My Thoughts on Ted Haggard

Ted Haggard was on Oprah this week. Did you see him? It was an interesting show. If you missed it, the entire show is on YouTube in four parts.

Read moreHaggard tells us that he is, in his own words, “not gay”, and that he is a “…heterosexual male with homosexual attachments,” according to his “first” psychologist. He doesn’t inform us what the other consulted psychologists have said. It sure does make you wonder, doesn’t it?

Haggard also tells us that he still faces temptation, but he no longer feels the need to be “compulsive”; in other words, act on his desires, simply because, he says, he has come forward with the truth and is speaking openly about it now.

Does that make sense to anyone?

Has anyone ever been cured of temptation because they confessed to their desire?

It sounds like the fancy language of denial to me, personally. Or, maybe Haggard is testing the waters to see how people respond to the word “homosexual”?

I don’t disagree with Haggard that he has an internal struggle going on inside himself right now, because having homosexual desires, and being an Evangelical pastor don’t go hand-in-hand. They are fundamentally at odds.

I personally don’t think we’ve seen the last of this story yet. There is likely going to be another chapter. Whatever chapter unfolds, I only hope it doesn’t harm other peoples’ lives again.

I truly hope that Haggard finds the strength, the courage and the fortitude to embrace who he really is. When we accept ourselves as we are, we find true happiness, and only then can we truly be our authentic selves.