Pastor Ted Haggard, formerly head of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, has apparently confessed to some of the allegations made against him by a Colorado male escort.
The Non-Prophet blog has printed an e-mail from Pastor Ross Parsley, who is serving as New Life's acting senior pastor after Pastor Haggard went on administrative leave. In the e-mail, sent late Thursday evening to the New Life Church e-mail list, Pastor Parsley states that "It is important for you to know that [Pastor Ted] confessed to the overseers that some of the accusations against him are true." (The press release issued Thursday by New Life Church contains an explanation of the overseers process.)
Pastor Parsley expands somewhat on the confession in comments to KUSA 9-News in Denver: "I don't have an accurate description about the precise details. ... I just know there has been some admission of indiscretion, not admission to all of the material that has been discussed, but there is an admission of some guilt."
9-News has also printed the text of two voice-mail messages apparently left by Haggard for male prostitute Mike Jones, in which Haggard apparently makes reference to purchasing drugs. Jones alleges that Haggard used methamphetamine on several occasions. A voice expert retained by 9 News says that both voice mails are from the same person, although 9-News does not directly quote the expert as saying the voice on the messages was Haggard's.
Pastor Haggard previously told 9-News in an exclusive interview Thursday night that "I did not have a homosexual relationship with a man in Denver. ... I am steady with my wife. I'm faithful to my wife." Haggard went on to question if there was a connection between the allegations and the upcoming election or specifically with Amendment 43 (Defense of Marriage Amendment), which Haggard has supported.
It seems that Pastor Haggard has done just about the only thing he could do to make the situation worse: He lied publicly, or at least was deceptive and playing word games on a Clintonian level.
I hope Pastor Haggard gets what help he needs, and I hope he, his family, and New Life Church are able to recover from this tragedy. I don't see how he could continue any association with New Life after this, particularly in light of his public denial of wrongdoing to 9-News and then confessing wrongdoing (of some kind) to the overseers of New Life Church, but that is for the overseers and the church to decide.
H/T to Dr. Andrew Jackson at Smart Christian for the link to Non-Prophet Blog. Also check out his subsequent post on the Haggard situation with links to Team Pyro and Slice of Laodicea.
Technorati: Ted Haggard, National Association of Evangelicals, New Life Church, Amendment 43
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