Ted Haggard is one of four rightwing homophobes on the 2007 GOP Adulterers list who were outed recently for having extramarital sex with men — the four are Haggard, Sen. Larry Craig, Florida Rep. Bob Allen and Washington Rep. Richard Curtis — and Haggard is one of three — along with Allen and Curtis — who paid (or in Allen’s case tried to pay) for sex.
Haggard founded the New Life Church in Colorado Springs in 1984 and served as the president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) from 2003 until the scandal brought him down in November 2006. It was then that Mike Jones, a professional escort, outed him:
[Jones alleged] that Haggard had paid Jones to engage in sex with him for three years and had also purchased and used crystal methamphetamine. Jones said he had only recently learned of Haggard’s true identity, and explained his reasons for coming forward by saying, “It made me angry that here’s someone preaching about gay marriage and going behind the scenes having gay sex.”
Haggard acknowledged some, but not all, of the allegations, and was removed from all of his leadership positions in religious organizations, including the church he founded. At first, however, he claimed he had never met his accuser and in a television interview said “I am steady with my wife. I’m faithful to my wife.” But on November 5, in a statement Haggard said, “I am a deceiver and a liar. The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality…There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I’ve been warring against it all of my adult life. … Please forgive my accuser … actually thank God for him. He didn’t violate you; I did.”
Jones later said that he was prompted to out Haggard after Haggard threw his support behind an anti-gay proposition on the Nov. 7, 2006, ballot in Colorado.
But for a lot of people in Colorado and in Christian nationalist circles, Haggard’s sex life was not news. Even Lou Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), said he knew about Haggard’s secret life:
[Sheldon] told New York’s The Jewish Week that he and “a lot” of other people had been aware of Pastor Haggard’s same-sex behavior “for a while… but we weren’t sure just how to deal with it…. Ted and I had a discussion. He said homosexuality is genetic. I said, no it isn’t. But I just knew he was covering up. They need to say that.
(Sheldon and the Traditional Values Coaltion believe that gay people are not “persons” and therefore their rights are not protected by the Constitution. They have also been known to advocate killing gay people.)
Within days after Jones went public, Haggard was forced out of his position as the head of the New Life Church, and from the presidency of the NAE. He later went through a re-education session, after which he was proclaimed to be “completely heterosexual.”
When the scandal first broke, much was made of Haggard’s weekly counseling session with George Bush. As the scandal unfolded, the White House quickly distanced itself from Haggard, however. In mid-December, 2007, however a federal judge ruled that the White House would have to unseal visitor logs that show the frequency of visits by evangelical leaders to the White House.
If the White House complies, it will be interesting to see how often Haggard’s name appeared in the lists.
