| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Gandalf Grey" |
| Date: |
07 Nov 2006 10:54:07 AM |
| Object: |
Another Right Wing Religious Fraud |
Rev. Ted Haggard: A sermon to be heard
By Mel Seesholtz
Created Nov 6 2006 - 9:21am
Once again a self-appointed spokesman for "God" and the leader of a
politically active (and lucrative) faith-based empire has been exposed as a
hypocritical fraud. Rev. Ted Haggard, former head of the National
Association of Evangelicals and a well-known anti-gay moral crusader,
recently joined an infamous group with several illustrious members:
- Rev. Henry J. Lyons was forced out as leader of the National Baptist
Convention after his then-wife set fire to a waterfront mansion the reverend
secretly owned with his mistress. He was convicted in 1999 of swindling
millions of dollars from companies that wanted to do business with members
of the denomination. Lyons was sentenced to five years in prison.
- Archbishop Eugene Marino, a Roman Catholic prelate from Atlanta, resigned
in 1990 after a two-year affair with a woman half his age. The woman claimed
Marino had performed a marriage ceremony for them in which the two exchanged
rings.
- Rev. Terry Hornbuckle, founder of the Agape Christian Fellowship in
Arlington, Texas, was sentenced in August 2006 to 15 years in prison for
sexually assaulting two female parishioners, as well as a third woman. Two
of the victims said the minister had drugged them.
- Self-proclaimed prophet Pastor Leonard Ray Owens of Fort Worth, Texas,
told a young woman [1]
that a sex spirit and lesbian demon were inside her and needed to be cast
out, police said. The pastor then asked her to lie on the floor and began
yelling at her as if she were a demon, saying, "Loose her in the name of
Jesus," according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
The woman told police that Owens pulled down her pants as he called for
the demons to come out. When she tried to get up, he pushed her down, the
affidavit said. The pastor then began to fight with her as if she were a
demon before climbing on top of her, pinning her down, and raping her,
police said.
Then Owens . . . ordered her to wash her face in the name of Jesus and to
read Psalm 105:15, which says to do no harm to prophets...
But the unholy trinity at the head of this nefarious group consists of Jim
Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, and Paul Crouch. The "indiscretions" of Bakker [2]
and Swaggart [3] are familiar to most. Paul Crouch's may be less so.
According to a September 12, 2004 Los Angeles Times story [4], Paul Crouch,
president of Trinity Broadcasting Network, paid Enoch Lonnie Ford $425,000
in 1998 in exchange for his silence about an alleged homosexual affair
they'd had in 1996 at a TBN-owned cabin near Lake Arrowhead, California. As
Advocate.com reported [5],
The world's largest Christian broadcasting network responded on Wednesday
to recent news articles about its operations and once again denied a claim
by a former employee that he had a gay affair with its founder. The Trinity
Broadcasting Network issued a press release claiming that articles published
by the Los Angeles Times over the past week failed to accurately depict the
Costa Mesa-based organization in a fair light. "The newspaper's publisher
has its own agenda," said TBN spokesperson Colby May. "Its reporting has
been selective and subjective." [The LA Times has run over 3000 stories
about Crouch and TBN.]
The strong response from the Christian TV network comes after recent
stories by the Times that showed its founder, Paul Crouch and his wife, Jan
Crouch, earn more than $750,000 together in salaries and have an array of
luxuries at their ready, including a TBN-owned jet and 30 homes across the
United States. The Orange County-based network collects more than $120
million a year from viewers in dozens of countries, and it maintains much of
the money helps the needy. The network in its statement defended its
financial practices and said long-term contracts and capital projects
require extensive cash reserves.
TBN denied Crouch had had a homosexual affair, but confirmed the hush money
paid to Ford under a "secret agreement." Why would Crouch pay hush money -
under a "secret agreement" - if there were nothing to hush-up, secretly?
That denial sounds as believable as Ted Haggard's:
The Rev. Ted Haggard, who resigned as one of the nation's top evangelical
leaders [6], admitted Friday [November 3, 2006] he had contacted male
prostitute Mike Jones "for a massage" and bought drugs from him.
Haggard said he never had sex with Jones and never used the
methamphetamine drug he bought.
He told reporters earlier this week that he did not know Jones, who claims
to have had a three-year sex-for-money relationship with him.
Haggard, 50, resigned Thursday as leader of the National Association of
Evangelicals - a group representing more than 45,000 churches and 30 million
people - and he also stepped down temporarily from leadership at New Life
Church in Colorado Springs.
He was one of a group of religious leaders who regularly participated in
conference calls with White House aides.
Haggard told CNN affiliate KUSA-TV Friday that he received Jones' name as
"a referral" from a hotel where he was staying in Denver.
He did not name the hotel. "I did call him," Haggard said. "I called him
to buy some meth, but I threw it away."
"I was buying it for me but I never used it. I was tempted, I bought it,
but I never used it."
"He told me about it. I went there for a massage." [link added]
Why would Haggard contact a prominent local male prostitute for "a massage"?
If he did get Jones' name as "'a referral' from a hotel where he was staying
in Denver," one has to wonder what kind of hotel Rev. Haggard had chosen to
patronize, and why. Those who claim to be defending moral purity and "God's
will" would surely check out business [7] they patronized before patronizing
them, wouldn't they?
