News-Record.com

I note this from the story:

"Late Thursday, The Associated Press reported that the acting senior pastor at New Life, Ross Parsley, told KKTV-TV of Colorado Springs that Haggard admitted some of the accusations were true, but Parsley didn't elaborate."

Yet another sexual crusader gets slayed by his own sword. How often this happens! But I wonder how many people will read the above paragraph and still agree with Dobson that Haggard is a victim only of "the media" and a single rumor?

I also wonder how much longer people are going to continue fretting over the things other people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms?

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061103/D8L5IM680.html

"He said he has voice mail messages from Haggard, as well as an envelope he said Haggard used to mail him cash. He declined to make the voice mails available to the AP, but KUSA-TV reported what it said were excerpts late Thursday that referred to methamphetamine.

"Hi Mike, this is Art," one call began, according to the station. "Hey, I was just calling to see if we could get any more. Either $100 or $200 supply."

A second message, left a few hours later, began: "Hi Mike, this is Art, I am here in Denver and sorry that I missed you. But as I said, if you want to go ahead and get the stuff, then that would be great. And I'll get it sometime next week or the week after or whenever."

He's admitting the drugs and nothing else.

As if buying drugs is oh so much more acceptable behavior for a figure of moral authority. And I can't help wondering if this accuser might have some Clintonesque genetic evidence. That would be most amusing to me.

Today, I read that Haggard has confessed to "sexual immorality" in a letter to his congregation. I wonder a lot of things about this. Will many in his congregation ask themselves whether his concealed sex life was making him "evil" all those years? Will any start wondering just how many other anti-gay leaders are making such a vocal movement because they don't know how to deal with their orientation any other way... and maybe that's not such a good thing after all?

There's a lot of lessons to be learned here, IMO. Haggard needs to learn a few. So does every person who considers gay people to be a threat to their lives. The threat doesn't come from people who love differently from "the usual way." It comes from people who live by fear and hate.

Sexual immorality is such a vague term. It could mean just about anything from "impure thoughts" on up. You know what I mean Vern?

Yeah, but this fellow means a lot more than "impure thoughts." Not even the most puritanical thought nazi would fire anyone over "impure thoughts." This was a matter of "conduct."

What gets me is the self-loathing that all this business has shown the world. And there is absolutely no need for it.

Only religion can take something perfectly normal and human as sex and turn it into something to be ashamed of. And you're right. There's no need for any of it.

Nonsense. Sexuality is declared to be normal and wonderful (Song of Solomon, et al.) It is perverted and lust-driven sex that is declared dangerous and destructive (sin) - which it most certainly is. People cannot just ad hoc decide that sexual sin is anything but; just as they cannot declare that stealing or rape or racial prejudice is not sin. But, then, only the Holy Spirit of God "convinces of sin" and reveals it to be what it truly is. Haggards lapse into transgressionw as just that. He blew it, royally: to his shame and the name of the all-holy God.

I say, only atheistic unbelief can take things that God made to be holy and joyful and make them perverse and degraded. All so-called "love" outside of God's righteous standards is not such, but only a vain counterfeit. Buddhist, atheist, Muslim, Christian - all are in need of the Atonement. The tragedy of Haggard, or any Christain, is that they know better, and have the power to resist in the Spirit and Word - and freely choose to do otherwise. The OT declares double judgment for the shepherds of God's people.

Self-loathing? This is geunuine guilt - not imagined guilt. It is sin and spiritual death that lead people to anxiety, depression, and all manner of psychological sickness. The loving healthy and righteous person is free of such guilt-syptoms. Simply declaring something to not be sin may temporarily asuage the conscience, but it can never permanently avoid the death and destructiveness of sin. In the end, it bites like an adder. But obedience, or conformity, to God's ways leads ot life and peace. Jesus taught it; we disbelieve it to our peril and ruin.

Haggard freely chose sin, and its consequences he will bear. The horror of it for professing Christians is that they really have no excuse. That's why the Scriptures warn them to avoid sin by God's grace. It is like the dog returning to its vomit, it says. And the last state of one who sins after grace, is worse than the former state. Teh wages of sin is death - for all people, anywhere, at all times.

But I agree, that one MUST remove the mote in one's own eye before trying to help a brother or sister to remove their plank. God is truly delaing with His peole today; not to prepare them for some imagined rapture, but to live a life of true holiness and radical love.

