Ted Haggard, etc.

Yesterday I was reading an article that trumpeted that Ted Haggard was 100% Heterosexual. Are you kidding me? Is that what matters here, whether Ted Haggard is fully hetero or still partially homosexual? Here are my views on this whole "scandal."

First of all, I am sorry for his wife and kids. I came from a religious background where preachers were worshipped and put on a pedestal almost on equal level with God. I can´t imagine being his kids and now having to question everything that has been told to them from the beginning. When I walked away from that religious group, I had to question every element of my beliefs because every fact, opinion, prejudice, interpretation of the Bible, etc had been sold to me as "word of God." When I discovered that wearing shorts was not a sin, then I was left to wonder "what else is not a sin?" Now, I imagine his children will have to deal with the ridicule and shame as well as the wondering.

Secondly, where I think Pastor Ted and all other pastors like him went wrong was not in having sex with a male prostitute. Yes, that is wrong but that is also human nature. People make mistakes...little mistakes, big mistakes, non-hetero mistakes, etc. I think that where he went wrong was in someone believing that he was something more than just a messenger boy. What I mean is that preachers, pastors, evangelists, etc. are all supposed to "deliver the word of God." They are not god, they are not The Word of God, they are the ones one who deliver The Word.

Imagine with me 500 years ago during the Middle Ages. A king sends out a messenger throughout the land to tell everyone that the king is creating a new holiday. Well, that messenger is pretty smart and says to himself "you know, everywhere I go, people listen to what say." "People pay so much attention to me that it´s almost like I am the king." The messenger then proceeds to ride into the next town pretending to be the king and by doing so gets worshipped, gifts, women, wine, etc. What would happen when the king hears that the lowly messenger forgot his role? I suspect a quick hanging. Well, the point of my little fake story is to illustrate that this is where these messengers of God go wrong. They start believing that they are more than just a messengers just because people listen to them, respect them, come to church and give gifts . They are not The Message nor are they the ones that author The Message, they are just the messengers.

If I was a pastor, the first thing I would tell the congregation was that they should expect mistakes from me, sometimes big, sometimes small (but not non-hetero). I would further remind them that they were not there because of me but because they were there to get a "message from the king."

Pastors are no more inhuman than the humans they talk to. As a matter of fact (having known so many pastors), pastors are probably more prone to err because they are expected to be above-human 100% of the day. You and I can go to work and then come home and leave work behind. Pastors are pastors all the time for as long as they are pastors. In many ways, they are the toilets that flush out all the shit out of the congregations so it should not be a surprise when the toilet get stained a bit.

Jimmy Swaggart, James Baker, Ted Haggart...the list goes on. As long as these guys continue buying into the myth that they are more than a lowly messenger boys, they will fall. Watch out Benny Hinn.