The Enemy

An Improved Morality

I’ll admit that I was a little caustic in my initial response to Haggard’s plight, but for a host of very personal reasons I find the entire affair enraging. Fortunately cooler, more nuanced views can be found here and here.

In my Saturday posting I referred to David Frum’s NRO piece on Haggard. It seems I wasn’t the only one who found it both nauseating and revealing. Digby’s take on it is, as usual, nail on head;

"I have long written that the right has retired the concept of hypocrisy. But until I read this piece by David Frum over at alicublog I didn't realize that they had actually formulated a moral philosophy to justify it. It is truly astonishing ... Frum and his fellow neo-cons and faith-based robots have spent the last few years mangling the discourse with so much hypocrisy, so many outright lies and twisted moral reasoning that they may have permanently built an alternate universe that they can turn to whenever the need arises."

I’ve said my piece regarding Haggard for the time being. Given everything going on right now I think it’s time to move on.

Your Dirty Pillows

"I should've killed myself when he put it in me. But sin never dies. Sin never dies. At first, it was all right. We slept in the same bed, but we never did it. And then, that night, I saw him looking down at me that way. We got down on our knees to pray for strength. I smelled the whiskey on his breath. Then he took me. He took me, with the stink of filthy roadhouse whiskey on his breath, and I liked it. I liked it! With all that dirty touching of his hands all over me.(..) I was weak and backsliding, and now the devil has come home. We'll pray.

Margaret White, Carrie

The full text of the Haggard's letters to the New Life Church can be found here. The letters were read to his congregation on Sunday, Nov. 5, at the 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. services.

The Devil Made Me Buy This Dress

This from a concerned Evangelical:

"You accuse Haggard of being a hypocrite? God will surely judge you on all your own hypocrisy. I'm not going to judge Haggard, and neither should you. What happened is between him and God. God already knows the truth anyway. Unfortunately, so many people are unaware of the truth that they are sinners every bit as egregious as Haggard".

Sister... if you only knew.

The same people who are now admonishing us for rushing to judgment, insisting we show compassion and understanding for a fellow sinner, are the same people who went bullhorn ballistic over Clintons (failed) college marijuana experiment. The same people who then proceeded to drag the entire nation through the impeachment process because they couldn’t get past executive spooge on an ugly blue dress.

James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, blasted the media for reporting a "rumour" based on "nothing but one man's accusation."

Can anyone imagine what the right wing would make of Haggard's "confession" if it came from the mouth of a prominent champion of left-wing/liberal causes? They continue to compound the hypocrisy with more hypocrisy--it’s nothing short of breathtaking.

You know, there’s a very good chance Haggard will eventually claim to have been molested as a child, and hence the real victim in all this. Homosexuals will be successfully recast as the evil predator villains of the story (again), the true source of all this woe. The Devils punks bring another good man down with their dark chemistries and tight jeans.

In a feat of cognitive dissonance the faithful will not only redeem, but exalt this disgraced man as evidence of God’s compassion. By extension restoring their own sense of righteousness through the act of forgivness––and fuck the rest of us hateful sinners with our snide remarks.

Or put more succinctly by David Frum on National Review.

"If a religious leader has a personal inclination toward homosexuality - and nonetheless can look past his own inclination to defend the institution of marriage and to affirm its benefits for the raising of children - why should he likewise not be honored for his intellectual firmness and moral integrity.”

Did you get that… moral integrity. This, children, is cognitive dissonance in action.

Of course he’ll have to do some penance. There’ll be the obligatory Rehab-racadabra before it’s off on the talk show circuit, new book in hand. Testifying loudly about the dangerous seductions and pernicious evils that are homosexuality, and bearing witness to the miraculous salvation that is God’s grace and the love of a good woman.

*****

Can we carve this new law of the cosmos in stone alongside Newton's laws of motion; Relativity, and the one about "the odds of bread falling butter side down are directly proportional to the cost of the carpet":

The volume with which a person proclaims his or her fabulous piety while denouncing others for failing to meet his or her standards of virtue and holiness is directly proportional to the likelihood that he or she is a child-buggering, cash-stealing, graft-grabbing, meth-snorting hypocrite.

The Head of the Preacher Man

The acting senior pastor at New Life, Ross Parsley, told KKTV-TV of Colorado Springs that Haggard admitted that some of the accusations were true.

"I just know that there has been some admission of indiscretion, not admission to all of the material that has been discussed but there is an admission of some guilt," Parsley told the station.

‘some admission of indiscretion’ What exactly does that mean? – just the head?

My feelings may mellow, but right now I have little sympathy for Haggard.

This is what happens to a man psychologically and spiritually destroyed by actually advancing a lie he knows to be a lie about homosexuality as a "chosen lifestyle" while being gay himself.

Inevitably the victims of this vicious, cynical rightwing brand of homophobia come to include Christians like Haggard. Their own sons and daughters; brothers and sisters, being taught to hate themselves, and subsequently acting out the psychic damage years later.

It all seems strangely biblical to me. A scorned (albeit beefy) strumpet debases the proud (if somewhat swishy) Samson through his own desires, and in falling, Samson brings an entire wicked temple down on their heads - Film at 11:00

Pay-back’s a bitch named Delilah .

Good Night Irene!!

Gay Escort!!

Ted Haggard!!

I might be jumping the gun here, but it’s just too Phreakin’ Juicy to ignore. Besides, after the Kerry flap, I’m not feeling particularly inclined to cut the Right any slack. If you’re allowed to publicly smear your opponent with little or no evidence, well, what’s good for the goose is good for the crank snort’n, ass-in-the-air, pig bottom, evangelical gander. N'est pas?

From 9News in Denver:
A gay man and admitted male escort claims he has had an ongoing sexual relationship with a well-known Evangelical pastor from Colorado Springs. Mike Jones told '9 Wants to Know' Investigative Reporter Paula Woodward he has had a "sexual business" relationship with Pastor Ted Haggard for the past three years.

For those unfamiliar, Ted Haggard is perhaps the leading light in the MegaChurch movement. He is one of the nation's most influential evangelical Christians, whose overstuffed agenda includes a weekly conference call to the White House. "We have direct access," says Mr. Haggard. He is also president of the National Association of Evangelicals, an organization that represents millions of people.

Haggard is married with five children and an outspoken critic of gay marriage. He preaches that homosexuality is a sin.

The Hooker, who has offered to take a polygraph test, claims to have voicemails and letters from Haggard, and says Haggard has been paying him for sex over the past three years. The Hooker also claims Haggard used methamphetamine in his presence. On several occasions. (WHOA NELLY!)

For his part, Haggard categorically denied the accusations. "I did not have a homosexual relationship with a man in Denver," said Haggard. "I am steady with my wife. I'm faithful to my wife."

"I don't know if this is election year politics or if this has to do with the marriage amendment or what it is, but I'm not even the guy who will investigate it or question it. I don't know what the dynamics are, but this independent group will come in and do that."

I am steady with my wife?

The Hooker continues, undaunted:  "After sitting back and contemplating this issue, the biggest reason (for exposing it) is being a gay man all my life. I have experience with my friends, some great sadness of people that were in a relationship through the years and were not able to enjoy the same rights and privileges as a married man and woman.”

"I felt it was my responsibility to my fellow brothers and sisters, that I had to take a stand, and I cannot sit back anymore and hear (what) to me is an anti-gay message. People may look at me and think what I've done is immoral, but I think I had to do the moral thing in my mind and that is expose someone who is preaching one thing and doing the opposite behind everybody's back."

Amen to that sister!