"Self-loathing? This is geunuine guilt - not imagined guilt. It is sin and spiritual death that lead people to anxiety, depression, and all manner of psychological sickness."

I agree that much of what Haggard appears to have admitted to is stuff he should feel guilty about. He had the trust of his family, and he betrayed it. But I seriously doubt he would have been so demonstrative in his guilt if he had been exposed as a womanizer or a drug addict, for instance.

This morning, I saw a report that said that he's going into "treatment" for his sexual problem. That can only mean one thing -- he's going to turn himself over to some group of shamans who actually believe they can "cure" him of feeling attracted to both sexes. All that will do is reinforce his superstitious fear of himself. So it goes...

"I say, only atheistic unbelief can take things that God made to be holy and joyful and make them perverse and degraded."

It takes religion to do that.

"All so-called "love" outside of God's righteous standards is not such, but only a vain counterfeit. Buddhist, atheist, Muslim, Christian - all are in need of the Atonement."

Here we go again. If you're not a bible thumping christian, you're going to burn in hell for all eternity.

I don't know about the "Bible-thumping" part, but yes, one does have to trust in the one Atonement of Messiah to be in true and eternal communion with the all-holy God of the universe. The idea is not to thump the Bible but to take the time to study it, honestly and intelligently; not to bring knee-jerk, prejudiced, ad hominem criticism to the table. The entire text of Holy Scripture virtually screams exclusive and intentional. From the proto-evangelion of Genesis 3.15 to the last verse of Revelation, God's redemptive plan is clearly outlined, along with spiritual directives (Law, Wisdom, Prophets, Gospels, Epistles) from Him appropriate to people (OT Hebrews, NT Gentiles & Jews) at their stage of spiritual receptivity and their position on the historical timeline. All this to say that no other religious system has anything close to such an historically ancient and consistent plan of Atonement and restoration for mankind.

As for the burning part, it is generally accepted that the “fiery” language used to describe the hellish separation of those who hate and reject God and His Word is a metaphor for the super-ache (burning) of the spirit-soul as the judgment of God relegates it to a condition alienated from God's felicitous presence. As those created in the imago dei, we are responsible for our sin and rebellion. Even on earth, people are in internal torment and travail as they experience alienation from their Creator and the hellish results of sin in their lives: drug addiction, guilt over killing their baby, murderers who commit suicide, the abject emptiness of pornography, divorce, race hatred, godless materialism, ad nauseam. Eternal or absolute hell is simply the after-death version of its earthly counterpart. "It is appointed unto men once to live, but after this the judgment." Heb. 9.27 As self-aware, volitional beings created in God's very spiritual likeness, we bear responsibility for our decisions regarding God and morality. And so we either enter the after-death state covered by the righteousness of Christ or appear before God without any covering or atonement for our sin, continuing as we already are.

As for Haggard’s going into treatment; he will not be able at this point to come out as a totally heterosexual man, but he will hopefully be able to receive enough doctrine and personal counsel to repent of his sin and be renewed in his relationship with God, forming the basis of consistent victory over both thoughts and transgressions. Most victorious homosexual Christians that I know consider themselves “recovering” gays. That is, they recognize that they have been conditioned to see other males or females as sex objects, but they also understand that it is contrary to God’s will, and make a personal commitment to receive regular, ongoing counsel, and be totally accountable to their spiritual mentors for the rest of their lives – much like an alcoholic, as gay sex (or any lust) is an addiction, NOT a natural, God-ordained orientation.

Although orthodox Christians reject the idea of genetic orientation, that there is a “gay gene;” it is, however, widely held that there may indeed be certain personality traits that make some people more vulnerable to early environmental conditions that precipitate neurotic homosexual acting out. From a biblical perspective, homosexuality is foreign to God’s created plan and will, and one of the effects of the Fall. We do not consider physical defects “normal” because we recognize that there are expected normative traits. Likewise we do not consider mental diseases that may be genetic as “normal” or good. Homosexuality is neither normal nor good. It is also physiologically aberrant and dangerous. But God loves gays just he loves liars, racists and thieves, for “ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost, and His grace is sufficient for all who call upon His name; He is the friend of sinners precisely because “God so loved the world” and provided full redemption and restoration.