Just when you thought it was going to be a slow news day, up pops one of isitjustme's favorite pious pinatas, The Formerly Reverend Ted "I can't be gay, I'm an evangelical" Haggard. You may remember Rev. Ted from such popular gigs as pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado; head of the National Association of Evangelicals; spiritual confidant of former President George W. Bush and, most prominently, Exhibit A in a scandal involving gay sex and methamphetamines. Naturally, Haggard was anti-gay (in the pulpit anyway) and his little peccadillo brought great shame on him, his family and
There wasn't anything particularly new in this tale of the pompous brought low. After all, the Bible says, "It matterith not which side a man butters his bread" or words to that effect. The quote is from the Gospel according to Bruce but you'll have to look it up. Ted was ostracized from the holier than thou community and banished to New Orleans (where sin is always on the menu). Anyway, the interesting thing about Ted was that several weeks after he was exposed and agreed to counseling, his "spiritual advisers" Jack Hayford and Tommy Barnett declared that the demons had been exorcised. Ted was now completely straight. Glory Hallelujah!
Ted Haggard may be trying to put his gay lovers behind him but bodies keep turning up. We are now learning about another man, this one a church volunteer, who carried on a three year affair with the good reverend (and just when you thought it was safe to go back to the sacristy). All this nonsense because people are afraid to acknowledge who they are.
Our friends in the Catholic Church have an entire organization called "Courage". The goal is to "help with people with same sex attractions". Setting aside the jokes about physicians healing themselves, the Catholic Church has created a medication for which there is no disease. The only thing wrong with gay people is that, having to live half their lives in hiding, many develop a closet-full of neuroses by the time they're thirty. If Christian America stopped trying to "treat" homosexuality and left everyone alone, fewer people would ever think they needed a website like "Courage". Meanwhile the Catholic Church could devote more time to a concept called "Pedophilia is a transmitted disease. Don't pass it around".
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