USA: U.S. evangelical pastor says guilty of sexual immorality

Disgraced U.S. evangelist Ted Haggard, a vocal opponent of gay marriage and poster boy for conservative causes, admitted on Sunday (November 5) that he was guilty of "sexual immorality." His statement of guilty was read out by Pastor Larry Stocksdale during a Sunday morning service at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Haggard, under fire since last week when a male escort said he had a sexual affair with the preacher, said in a letter read at his New Life Church that he was ashamed. "I am so sorry. I'm sorry for the disappointment, the betrayal and the hurt. I'm sorry for the horrible example I have left you. I have an overwhelming, all-consuming sadness in my heart for the pain that you, I and my family have experienced over the past few days. I'm so sorry for the circumstances that have caused shame and embarrassment to all of you," Haggard said in his letter. "I am guilty of sexual immorality ... I am a deceiver and a liar. There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life," Haggard said in the letter, which was reads by a church overseer during a Sunday morning service. Haggard resigned as president of the influential National Association of Evangelicals Thursday (November 2) after the male escort made his accusation. Haggard also agreed to step down as senior pastor of the New Life Church, a 14,000 member "mega-church" that he founded in 1985 and where he is known as "Pastor Ted." Haggard, 50, had initially denied the allegations but began back-pedalling on Friday (November 3) when he admitted to seeking the man at a Denver Hotel for a "massage" and contacting him to buy the drug methamphetamine. He said he had thrown the drug away. "The accusations that have been levelled against me are not all true but enough of them are true that I have been appropriately and lovingly removed from the ministry," Haggard said in his letter. He said that the church's overseers had required him to submit to the oversight of Dr. James Dobson and two pastors. Dobson is the founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, an influential conservative lobby group also based in Colorado Springs, which is a hive of evangelical activity. Haggard, with his chiselled features, wide smile and five children, had been a poster boy for the evangelical movement and social conservative causes that have been embraced by the Republican Party. Conservative Christians are a support base for the Republican Party and U.S. President George W. Bush. Evangelical leaders have been urging the faithful to vote in congressional elections on Tuesday (November 7) with polls showing Republicans could lose control of at least one house of Congress. Leaders in the movement like Haggard and Dobson also have encouraged conservative voters in eight states including Colorado to support proposed amendments to ban same-sex marriages. In his letter, Haggard asked the congregation to forgive his accuser, who has been widely quoted as saying he came forward because he was angered by what he perceived as the pastor's hypocrisy on same-sex marriage. Haggard has been a vocal opponent of gay marriage and has preached that homosexuality is immoral though he has not been as strident on the issue as other conservative Christians. The issue is a raw one with many evangelicals who see gay marriage and lifestyles as a threat to the traditional family and by extension their vision of a functioning society. Analysts have been divided about what impact the scandal will have on the polls on Tuesday. The scandal has shaken New Life Church and the evangelical community in Colorado Springs. Like many "maga-churches," New Life has basketball courts, playgrounds, a restaurant and a cavernous 7,500 seat amphitheatre.

ITN Source | November 6, 2006

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