Ted Haggard on Larry King

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Permalink Reply by MichaelTh on February 1, 2009 at 5:50pm

Haggard would be so much happier if he could admit that he's homosexual. When he stated on another program that he was a heterosexual with homosexual attachments I couldn't help but to think to myself "Wait a minute.. doesn't that just mean he's gay".

Haggard is a victim of the radical religious right's mentality that being gay is the worst of the worst when it comes to "sin". It's tragic.

The former pastor of the church I attend would frequently cite homosexuality as the worst sin imaginable.

It also would seem that this idea of being heterosexual with homosexual attachments comes from language used by christian counselors who don't really believe in homosexuality (they may believe that there are some heterosexuals with certain issues or problems that confuse them).

What is for certain is the dangers of the "Ex-gay" movement as well as the "pray the gay away" philosophy.

Haggard needs to get a real counselor and not one that is radically religious or affiliated with a church.

He needs to truly heal and deal with who he.

What most of us will realize if he continues to true to cure himself he'll likely spend the rest of his life conflicted and battling this "problem".

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Permalink Reply by JoshuaChayne on February 4, 2009 at 9:16pm

I agree that Ted Haggard needs to admit that he is gay and move on with his life. He can still be friends with his wife and the father of his children. Not only does he have same sex attractions but even his looks and mannerisms are somewhat effeminate. I don't know how he hid his homosexuality from his congregation for so long.

The sad thing is that a lot of conservative evangelicals don't 'see' gay people because they view it as behavior and ignore the attractions/desire/love/fantasies aspect and thus they don't believe that someone is homosexual unless they act on their feelings and they often don't believe that someone is gay unless the person explicitly states it. For example fans of Clay Aiken didn't believe he was gay until he said so even though it was obvious to most of us who don't try to pretend that gay people don't exist. Some fans still refuse to believe that Ricky Martin or Anderson Cooper are gay just because they don't explicitly say it even though its rather obvious and they tend to wink and nod at it from time to time.

Ted Haggard could be like Ray Boltz and show the world that one can be gay and Christian at the same time. They could build bridges between communities.

However, it looks like Ted and his wife are still in denial to an extent.

Its sad that these churches are telling young gay men like Grant Haas that they have to go to therapy to change their natural orientation and then they place them with pastors who are also struggling with their homosexuality like Ted Haggard and all they end up with is these so-called "ex-gays" who are pretending to be straight while they have sex with each other.

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