Ted Haggard

Good Monday to you all.

I have been following this whole Ted Haggard mess. Truth be told I wasn't too clued into who he was or how strong his particular influence has been. Several YouTube searches later I was caught up on how he presented himself prior to his fall from grace.

I remember being in Dallas when it was revealed that Clinton had in fact had an inappropriate relationship with Monica. I can remember feeling pretty arrogant and self-righteous as I walked into church that morning ready to hear a condemning sermon about him, his actions, and the state of our country.

Praise God I was humbled. Scott Sager got up that Sunday and said something I will never forget. He said,

"Imagine if this morning as we all walked into the auditorium, up on the screen in place of the announcements we are accustomed to, there was your sin on display for everyone to see. Imagine that the person right next to you could turn and look at you and know specifically what you did last night, last week, or last month that displeased God and brought shame on your family."

I don't really remember the rest of that sermon, but that intro has stuck with me eight years later, and I think about it often and it has kept me from mounting my high horse of righteousness on numerous occasions.

Mike Cope has the full text of Ted Haggard's apology which I tend to believe is sincere. I'll tell you it is so scary sometimes being a minister because the fall can be so hard and sometimes your efforts to keep from falling actually push you closer to the edge. Mike's post ends asking this question:

"Are you surrounded by friends who will support you, listen to you, pray for you, and have compassion toward you without being overly kind? (Kind, yes. But not sloppy “hey, everyone does it” kind.) And are you that kind of friend to others?"

My answer is yes I have some relationship like that, but I could make them even deeper if I chose to have to courage to 'go there' with these friends. This has been a spiritual goal for myself to foster this kind of communication with my close friends, and it has made a huge difference for me.

Finally, Gordon MacDonald a prominent Evangelical leader (think Tony Campolo) who himself fell from grace due to an adulterous affair 20 years ago has a fantastic post regarding this whole event. Gordon was one of the pastors brought in to counsel Clinton during his failings and is quoted as saying he believed Clinton to be a truly repentant sinner. The entire post can be read here, but I wanted to pull this quote out:

Ever since the beginning of the Bush administration, I have worried over the tendency of certain Evangelical personalities to go public every time they visited the White House or had a phone conference with an administration official. I know it has wonderful fund-raising capabilities. And I know the temptation to ego-expansion when one feels that he has the ear of the President. But the result is that we are now part of an evangelical movement that is greatly compromised….identified in the eyes of the public as deep in the hip pockets of the Republican party and administration. My own belief? Our movement has been used. There are hints that the movement—once cobbled together by Billy Graham and Harold Ockenga—is beginning to fragment because it is more identified by a political agenda that seems to be failing and less identified by a commitment to Jesus and his kingdom. Like it or not, we are pictured as those who support war, torture, and a go-it-alone (bullying) posture in international relationships. Any of us who travel internationally have tasted the global hostility toward our government and the suspicion that our President’s policies reflect the real tenants of Evangelical faith. And I might add that there is considerable disillusionment on the part of many of our Christian brothers/sisters in other countries who are mystified as to where American evangelicals are in all of this. Our movement may have its Supreme Court appointments, but it may also have compromised its historic center of Biblical faith. Is it time to let the larger public know that some larger-than-life evangelical personalities with radio and TV shows do not speak for all of us?