Homosexuality, all of the other acronyms regarding men and women with same-sex attraction is nothing new. This has been a part of every society on the face of the earth since the beginning of time. What explains it? I don't know, but any man or woman that I have ever spoken with has said, " I just knew, as early as I can remember, that I was differnent. Ted Haggard knew in Junior High.
HBO has produced a very good documentary about Ted Haggard's Fall from Grace. From Stadiums filled with thousands of devoted followers, to a life of struggle and poverty, plus the impact that four moves in one year has had on his family, it is not hard to connect to this witness of Christ. Exiled from the Church, and told to "Go to Hell" he has chosen to focus his life's efforts on his wife and children. Without a college degree his chances of revival and economic security are minimal at best.
He works as a door hanger in weathly neighborhoods, an insurance salesman, and other marginal employment, living in a series of homes that friends offer for a few months, even Motel 6 and Days Inn.
In this documentary he calls himself, "A first-class loser" after a blank week of trying to sell life insurance. However, the most impressive part of this documentary is the effervescent smile of this man who has lost everything. He feels mortality creeping upon him as his father died in his fifties and he is fast approaching the hour of his genetical mortality.
It is hard to tell if he is delusional, or sincerley contrite with a broken spirit. He has lost the Church that he took a lifetime to build. His exile from Colorado by his Church is now over, and he is starting over in his mid-fifites selling life insurance with cold calls to restaurants and other blue collar shops, and he is not very successfully. He is still a pariah among his followers, and Colorado has not embraced him.
I am straight and I believe in Christ. I also believe that Christ would hold Ted in his arms and comfort him. Ted has not lost his faith, he stays with his family, which must be hell, but I beleive that his love for the Lord will eventually save him. God Bless his Soul. His only betrayal was to himself and his family. Parishoners eat anything that is sexy with a spoon and fork, wanting more, and that was Ted.
There is something in me that loves Ted Haggard for being so purely human and living this life of contridiction and pain.
If only he had been able to come out in High School and live the life that God selected for him. Then again, would he have saved the souls that he did. Here's to you Ted, I trust you will find your way. Vaya con Dios.
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Brinna
Con Chapman
Lea Lane
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Comments
Ted's present life is a sad situation, however it is largely a situation of his own making. He knew what his orientation was long before he made his career choice. He could have chose differently.
It is no surprise to me that the word "gay," meaning "happy," as come to be synonymous with homosexual. If you ask 100 openly gay people, "Do you wish you had stayed in the closet about your homosexuality?"... one hundred percent... not 99.5, but 100 percent... would say, "No, I'm so much happier now that I am honest with myself." Perhaps Haggard will learn this, accept who he is, and someday find some peace and happiness.
To this very day Haggard says that he "struggles" with homosexuality or he "battles" with homosexuality like others battle with cancer. That sickness that will surely be the end of them should a cure not be close at hand. Message to Ted: I've got news for you cupcake! Homosexuality is not your problem. Ted Haggards problem is Ted Haggard and Ted Haggards belief that he can fix this, make it go away, find his way back to a life of normalcy.
What Ted doesn't know is that he already had that, but lost it the very moment that he opened his mouth and uttered a disparaging word to, towards, or about homosexuality.
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Speaking strictly for myself, there is nothing to forgive. Ted has done nothing to me or anyone I claim responsibility for. There is nothing for me to forgive.
As I see it, there are two groups of people Ted has offended; his former flock and the homosexual community.
I strongly suspect that the homosexual community will forgive him if he asks for it. Considering his past statements, they would be foolish to befriend him in any way until he asks. I didn't hear anything in his Oprah appearance that sounded like a real plea for forgiveness from the homosexual community. If Ted wants forgiveness, he must to make the first move – he must ask.
I highly doubt his former flock will forgive him. They will, however, accept him back if he can convince them that he has been “delivered from the abomination” of his “prior sinful lifestyle”. That is called redemption. I would not call it forgiveness.