Pastor Ted Haggard - GAY?

I'll bet that got your attention.

The allegations hit the headlines last night/yesterday. A guy in Denver (Mike Jones) is claiming to have had a three year homosexual "sex for hire" relationship with Pastor Ted - even to have seen Pastor Ted use meth in his presence.

Pastor Ted Haggard is the founder and pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs (around 14,000 attendees). New Life is one of the larger mega-churches in the world, Pastor Ted is also a very powerful force in the world of global evangelism. He is also rightly vocal and steadfast about political issues from the believer's standpoint.

I am NOT a member or attendee of New Life Church - I prefer smaller churches. I'm not necessarily even a Ted Haggard "fan". There are however a few things bugging me about this set of allegations...

Red Flag Number One: Mike Jones supposedly reported this to KUSA in Denver over two months ago...and the media machine decides to blow the whistle just five days before the elections? Oh how I do love the media and their so called "honest motives". What do the elections have to do with this? Ammendment 43 proposes to define marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman, Referendum I is for Domestic Partnership

Green Flag Number One: Pastor Ted gave a very, very open and honest interview to KUSA concerning the allegations. Kudos to Pastor Ted for handling this very quickly, directly and with such a calm and loving response. The interview runs over twelve minutes long and can be seen here:
Pastor Ted's KUSA Interview (12 minutes 29 seconds)

Green Flag Number Two: New Life Church has already contacted an independant investigative board to do a full review of the matter. I don't pretend to know all the details about the independant board. From what I gather so far, it is indeed independant and it will conduct a full investigation including a full interview of the accuser...and it also has the authority to discipline, even fire Pastor Ted based on it's findings. Let's hope and pray in all honesty they find the allegations completely false and baseless and are able to quickly exxonerate Pastor Ted.

When you stick your neck out in the name of the Kingdom of God - there will be plenty of people swinging axes to tear you down. Sure, the allegations could be true. Let's leave the judgment to the independant board.

Don't sweat this kinda crap...for didn't Jesus say we'd be persecuted in his name and to REJOICE IN IT when it happens?