Ted Haggard, disgraced former minister of New Life Church in Colorado, is seeking to make a comeback as a preacher. (See http://news.aol.com/article/is-disgraced-pastor-reinventing-himself/258087?icid=100214839x1213997335x1200907067) This is less than a year after he was ordered by his church to refrain from preaching for a period of a few years in response to the revelation of sexual sin and drug use by Mr. Haggard.
Haggard is justifying his earlier return to preaching by pointing to his "gift" and "call from God," and he has a band of supporters and yes-men who are singing the same tune to anyone who will listen. Rather than face the fact that he has become a toxic person, he has sought to shift the blame for his toxicity onto others, going so far as "chastising church leaders for missing an opportunity to use his scandal to 'communicate the gospel worldwide,'" and boasting that he has emerged from his scandal with a stronger Christian faith and marriage than he'd ever had.
This is really bizarre, yet it is typical of many fallen and disgraced "ministers" in American evangelical culture. The fact that they are able to stage "comebacks" after exposure of serious, long-standing sin says something about the people who are still gullible enough to listen to them. It shows that there are still too many of us who call ourselves "evangelical" who are willing to give their lives and resources to leaders whose gift consists of nothing more than being able to organize or speak well and entertainingly, and who don't know how to live what they preach.
It also shows that too many of us don't have enough confidence in our own ability to understand the Bible, and is seen in our insecure search for "experts" whom we worship as heroes. And it shows that there is still too much money to be made in starting a big megachurch ministry. It's the money that ruins things, by attracting unscrupulous men to positions of power in much the same way that flies are attracted to hot, smelly dung.
Reclaiming the Church One Story at a Time
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yeah because Jesus would want us all to scorn him for the rest of his life, and never, ever forgive him. Preachers have to be perfect, they're not allowed to live in any kind of sin or overcome impure impulsions. I think we should tattoo a big H on his forehead, so he can no longer deceive us into thinking he's "normal" when he really, secretly struggles with homosexuality.
I think you misunderstand a few things. I am not condemning Ted Haggard for the sin that brought him down from his "ministry." But the Bible clearly says that those who stand before the Church as teachers and leaders should be able to demonstrate by their lives that they know what they're talking about. (read 1 Timothy 3, for example.) Ted's sin showed that his qualifications for this role were a bit weak.
There is a further point. After his being found out, he could have become a model of repentance and restoration, even to the point of permanently accepting some other role in life than that of preacher. But instead, he immediately started trying to stage a comeback - an action which, to me, is inconsistent with repentance. I don't know about others, but I will not trust him to be a leader figure to me until he proves that he has become a safe person for that role. Consider also that he was not only involved in homosexual acts, but in stealing and drug use.
I'll put it another way. I was involved for a long time in a very abusive, cultic church whose leaders held themselves up as paragons of virtue while ruining the lives of their followers. The place was slowly killing me, and my involvement in it was turning me into a first-class jerk.
But a time came in which many members of that church learned the truth about the secret lives of the leaders - namely, that the chief honcho was a serial adulterer and embezzler with four Social Security numbers, that one of his sons who had been made a deputy leader was a long-time wife-beater, and much more besides. When these things came out, there was quite naturally a great deal of anger over this.
Yet there were also people saying "We need to forgive our leaders! Let's not have a bitter spirit," etc. Okay, I can accept that. Here is what forgiveness looks like to me: I will release these leaders from any debts they owe me on account of the way their treatment of me or direction/advice given to me messed up my life. I will repent of any hatred of them on account of this.
But what it does not mean is that I will ever trust them to be in any sort of leadership role in any church I attend until they prove themselves to be safe people instead of sociopaths! The Good Book says, "You will know them by their fruits." The fruit of these people almost poisoned me to death. Let them now "bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance," if they ever want my trust again.
To my mind, a much truer picture of repentance can be found in the life of former British Cabinet minister John Profumo. It would be instructive to read what he did after he was caught in a scandal. You might also want to read a commentary on Profumo and Haggard found at http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2009/01/ted-haggards-hard-road-to-rede.html.
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