Ted Haggard: I'm Probably What The Kids Call 'Bisexual

[naaman fletcher]

In a new GQ profile, Rev. Ted Haggard addresses the continued assumptions that he's gay, following revelations years ago that the prominent evangelical had a drug-fueled sexual relationship with a gay male former escort: "I think that probably, if I were 21 in this society, I would identify myself as a bisexual."

But, he told GQ's Kevin Roose: "I'm 54, with children, with a belief system, and I can have enforced boundaries in my life. Just like you're a heterosexual but you don't have sex with every woman that you're attracted to, so I can be who I am and exclusively have sex with my wife and be perfectly satisfied."

The profile provides a few other tidbits about Haggard, who resigned from the New Life Church and from his position as president of the National Association of Evangelicals after he admitted to the affair with his male meth dealer, who was also a prostitute.

When Haggard resigned, Roose reports, he signed a separation agreement, drafted by a board of overseers appointed by the church, which "required him to cut off all contact with members of the church, stay away from the media, perform no ministry-related work, and move his family out of Colorado." Haggard says he now finds the agreement "excessively harsh," and still has a score of bitterness toward the megachurch he founded, referring to it as the "old Soviet Union": "I used to think the church was the light of the world. But I've completely lost my faith in it."

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/ted_haggard_im_probably_what_the_kids_call_bisexual.php


Dude, you're gay. It's ok.

[knowbody0]

1. poor dude.

I rather admire his tenacity, but really have sympathy for his self induced dilema.

[AsahinaKimi]

2. Kids? (The get off my lawn, kinda kids?)

Bi sexuality is possible. I know quite a few (ahem) people who are..

[1896educational]

3. Dear Ted,

Why does anyone still give a shit? You and your views are yesterday's news.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. I'd love to comment, but there are so many levels of dysfunction ere, it's now worth it.

If he were in a legitimate church, he'd be okay to be gay.

If he were in a legitimate church, he would have received legitimate counseling that would have resulted in an affirmation of either his gayness or bisexuality, and, while he would have been taken out of parish leadership while he went underwent said counseling, the counseling he received would have been scientific and faith-based and compassionate and he might have found true freedom.

I had more to say, but the cocktail I just consumed between my subject line and the above sentence has made me totally loopy. Amazing what one drink can do within the space of 20 minutes... I wish I could remember the brilliance I was going to offer on this subject, lol.

[Marr]

5. God, what a jumble of psychological issues that man is.

It really makes me wonder. Did he found that megachurch for what I consider to be the usual reason, ie, a strong desire to control others? Or was it a means of externalizing the parts of himself that he hated, and asserting his own purity? Or both? Or neither?

Every time I've seen him in an interview, he seems like a psychological pretzel.

[alfredo]

6. He's still an asshole.

[JenniferJuniper]

7. No, Ted. You're not straight. You're not bisexual. You are a gay man with a wife and kids.

[eShirl]

11. How do you know he's not bisexual?

[southerncrone]

8. Is this also the dude that claimed he could HUG the gay away from

gay men?
Or is that some other self-proclaimed Christian in deep denial? :hide:

The saddest part is: these guys think the rest of us are buying these goofy excuses they offer up.
No, on second thought, the saddest part is the women who stay with them, instead of insisting they get REAL psych help. Jeeeez. :eyes:

[StarsInHerHair]

9. they demanded he MOVE OUT of CO? rather typical for rw extremists

interesting that he calls the mega-church he founded "the old Soviet Union", & he's completely lost his faith in the church.....a major foundational shift has hopefully changed him for the better, it may take years more to see how much he's been changed-he's now an outsider where he once was an insider/leader...

a quote from the article..."You've got to understand, Kevin, people are, at their cores, hateful," he told Roose. "I don't want to believe that, but the facts have prevailed over my idealism."...so now that he's been outcast he's seen their nasty side. Character isn't just how you treat your friends it's also how you treat your enemies, imo.

[Nay]

10. Yeah, no shit, Ted. Now, to make up for your gross hypocrisy all

these years, which undoubtedly threw many people into a mental hell, you need to take on these 'ministries' like yours and bring them down.