If you watched Richard Dawkins’ documentary The Root of All Evil? earlier this year, you will remember Ted Haggard. He’s the sickeningly smarmy evangelical priest who threw Dawkins out of his church for calling his congregation animals (when actually all Dawkins had done was to tell him that evolution was true).
Well, it seems that Haggard has some skeletons in his closet. He has stepped down as head of the National Association of Evangelicals and as senior pastor of the New Live church in Colorado pending investigation of claims that he has paid for sex with a male escort. I wasn’t going to mention this as it is, after all, only an allegation, but there’s now apparently an email going round claiming that at least some of the accusations are true.
Update: This gets better. Apparently a letter from Haggard was read at the services at the New Life church yesterday. In it, Haggard admits that many of the accusations are true.
The fact is, I am guilty of sexual immorality, and I take responsibility for the entire problem.
I am a deceiver and a liar. There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I’ve been warring against it all of my adult life.
Ah, well, of course you have to have demons, so that you can war against them and let God help you to win. Then you can do a whole new evangelical tour and make loads more money. Cynical, moi? It’s a risky strategy though (does anyone remember Jim Bakker).