Fool for Christ

Ted Haggard on Oprah

What ever the outcome of this former pastors “moment in the sun” on the Oprah Winfrey show – the long term ramifications can be nothing short of dubious. This does not portend well for true believers.

Whenever the children of God seek out solace and comfort – and approval from the princess of an earthly kingdom – it always involves compromise.

If his redemption rests in the arms of Oprah Winfrey – then what we are looking at is the process of redefining the political correctness of the Christian faith for the American public.

And who better to serve us in this pivotal role than former pastor Ted Haggard? Remember, this is a man who sat on the National Association of Evangelicals board – and represented the faithful in some important and controversial documentary venues – including Dateline NBC, ABC’s 20/20, “The Anti-Christ” on the History Channel, “The Root of all Evil?” – a British documentary featuring Richard Dawkins, the HBO documentary “Friends of God” with Alexandra Pelosi (yes, the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s daughter) – and “Jesus Camp”. Alexandra Pelosi also made the film, “The Trials of Ted Haggard” which was recently aired on HBO.

And his role would be pivotal if it all stopped there – but it doesn’t.

During Ted Haggard’s tenure at the New Life Church, which he founded – one of the most horrific shootings in America took place when sisters Stephanie and Rachel Works, ages 18 and 16, were gunned down by Matthew Murray, “a loner with emotional problems” who carried a book by Aleister Crowley in his front pocket.

Having such an incident take place in the parking lot of your church might have sent a strong warning message to Pastor Haggard. These are the kinds of things that make us check our hearts – that bring the fear of God on believers in not only a congregation – but to an entire city – even a whole nation.

We might not be able to ask God why certain tragedies occur – but like King David of old we can cry out, “O Lord, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.”

All of these honors and tragedies apparently didn’t do the trick for Pastor Haggard – he still had one trick up his sleeve – Mike Jones and methamphetamines.

The Ancient Texts admonish, “Pride cometh before a fall.”

It would be unfair of me to sit in judgment of Pastor Ted – he has had his appearances before the councils – and suffered the removal from his former office – and has been banished from those he tried to love and serve.

Pastor Ted’s standing with the Almighty is between him and his Maker.

What we are attempting to take a critical look at here is his continued place on the public stage.

The question begs asking, “Is Pastor Ted being used – in his present fall from grace, as a pawn by powerful and influential people – to bring more confusion and exposure to homosexuality and its place in the public’s acceptance of what constitutes “proper religious faith”?

Don’t misunderstand me – I believe that homosexuality is a personal decision. Some people believe that it’s just the way they were made.

What I have difficulty with is in publicly setting the boundaries for what is acceptable for me to believe when I practice my religious faith – because I believe it is purely between me and God.

The learned Apostle affirmed, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but peace, joy and righteousness in the Holy Ghost.”

When the sexuality and sexual encounters of such an influential person become the focus of public discourse – then I just think that there is more going on here than meets the eye.

One thing to remember is that Pastor Ted is the one who the media has chosen to pursue.

You might want to speculate what the characteristics of a “politically correct” leader of the Christian faith would be.

Where would such a “leader” stand on the most controversial issues of the day?

What would his viewpoints and experiences most likely include?

Throughout history – the leaders of the most powerful nations have attempted to set these standards based on what they themselves considered to be in the best interests of the public – and they proscribed, even persecuted those that did not comply.

In some cases, what was at first politically expedient degenerated into an enforcement nightmare.

Anytime you endeavor to regulate the speech, opinions, observations, attitudes, or religiously held beliefs of one group over another – you can expect some major difficulties.

In the documentary “Jesus Camp” Pastor Ted is seen making fun of – almost mocking the film’s protagonist Levi. (for comments from the films producers see http://www.jesuscampthemovie.com/haggard_response.html)

In a conversation Jesus of Nazareth warned his disciples about the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Legions of Rome – he prophesied, “(They) shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another – because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation”.

Pastor Ted missed his – let us hope that we don’t.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 6:35 pm and is filed under Around the Town. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.