Haggard the Happy Heterosexual
I don’t have too much to add to the whole sordid Ted Haggard affair beyond what I wrote back in November, which included this:
The drug use, the closeted homosexuality, the solicitation of prostitution — a life of hypocrisy, of empty moralism, of fear and self-loathing. And then the initial denials and subsequent admissions. And now the confession. It’s such a good story, if a predictable one…
I suspect that Haggard will one day return to his church — a purified man who has overcome his demons, but not an honest one, not a self-aware one. And the church will welcome him back. And this story of overcoming will be told over and over again as a lesson to all. We all have our dark side. We all know what it’s like to succumb to it. Praise be to Ted Haggard for fighting the good fight and for being an example to us all.So it will go. And then the gay-bashing will continue. And the self-hatred, for each and every one of them, will find its outlet in outward hatred of the diseased Other.
Well, the predictable has become reality. Meet the “new” Ted Haggard:
The Rev. Ted Haggard emerged from three weeks of intensive counseling convinced he is “completely heterosexual” and told an oversight board that his sexual contact with men was limited to his accuser.
But he hasn’t yet been welcomed back. Rather, “the four-man oversight board” — which I’m sure has expertise on such matters and knows what it’s doing — “strongly urged Haggard to go into secular work instead of Christian ministry”. Haggard and his wife will pursue online Masters degrees in psychology — ooh, how challenging — and move away from the righteous hotbed of Colorado Springs, temptations and all, perhaps to Iowa or Missouri.
My friend Steve Benen puts is this way (in a post that is right on the mark): “An awful story has managed to get even more pathetic.” Haggard claims to have suffered from sexual addiction, but he also claims that that his homosexuality (and, indeed, his entire extra-marital sexual contact) was limited, in practice, to one man. That isn’t addiction. And it’s rather incredible. Either Haggard is lying or he is hiding behind a clinical problem. Or both.
Regardless, it seems unlikely — no, it is impossible — that “three weeks of counseling at an undisclosed Arizona treatment center” has cleared up his “sexual immorality,” as he put it. Nor is it possible that he is now, as a member of the oversight board put it, “completely heterosexual”. Leaving aside the valid point that no one is either completely heterosexual or completely homosexual, can it be true that his homosexuality was merely a temptation, a “feeling,” that could be overcome in therapy? No.
Andrew Sullivan: And so the psychological and spiritual abuse that Haggard has imposed on others and is now imposing on himself continues for another cycle of denial and pathology. And that is what, sadly, a great deal of Christian fundamentalism is caught up in: a vortex of denial of reality and rigid psychological resistance to self-acceptance… And Haggard is getting sicker.” Steve again: “This whole charade is a bad joke. No serious person can believe that a man can be buying meth, having gay sex with a prostitute, and lying to everyone he cares about in November, and be fully ‘rehabilitated’ in early February after three weeks of ‘therapy.’”
The Haggard saga is indeed “a bad joke” — to some of us. The problem is that there are too many people out there who are more than willing, more than happy, to take Haggard’s recovery seriously, to believe that homosexuality is merely a disease, an immoral disease, that can be overcome through self-denial masquerading as therapy. They may do so because they themselves are in denial, or because they fear the unknown, the Other, both within and without. We all need our lies, after all. Some are just less noble than others. And some — like this one, like the hypocritical lies of Haggard and his kind, lies that enable abuse — are not only self-destructive but destructive of others, socially destructive.
Those lies are alive and well in the evangelical community from which Haggard has been temporarily banished. And his story, the fall and rise of a sinner, only serves to strengthen them.
No matter what becomes of Haggard himself, that is the real tragedy of this whole sordid affair.
18 Responses to “Haggard the Happy Heterosexual”
The poetic beauty of this entire situation just leaves me with a smile that won’t go away. Some may think that cruel, but when a man’s cruelty to others is both turned back on himself, and can be cured by admitting his errors, it just seems too perfect. Almost makes me believe in a higher power meting out justice. Almost.
Well, everyone likes a happy ending-nice ‘n tidy. Maybe Haggard can refer Mark Foley now that he is out of rehab for his alcholism to the same program. Once he goes for “the cure” Foley might even be welcomed back into the fold of the GOP. Praise the lord for the miracles he hath wrought on us poor sinners here on earth.
