Comments on: On Alexandra Pelosi’s Film & Ted Haggard’s Closet

By: JWindish

JWindish — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:18:30 +0000

0seeker0, I reread my sentence in the context you ask: No evangelical that I've ever heard has called out, proud, gay people cowardly liars. I assume you are referring to my secular use of the word repent. The man has taken advantage of his position, lied to his flock, hurt his family, and now is caught in another lie about his sexuality. Not ambivalence. A lie. According to Newsweek he said Jones was the only adult same sex encounter. Unless he was using a Clintonian version of the word sex, or having same sex encounters with males who were not adults, he lied. He should repent! The evangelicals who have yelled at me are upset that I won't live their lie! I stand by my statement.

But further, I have some significant life experience under my belt with this kind of thing, as do other gay people who have had to navigate the social strictures against acknowledging their sexual orientation. If he wants to go find himself, good for him. But if he's parading himself on television shows, magazine interviews and all the rest of it, his lying ways will get no sympathy from me.

Tragically sad you say??? Give me a break. What is tragically sad is that people like him give the voters in the vast majority of our 50 states an excuse to perpetuate sick old stereotypes about sad perverted homosexuals who take drugs and have to pay for sex, or prey on subordinates and the young. Those behaviors, no longer the province of out proud lgbt people, are the excuse voters need to vote down legal recognition of loving committed same sex relationships. I understand the social construct he is struggling in, I understand the pain, but my sympathy at this point is for the people he's hurt, not for him.

By: kritt11

kritt11 — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:57:25 +0000

Oh well- “as you sow- so shall you reap”. Its a fitting end for Haggard.

Now he knows how all of those 15 year old boys felt when he told them they were going to Hell for the crime of being gay. Maybe he will learn true compassion, and not hide behind the bible.

By: 0seeker0

0seeker0 — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:49:35 +0000

It astounds and, quite frankly, disgusts me how the GLBT community has condemned him far worse than his own evangelical community. One would assume that the GLBT community would understand better than anyone that sexuality comes in a wide swath, and not in absolutes. To assume that he is a closeted homosexual who refuses to admit it, and therefore deserves scorn, is far more ruthless than what his own church did to him. At least they offered him counseling, a generous compensation package that was not required, and at the time the possibility to reclaim his position.

What has the GLBT community offered, other than scorn and condemnations that he is absolutely gay, living a lie, and will never be happy unless he admits to everyone that he is absolutely gay and nothing else? This is beyond hypocritical! Where is the understanding and compassion they demand from everyone else? Where is the freedom not to be judged which they have fought for? It is noticeably absent. Rather than embrace him and allow him to come to terms with his own sexuality, whatever that may be, he has already been condemned as someone who is "living a cowardly lie and deserves no sympathy from anyone until he repents, comes clean and comes out!".

How ironic. These are the exact same words used by evangelicals to condemn GLBTs! Read the sentence again, without the context of this article. It could easily be mistaken as the condemnation that evangelicals have displayed toward the GLBT community for decades. How tragically sad, indeed.

By: kritt11

kritt11 — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:56:32 +0000

Haggard's true crimes lie in fraudulently living a lie, and in his hypocritical persecution of others who have the courage to openly live a gay lifestyle. As a moral leader of the church, he bears more responsibility than an average person.

He made conscious choices to do those things and should pay accordingly.

By: TheMaineView

TheMaineView — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:22:21 +0000

I watched Pelosi's documentary “Friends of God” The film both scared and intrigued me. You could simply watch the film and make your own judgments, though there was a bit of leading in regards to Haggard. This is a completely different America than what I am surrounded by. I'm interested in seeing this new project.

By: ng1260

ng1260 — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:11:07 +0000

It is that while organized religion preaches forgiveness, at Haggard’s darkest hour, they turned their back on him.

This from the same woman who blackballed Mike Jones.

By: GreenDreams

GreenDreams — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:40:10 +0000

What dark self-loathing makes these people crusade so hatefully and vociferously against the very thing they secretly ARE? They must be so filled with self-hate they want to punish everyone who has these “weaknesses” (except for them. they want to get away with what they oppose). We saw it in the preposterous moralizing against Bill Clinton by philanderers who one by one, fell on their own swords.