That Haggard admitted buying crystal meth - a favorite snort of some gay men
out for a night of unbridled SEX - but then said he "threw it away" sounds
like a bad imitation of Bill Clinton's "I didn't inhale." Much more telling
are the two voicemail messages [8] from Haggard - who called himself "Art" -
that Mike Jones provided Denver talk radio station KHOW.
The first cast very serious doubt on the "explanation" Haggard offered: "Hi
Mike, this is Art. Hey, I was just calling to see if we could get any more.
Either $100 or $200 supply" [italics added].
As Jones noted - and any drug user can confirm - "supply" means the drug
being sought. Haggard's asking "if we could get any more" clearly suggests
he had used meth before and that he liked it - and the sex that followed -
and wanted more.
The second voicemail attests to Haggard's persistence: "Hi Mike, this is
Art, I am here in Denver and sorry that I missed you. But as I said, if you
want to go ahead and get the stuff, then that would be great. And I'll get
it sometime next week or the week after or whenever." Clearly, another tryst
with Jones was in Haggard's plans, not the singular "massage" meeting he
claimed he'd had with Mr. Jones.
Could Haggard's lying [9] have gotten any more blatant?
As Mr. Jones said, "The more denial he gives, the messier he looks." That
statement was included in the November 4, 2005 CNN story [10] titled "Church
forces out Haggard for 'sexually immoral conduct'":
The Rev. Ted Haggard agreed Saturday to resign as leader of the megachurch
he started in his basement more than 20 years ago after its independent
investigative board said he was guilty of "sexually immoral conduct."
Finally, in a letter to his former congregation on November 5, 2006 Haggard
admitted a "lifelong" sexual problem [11]. The only "problem" that Haggard
had was being untrue to himself and living a lie, which he admitted when he
said he was "a deceiver and a liar."
For his part, Mike Jones was straightforward and truly "Christian" at the
end of his Advocate.com interview [12]. Some excerpts...
When did you first meet Ted Haggard? ?Roughly three years ago. I never
asked him how he found my number, but I guess it was from a Web site or a
newspaper somewhere, because I was advertising at the time as a male escort.
When I answered the phone, he indicated he was visiting from Kansas City and
that his name was Art. For the first year, he called from a blocked number,
then mostly from pay phones from the Colorado Springs area.
When did you first realize who he was? In the spring of 2006. I was lying
on the couch, relaxing, watching the History Channel - a show on the DaVinci
Code and the antichrist. All of a sudden, his face came up. They were
interviewing him. It was Art. I didn't get his name, so in my mind I was
thinking, I'm going to order a copy of this show, just so I can see who this
guy is. To me it was a coincidence. The very next morning at 5 a.m., I was
at the gym working out on the treadmill. Somebody the night before had
turned the TV to the religious channel and there he was. When I got home and
looked him up on the computer, I was like, "Ted Haggard...oh, crap...this
guy's huge." ...
When was the last time you saw him? August 7 or 8. I had seen him two or
three times after I knew who he was. It was weird. I was really
contemplating telling him, "Hey, I know who you are." I didn't. I never
brought it up to him. And of course, he never offered. He was not emotional
at all. He'd pop on over, we'd [have sex]. It was pretty bland. He was never
here more than an hour. The only thing he divulged to me at one time was
that he was married. He did not seem nervous to me at all.
When did drugs come into the picture? About two years ago he asked, "Hey,
Mike, what do you know about meth? I don't do it personally, but I know
people who do." I told him that some people think it enhances their sexual
experience. He asked if I could help him get some. I located someone he
could connect with. After that, he got it on his own. The last time he saw
me, he was trying to get some and couldn't, which resulted in him sending me
money though the mail in August, postmarked Colorado Springs. He wrote "Art"
on the corner of the envelope. I just read that his middle name is Arthur.
....
What are your hopes, if any, for Ted Haggard? You know, I wish him peace.
....
"I wish him peace." Perhaps bible-thumping anti-gay bigots - and their
fellow Republican hypocrites [13] - might want to take note of that
Christian virtue and declare peace with reality and offer it to their fellow
human beings...
_______
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
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| User: "Hagar" |
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| Title: Re: Another Right Wing Religious Fraud |
07 Nov 2006 12:15:51 PM |
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The Rev. Ted Haggard, who resigned as one of the nation's top evangelical
leaders [6], admitted Friday [November 3, 2006] he had contacted male
prostitute Mike Jones "for a massage" and bought drugs from him.
Haggard said he never had sex with Jones and never used the
methamphetamine drug he bought.
Well, Bubba Clinton smoked the killer weed, but never inhaled ...
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| User: "A" |
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| Title: Re: Another Right Wing Religious Fraud |
07 Nov 2006 02:20:51 PM |
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Hagar wrote:
The Rev. Ted Haggard, who resigned as one of the nation's top evangelical
leaders [6], admitted Friday [November 3, 2006] he had contacted male
prostitute Mike Jones "for a massage" and bought drugs from him.
Haggard said he never had sex with Jones and never used the
methamphetamine drug he bought.
Well, Bubba Clinton smoked the killer weed, but never inhaled ...
He didn't smoke when he was in office,
and he wasn't preaching against gay sex
while having a gay affair snorting drugs
gays use to highten their pleasure.
Other than that your analogy's right on.
<sarcasm off>
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