http://www.pensitoreview.com/2006/11/02/pastor-who-resigned-over-gay-hooker-claims-is-bushs-spiritual-consigliore/
Nov. 2, 2006
Pastor Who Resigned over Gay Hooker Claims Is Bush’s ‘Spiritual Consigliore‘

http://www.pensitoreview.com/2006/11/02/pastor-who-resigned-over-gay-hooker-claims-is-bushs-spiritual-consigliore/

Nov. 2, 2006

Pastor Who Resigned over Gay Hooker Claims Is Bush’s ‘Spiritual
Consigliore‘

by Jon Ponder

Rev. Ted Haggard, who counsels Pres. Bush on a weekly basis and has
been called his "spiritual consigliore," resigned today as president
of the National Association of Evangelicals and as pastor of the
megachurch he founded in Colorado Springs because a gay prosititute
says he’s been having sex for pay with Haggard for more than three
years.

Rev. Haggard is closer to the president than his better-known rival,
Dr. James Dobson, head of the anti-gay nonprofit group, Focus on the
Family, which is also headquartered in Colorado Springs:

The press tends to regard Dobson as the most powerful evangelical
Christian in America, but Pastor Ted is at least his equal.

Whereas Dobson plays the part of national scold, promising to destroy
politicians who defy the Bible, Pastor Ted quietly guides those
politicians through the ritual of acquiescence required to save face.

He doesn’t strut, like Dobson; he gushes.

When Bush invited him to the Oval Office to discuss policy with seven
other chieftains of the Christian right in late 2003, Pastor Ted
regaled his whole congregation with the story via email.

"Well, on Monday I was in the World Prayer Center"-- New Life’s
high-tech, twentyfour- hour-a-day prayer chapel --"and my cell phone
rang."

It was a presidential aide; "the President," says Pastor Ted, wanted
him on hand for the signing of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

Pastor Ted was on a plane the next morning and in the President’s
office the following afternoon.

"It was incredible," wrote Pastor Ted.

He left it to the press to note that Dobson wasn’t there.

Mike Jones, the male escort, says he did not know Haggard’s identity
until he saw him on television.

Jones says he has voicemails and other proof of his relationship with
Haggard and will release them tomorrow.

In an interview excerpted on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann
tonight, Jones also said that Rev. Haggard used methamphetamines
during their sexual encounters.

Haggard was in the news in September when he disavowed his appearance
in the controversial documentary "Jesus Camp," which exposed the
indoctrination of children into Christian nationalism at a summer camp
in the Midwest.

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Nice folks, ain't they

Harry