Call me unforgiving, judgmental. But I’m having the darnedest time getting excited about Ted Haggard’s 
return to the public spotlight. And, in case you’ve missed it, he’s returning in a big way. The disgraced mega-church pastor will be appearing on Oprah and Larry King promoting an upcoming HBO documentary.
From Newsweek’s The Lost Shepherd:
It’s been two years since a prostitute named Mike Jones alleged he’d had a three-year, drug-fueled affair with Haggard. Haggard, now 52, ultimately admitted to a crystal-meth purchase and “sexual immorality.” Within a week, he’d stepped down from his posts and into the pantheon of evangelicals (Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart) felled by their own sins. Now, in his first magazine interview since the scandal, Haggard talks about his ongoing struggle with his sexuality, his former church and his plans for the future. Why now? For one thing, he’s pushing “The Trials of Ted Haggard,” a wincingly candid HBO documentary due to air on January 29. But as you can sense in the film, and hear in conversation, Haggard still feels a lot of anger—at New Life Church, as well as at himself.
The initial disclosures about Haggard’s homosexual tryst — a disclosure that WAS NOT initiated by the pastor — absolutely rocked the Evangelical world. The blogosphere exploded with anger, derision and puzzlement. Pastors were forced to explain the subtle power of sin and defend the grace of God, while skeptics railed at our hypocrisy. And who knows how many spiritual seekers and babes in Christ were permanently scarred. It was an awful, awful, time.
And now Ted Haggard comes back… angry at the church?
…while [Haggard] strives to turn the other cheek, full Christian forgiveness eludes him. He believes that New Life cast him away when he needed it the most. As he says in the movie: “The Church has said go to hell.” Haggard now thinks that he lashed himself too hard. “I understand why when a criminal is caught they will sometimes admit to things they didn’t do,” he says. “I wanted to overrepent, and I think I did overrepent. In my [resignation] letter to the church I said I was a deceiver and a liar, but I hadn’t lied about anything except to keep quiet about what was going on inside me.”
He hadn’t lied about anything? I dunno, but this is hardly the tone of a repentant man.
You’ll recall that when Haggard left office, the big discussion among believers was healing and restoration. What should the process of healing look like and can he ever be restored to ministry? A committee was formed to help Reverend Haggard seek healing. But it wasn’t long before cracks began to show. After just three weeks, the ex-pastor announced his complete recovery from homosexuality. It was chided by many as the fastest ex-gay conversion ever. However, the new documentary apparently reveals Haggard’s continued sexual confliction (In the film, Haggard is shown saying, “Gay, straight, bisexual—what are you, Ted Haggard?”), which he traces back being molested in the second grade. And it all arrives in light of new claims of Haggard’s inappropriate relationship with a church volunteer.
If this L.A. Times article is any indication, I’m not the only one suspicious about Ted Haggard’s sudden return to the spotlight.
…before [the documentary] could air, Haggard had to get released from a final contract with the church that prevented him from speaking to the media. In December, New Life pastor Brady Boyd met with the Haggards and agreed to dissolve the agreement. But he is not pleased about the film.
“I told Ted I think it’s premature to tell the story,” Boyd said. “We still believe in redemption and restoration, and there’s obviously been hurt. His family has been hurt, and our church family has been hurt. There’s no way this has been healed in just two years. It’s too big a wound.”
Boyd, who said the church wasn’t asked for its input in the film, said he’s distressed that the congregation is portrayed as casting Haggard out. He said that the former pastor agreed to leave Colorado in the spirit of a “fresh start.”
“I think the whole truth hasn’t been told,” he said. (emphasis mine)
For the record, I believe in restoration! Why would anyone ever seek God if not for the belief that He can unscramble the mess we make of our lives and heal us of the most vile sins? I personally know pastors who have fallen and been restored; their lives are now a testament to God’s grace and mercy. Nevertheless, I agree with Pastor Boyd — wounds this big take a long, long, time to heal.
So while I sincerely pray for Ted Haggard’s healing and restoration, I can’t help but see his return as premature and his potential damage to the Church — and himself — ongoing.
I think this about cash. He’s trying to rake in the dough from speaking engagements and the like. I think that if you, as a pastor, ever truly cared about your church and if you were repentant, you’d want to back way the heck off for some time. I agree that these things take time. To reopen wounds this soon and then to be critical of the people you were shepherding is a bad move. And says a lot about where his head is.
Ah, yes. Healed but with anger. Astute but with doubts. Repentant but not without conditions. Thank God, He knows Ted’s heart because it sounds way convoluted to me.
After watching Haggard’s interview on Larry King last night (transcript HERE), I’m even more troubled. For one, it seemed so condescending, as if Haggard was an object of ridicule. That feeling was compounded by the snippets from the docu. Like the footage of Haggard, before the scandal, discussing sex with members of his church and boasting about how great a sex life they all had. It was a mockery. I kept asking myself, “Why is he doing this?”
Then, the degree to which Haggard referred to his therapy / therapist was weird. At one point he admits that prayer, fasting and Scripture memorization only inflamed his homosexual tendencies. I’d agree that formulas don’t heal people. But Haggard gave far more weight to his therapy / therapist than to God and Scripture. At one point he said his first therapist concluded he was a “heterosexual with homosexual attachments,” another said he was a “heterosexual with complications.” Whatever that means.
Then there was the downplaying of homosexuality as a sin, the soft backpedaling of Scriptural models and moors, as if the ideal is heterosexual monogamy, but…
All in all, I think Haggard provided more fodder for haters and did little to further a genuine picture of biblical truth and the path toward restoration.