Welcome Back Pastor Ted
Ted Haggard has decided it’s time to end his self-imposed exile for redemption. Haggard, who in 2006 admitted to being the client of a gay escort, was on a trajectory which would have made him one of the most powerful Christian preachers in the Country. He has been holding bible studies at his home in the attempt to reconnect with his community.
Haggard claims that his experience changed him, that he got to see what it was like to be gay in the eyes of popular American Christianity. It would be wonderful if this experience did, in fact, change him. Rather than slithering back to his cushy old job and 6 figure paycheck to maintain the status quo imagine if he stood up as an example of an Evangelical willing to support equal rights. He certainly wants us to think that is the case when he said,
It was good for me to go through the Christian hatred of people believing that I was a gay man — and hating me so strongly because of it. And so because of it, my compassion for the homosexual community has gone up incredibly.
So, can we expect to see Ted Haggard shed his past to become a new man? Will he be standing up for gay rights issues and working to change the Evangelical community’s understanding of homosexuals? Sadly, no. Haggard went on to tell lies about his past, saying,
I was never a religious right, hateful, anti-gay guy.
Well, so much for hoping that he would learn from his mistakes.