Letters to the Editor
-
Boy, I'd hate to see what they'd do to you if you weren't "family"!
This just in from the so-called Christians in Colorado Springs (Now Re-Named Hypocrite Springs):
"We, the Overseer Board of New Life Church, have concluded our deliberations concerning the moral failings of Pastor Ted Haggard. Our investigation and Pastor Haggard's public statements have proven without a doubt that he has committed sexually immoral conduct."
Without a doubt and without much deliberation either.
"In consultation with leading evangelicals and experts familiar with the type of behavior Pastor Haggard has demonstrated, we have decided that the most positive and productive direction for our church is his dismissal and removal. In addition, the Overseers will continue to explore the depth of Pastor Haggard's offense so that a plan of healing and restoration can begin."
Oooo! Ouch! they are going to "explore the depth" of Reverend Cocksucker's offense. But all in a high-minded kind of way of course. They want to know all the juicy details (like who's pitchin' and who's catchin' in that relationship) so that the "healing" can begin. Oh yes, Jesus, let the healing begin after we learn all about what makes Haggard's little general stand up and salute.
"Please continue to pray for Pastor Ted and his family and ... We will get through this together. Remember, New Life Church has never been a man, or a building or anything else--we are a family."
Aw, ain't that something? They are nuthin' but one big family! That's why they stripped Ted and his family of everything and threw them right out the door without so much as a howdy doo.
That's some family all right. Kinda gets ya right here, don't it?
-
Aw no, they didn't say that, did they?
"In consultation with leading evangelicals and experts familiar with the type of behavior Pastor Haggard has demonstrated..."
Well I guess with all the closet rump rangers and ass bandits and pedophiles in the evangelical churches, they had a lot of consultants to choose from.
-
yet another one, caught with his pants down ...
Alas, the stench of hypocrisy continues to ooze from the buttox of the right. Another self-righteous "Christian" gay-basher caught with his pants down. Another Bush-bully, called upon by Jesus to cleanse our great Sodom of all the icky homos, turns out to be icky himself.
When will Christians realize that their ignorance (and consequent fear and revulsion) of homosexuality is being co-opted by Republicans simply to have a wedge issue, to mobilize them like a bunch of lemmings to go out and vote against their own economic interests just so they can think they're saving the rest of us heathens from ourselves.
Stop being so gullible, so damned predictable, that cynical neo-Machiavellis like Karl Rove have you pegged for suckers. "Cry homo, and they'll vote." That's the formula. And it works. And you should be insulted.
When you all congregate this Sunday to "let the healing begin," perhaps a few among you will stand up and ask the question: Why are the staunchest, most outspoken opponents of homosexuality in our congregations and in our political circles turning out to be the biggest perverts? These men are our spiritual leaders, the pillars of our communities, and they are hiring male prostitutes and diddling page-boys. Why? Are we culpable at all? Have we created such a poisonous climate of hate and intolerance and fear that we're forcing these poor men to live cruel lies. Lies that fester for so long they eventually implode, ruining the men, their families, and often innocent children.
The answer? Yes. Of course it's your fault. You hate in Jesus's name. And you are an embarrassment to his works. And you are being manipulated, and you are suckers. Ted Haggard is your victim and your legacy in American history. I only wish I could live another 100 or 200 years so I can join our great-great-great-grandchildren for a good laugh when they study the "Christian awakening" of the early 2000s. The last gasp of a hateful and hollow dispensation.
-
His interim replacement
Did you notice his interim replacement, Ross Parsley? I saw him on TV announcing that Haggard had stepped down. Parsley has a breathy, effeminate voice like something from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Not proof of anything of course, but you have to wonder.
-
This is a simple case of a pious man
sucking cock and shoving the social agenda upon others, in the guise of jesus. There are no pastors or priests (or televangelists, for that matter) who aren't corrupt to the core. They are evil, venal, pole smoking jackasses.
-
A haggard christian
I'm beginning to think of the likes of Haggard, Reed, Bennett, Swaggart, etc. etc. more as charlatans than righty wing-nuts. They are dirven by the desire to use religion merely to accumulate power and wealth. They cheat, they lie, they gamble, they fuck the wrong people, but with enough power you can do those things while telling others not to. They are no more 'religious leaders' than snake-oil salesmen were scientists. As an atheist, I still retain respect for those I consider true religious leaders, the new Episcopal head, some heads of seminaries, and mainstream theologians, many of whom adhere to the principles of compassion, tolerance and social justice.
-
Intolerance, deceit and hypocrisy
If Ted haggard hadn't been putting himself forward as a paragon of moral virtue, and the Christian model of behavior for a lot of young people, his bisexuality would be of little or no interest to many people since, as the educated among us already know, it is a rather common aspect of human sexual behavior. Obviously Haggard could only repress himself for so long because in the final analysis he too is human.
At least now those anxious and guilto-ridden young people he scolded with his hell-fire and brimstone laced sermons against homosexuality might reexamine their own temptations and pursue their sexuality more honestly. In my experience devout fundamentalist Christians are at least as likely to be bisexual and homosexual as the rest of us unborn again heathens, and I have known many who have acted, with or without guilt, on their inclinations. It is the threat of being kicked out of the tribe, the clan, or as they like to call it, "the family" that prevents more of them from coming out of a very crowded closet.
The threat of blackmail used to be one of the rationales for not granting homosexuals security clearences during the Cold War, and generally discriminating against them in the cruelest ways. Obviously the general acceptance, but religiously inspired, shame and stigma associated with a homosexual orientation made keeping it a secret overoweringly important at that time. Who would risk career, even life, threatening exposure of such awful, and repugnant behavior? At least so the common wisdom held at the time.
Remember J. Edgar Hoover? He, the corrupt, closeted, cross-dressing, self-hating homosexual that he was was also one of the biggest blackmailers of all time. Now the knuckle-dragging fundamentalists want to restore that destructive atmosphere, and all the evil power it concentrates in people like Hoover, Cardinal Spellman and Roy Cohn. But times really have changed even if they haven't.
Fortunately, most of the rational world has gotten over it's intolerance of homosexuality, but not those soaked in the fundamentalist grace of our lord Jesus Christ. Don't expect any open ordination of gay clergy there, even though closeted gays may be overrepresented in their ranks.
Haggard's church didn't call me in as a consultant on "such behavior", but I wish they had. I would happily tell those licentuous prudes all the nitty-gritty details of a male-male liaison with a memorable power point presentation. They might even fantasize about it for years afterwards.