earlier comment is missing your main point.
I completely agree with you. I have never understood Christians who are the modern equivalent of those who yelled "Crucify Him!"
Thanks for linking to the post, Otter. I'm grateful for your perspective in our conversation, even though, as you know, I disagree.
All I will say is that when someone like TH uses the media to make his case in public, as he has over the past year, and makes a big media splash to proclaim his "resurrection," he has opened himself up to public scrutiny and criticism.
I don't delight in doing this. I see his actions as symptomatic of an evangelicalism that is in a lot of trouble at the moment.
Finally, I sincerely hope he proves me wrong.