New Life Church's Pastor Ted Steps Down Amid Gay Affair! He Calls bush EVERY WEEK!!

leftchick

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Thu Nov-02-06 05:44 PM
Original message

New Life Church's Pastor Ted Steps Down Amid Gay Affair! He Calls bush EVERY WEEK!!

Edited on Thu Nov-02-06 06:13 PM by leftchick

:wow:

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_4588998

Haggard stepping down amid gay affair inquiry
By The Denver Post
Article Last Updated:11/02/2006 03:25:29 PM MST

The leader of one of Colorado's most popular mega-churches, Ted Haggard, is temporarily stepping down from his leadership role, after allegations from a male prostitute that Haggard solicited gay sex.

Haggard, the founder and senior leader of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs and president of the multimillion- member National Association of Evangelicals, denied the accusations raised by the prostitute on Wednesday.

Today, a press conference by church leaders to support Haggard was cancelled shortly before it was scheduled to take place.

In stepping down, it was emphasized that Haggard did not admit any wrongdoing, but that he felt his effectiveness would be hampered by the cloud of inquiry.

Male escort Mike Jones of Denver told 9News he'd had a three-year sexual business relationship with Haggard.

>>>>>>>>> Video report here... http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/02/haggard-evangelical-prostitute

REPORT: Major Right-Wing Evangelical Leader Accused Of 3-Year Relationship With Male Prostitute
A male prostitute alleges that he had a three-year relationship with prominent right-wing evangelical leader Ted Haggard, who has said that homosexuality is a “sin” and “devastating for the children of our nation and for the future of Western civilization.” Haggard denies the allegation.

Haggard is president of the National Association of Evangelicals, representing more than 30 million conservative Christians. Time Magazine ranked him as one of the 25 most influential evangelicals and Harper’s contributing editor Jeff Sharlet noted, “No pastor in America holds more sway over the political direction of evangelicalism than does Pastor Ted.” Watch the report from Denver 9News:

http://www.harpers.org/SoldiersOfChrist.html

“Church” is insufficient to describe the complex. There is a permanent structure called the Tent, which regularly fills with hundreds or thousands of teens and twentysomethings for New Life's various youth gatherings. Next to the Tent stands the old sanctuary, a gray box capable of seating 1,500; this juts out into the new sanctuary, capacity 7,500, already too small. At the complex's western edge is the World Prayer Center, which looks like a great iron wedge driven into the plains. The true architectural wonder of New Life, however, is the pyramid of authority into which it orders its 11,000 members. At the base are 1,300 cell groups, whose leaders answer to section leaders, who answer to zone, who answer to district, who answer to Pastor Ted Haggard, New Life's founder.

Pastor Ted, who talks to President George W. Bush or his advisers every Monday, is a handsome forty-eight-year-old Indianan, most comfortable in denim. He likes to say that his only disagreement with the President is automotive; Bush drives a Ford pickup, whereas Pastor Ted loves his Chevy. In addition to New Life, Pastor Ted presides over the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), whose 45,000 churches and 30 million believers make up the nation's most powerful religious lobbying group, and also over a smaller network of his own creation, the Association of Life-Giving Churches, 300 or so congregations modeled on New Life's “free market” approach to the divine.