Ted Haggard
Later, Haggard admitted to drug use, some sexual activity with Jones, and an inappropriate relationship with a young man who attended New Life Church.
[2] His father, J. M. Haggard, a practicing veterinarian in Yorktown, Indiana, founded an international charismatic ministry, which was featured in a PBS Middletown documentary series.
[3] As a co-editor of his high-school newspaper in 1974, Haggard published frank articles that described services that were available to prevent and deal with increasingly prevalent pregnancies and STDs.
[citation needed] Haggard describes feeling the call of God on his life after his first year in college while he was in the kitchen at home.
[8] Initially, the 22 people who met in the basement of Haggard's house formed his church, which then grew to rented spaces in strip malls.
[13] In November 2006, a male prostitute and masseur, Mike Jones, publicly alleged that Haggard had paid him for sex over a three-year period and had bought and used crystal methamphetamine.
"[20] Because of the scandal, Haggard went on administrative leave from New Life, saying, "I am voluntarily stepping aside from leadership so that the overseer process can be allowed to proceed with integrity.
"[21] On November 2, 2006, senior church officials told Colorado Springs television station KKTV that Haggard had admitted some of the claims made by Jones.
[22] In an e-mail to New Life Church parishioners sent on the evening of November 2, Acting Senior Pastor Ross Parsley wrote, "It is important for you to know that he [Haggard] confessed to the overseers that some of the accusations against him are true.
[24] As it became apparent that at least some of the claims were true, some evangelical leaders, such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, sought to distance themselves from Haggard and to downplay his influence on religious conservatives, his connections to the Bush administration, and the importance of the NAE.
Haggard's successor, Brady Boyd, said the church reached a six-figure settlement with the man, who was in his early 20s at the time.
[31] Later reports were that the relationship did not involve physical contact, but that on one occasion Haggard masturbated in front of the young man.
Sethman recorded the statements of two young adult men who said Haggard touched them inappropriately on several occasions at the church.
They attended Phoenix First Assembly of God Church, whose pastor, Tommy Barnett, was on Haggard's counseling team.
Haggard reached an agreement with New Life Church on a severance package that would pay him through 2007; one of the conditions was that he had to leave the Colorado Springs area.
[38] In August 2007, Haggard released a statement asking for monetary donations to help support his family while he and his wife attended classes at the University of Phoenix.
[39][40][41][42][43] In June 2008, with the severance deal of the New Life Church at an end, Haggard was "free to live where he wanted" and returned to his Colorado Springs home.
In November 2008, Haggard said in guest sermons at an Illinois church that his actions had roots in sexual abuse by an adult when he was seven years old.
[44][45][46][47] In January 2009, after the release of The Trials of Ted Haggard, Haggard and wife Gayle appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, and other national media programs to offer a public apology and confession for the issues that spurred his resignation.
On March 11, 2009, Haggard attended a performance in New York of This Beautiful City, a play about him and the Colorado Springs evangelical community.
"[48][49][50][51] Newsweek's June 7, 2010, issue's "Back Story" listed Haggard among prominent conservative activists who have a record of supporting anti-gay legislation and are later caught in a gay sex scandal.
[52] In a July 2010 interview he gave to CNN,[53] Haggard claimed that his feelings of sexual attraction to other men had miraculously disappeared.
[54] In October 2009, the Colorado Springs Independent published the first extensive interview with Haggard to appear in the secular press since the 2006 scandal.
"[55] On November 4, 2009, Haggard posted a message on his Twitter account announcing his intent to begin public prayer meetings in his Colorado Springs home.
On April 1, 2022, Haggard sold the warehouse housing Saint James Church for $1.95 million according to the El Paso County, Colo., Assessors office.
Christians who live in the "tree of life," writes Haggard, "grow in their understanding of right and wrong, and they find great insight, wisdom, victory, and joy in the stream of Jesus' righteousness."
[65] Rather than a top-down command and control hierarchy where Haggard made all the decisions and people fell in line, he instituted a free market concept that encouraged young leaders to debate the best ideas (even to the point of disagreeing with him) and pursue God-inspired dreams and visions in their own departments and beyond.
[68] Author Jeff Sharlet reported in 2005 that Haggard "talks to... Bush or his advisers every Monday" and stated at that time that "no pastor in America holds more sway over the political direction of evangelicalism.
"[75] Under Haggard's leadership, the NAE released "For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility" in late 2004, "a document urging engagement in traditional culture war issues such as abortion and gay marriage but also poverty, education, taxes, welfare, and immigration".
In early 2006, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins interviewed Haggard as part of a British television documentary entitled The Root of All Evil?.
