It's a great relief to me personally that Ted Haggard is "completely heterosexual" according to the team of loving pastors that has been overseeing his recovery. See here. It's also a great relief to me that the loving pastors overseeing his recovery have counseled him to leave his home area and to give up church work -- where he might have expected some sort of support during his time of reconciliation and healing -- in favor of secular employment in some other area of the country. (Same article.) It would likely be a bad example for the 14,000 members of New Life congregation and the National Association of Evangelicals to have ever before their eyes a human being who must struggle with sin and malfeasance and the consequences thereof. And God forbid that they actually be called on to understand the struggle and perhaps to forgive.
It is, of course, only natural that a person with as much psychological baggage as the (formerly Rev.?) Mr. Haggard carries to be encouraged to seek a career (along with the wife to whom he was unfaithful) in psychology. It's good to know that the universe is still filled with irony.
And now, if I could dislodge my tongue from my cheek, I'd get on with other business.
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7 comments:
It is a further great delight to me -- and I'm not being sarcastic here -- that a master's degree is psychology is, vocationally, almost completely useless, qualifying the holder for no job in particular.
Dash
"Get out of our church. Get out of the ministry. Get out of town."
Wow! What compassion! Makes you wonder what sort of 'love the sinner, hate the sin' treatment he might have received had they not found him "completely heterosexual".
RAR
I have a bit of a nagging suspicion that perhaps part of the "get out of town" attitude is rooted in the belief that Mr. Haggard isn't "completely heterosexual" -- they perhaps secretly fear a relapse and it's much simpler to wash their hands of the business.
a priest after the order of [you know who] forever?
Yeah, I second Dash' point. Plus, it is going to be done online apparently.
And assuming that one can (and should) alter one's sexual preference, not even Dobson, Nicolosi et al. think that sexual preference conversion occurs in 3 weeks!
Although your article and comments do point up some of the strange responses to this situation, I also understand that there have been some quite profound witnesses to forgiveness and healing in the midst of it all- the "male prostitute" actually visited church there, and was welcomed, for example. So, I'm not sure I can judge the situation so harshly as you do in this post...
My understanding is that it was more the wishes of the "leadership circle" of New Life than of the membership (if they have members) that wished Brother Ted to be gone from sight and proximity. I might have framed my comments more carefully to indicate that I meant to jab them, not all the members of the church.
Of course, my comments about psychology are meant only partially tongue-in-cheek. I think it is all too easy a retreat from their own unresolved "issues" (as my daughter calls them) for troubled people to turn toward focussing on (and messing with) other peoples'.
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