Before October 2006, 99 Americans out of 100 could not have picked Ted Haggard out of a line up and had no idea who he was. Ted Haggard became a hot button issue when the gay community in Colorado decided to use him as a campaign ploy during an election on a anti-same sex amendment (that eventually passed). So why should any body care now. The political ploy probably backfired and any political points scored now will just appeal to the political left base anyway.
To me, the real question is whether the extreme left will use the political tactic again in 2008 and who will or could be the target. Will political operatives still be going after credit reports, divorce settlements, juvenile criminal justice records, etc in order to embarrass someone or to score political points?
SD:
Hypocrites of Haggard’s ilk who hide behind God’s robes always should be fair game.
I knew exactly who Ted Haggard was a few years back – he threatened the Jewish community that Evangelicals would withdraw their support for Israel if Jews didn’t stop complaining about Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic movie “Passion of the Christ.”
Haggard is also fair game because he talked with the WH at least once a week and was a prominent evangelical leader of national importance.
Right. This is coming from the team that claimed *Ward Churchill* was an important figure? Hahahahaha…
carpeicthus,
While there is a pretty significant difference because of the WH connection that Kim mentioned, would you agree that if that is left out of the picture then there are parallels? It seems to me that the left is concerned about the influence of evangelical pastors over their flocks, while the right is concerned about left wing university professors’ influence over their students. Personally I think both concerns are real to some degree, but mainly overblown.
carpeicthus = Seize the Fish?
kritter,
I would not have put Haggard in the top tier of evangelicals. What made him important is that he could be used in a political campaign for a local issue. It also fit into a theme that the MSM was very comfortable reporting.
To me the question is that since heckling politicians and exposing personal lives was so successful for the left is that will they try harder in 2008. Will every Republicans candidates be dogged by a leftist heckler with a video camera. Will every Republican candidate have to worry about his credit report, all past court preceding, his medical records, or anything else that the left will deem important?
How many October surprises will there be in 2008? That is why I do not think that Giuliani stands a chance in 2008 because there is just too much dirty laundry that will get aired. The same probably goes for McCain.
SD- Ted Haggard was the President of the National Assoc of Evangelicals and had the POTUS’ ear. I don’t know how much more prominent than that you can get.
Also, pls don’t pretend that only the left uses the politics of personal destruction. Edmund Muskie was brought down by the right, Bill Clinton almost was, and even in ’06 a Pennsylvania Democrat was smeared because one of his aides accidentally called a wrong # which turned out to be a sex hotline. The aide hung up, but it made the headlines that the politician was trying to have voters in the state of Pennsylvania foot the bill for his phone sex. Both sides do it, and you know it. It just happened to have worked better for the Democrats last election, adding to other factors which indicated that the country wanted a change in direction.
But Kim, you’ve complained bitterly about those kinds of tactics from the right. Aren’t you excusing them from the left now?
Not really, CS- the left has gotten down in the gutter with the right. They have learned that’s what it takes to win. If they get caught breaking the law or manipulating voting data they should pay the consequences. Kerry tried to rise above the swift-boating campaign and wound up losing. Democrats aren’t going to do that anymore. But its funny to see those on the right whine like victims when they lose , just like we do!
Well, actually I’m not whining about it at all (I’m guessing that comment was directed at SD, but not sure). The GOP got what it deserved in Nov, and I won’t support dirty tricks to get them back in power. I just hope that nonpartisan moderates will hold both sides accountable for that.
No, I wasn’t accusing you of whining, CS, I directed that at SD. I don’t like dirty tricks either, but am now pretty familiar with how it works. A politician hires someone like Rove who then absorbs the blame for the dirty tricks if anyone catches on. The politician acts like the operative was acting totally on his own, and if its really bad fires him. But the politicians almost always know and approve of the tactics beforehand.
I will say the Democrats used some dirty tricks with the Allen/Webb race- but it was done so smoothly- it was hard to tie to Webb. Republicans got to blame their dirty tricks on the RNC, which claimed it had an outside contractor for their ads. That way offensive ads were almost never pulled off the air, and no one caught who was to blame for robocalling, which they used a lot around my neck of the woods.
“Completely heterosexual” after three weeks of “intensive counseling”? Staggering. Simply, simply, staggering. And there are people who believe this. That this Haggard hypocrite was fair game for a smear (cheap or otherwise) was obvious, but this whole story has elements of the comic, of the tragic.
Is it me or does Haggard look a lot like Joe Isuzu?
Actually, Ted Haggard looks somewhat haggard.