Andrew Sullivan thoughts on Ted Haggard

From The Daily Dish:

Quote for the Day
05 Nov 2006 06:13 pm

"There is part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life,"

- pastor Ted Haggard, referring, I suppose, to his homosexual orientation.

For those who still - amazingly - believe that being gay is somehow a "choice," consider Haggard. If he could have chosen not to be gay, don't you think he would have? Even though he apparently believes being gay is "repulsive and dark" (while it is, in fact, just another wonderful way to be human), he still cannot prevail against it. It is integral to him. It has been "all of [his] adult life".

One day, he may realize, and I pray he does, that the only dark and repulsive thing is the closet, the betrayal of his wife and children, the destruction of a church, and the demonization of others in the same boat - all as a function of his own inability to face the truth. What is dark and repulsive is dishonesty.

There is no commandment not to be gay. There is a commandment not to bear false witness. Haggard bore false witness - to himself, to his wife, to his traumatized kids, to his fellow gay men and women. repeatedly, pathologically, self-destructively. The right response for Christians is compassion and forgiveness. But also hope: hope that this will help spread the truth about what being gay actually is.

Face it, Ted. Face the truth. It will set you - and so many others - free.

Conservative Degeneracy Watch
05 Nov 2006 07:59 am

A reader writes:

David Frum didn't really argue that a meth-snorting homophobe who for three years cheated on his wife with a male prostitute while at the same time denouncing gay relationships is more moral than an openly gay man, did he? Oh yes he did.

Wha? Hypocrisy as a virtue? Joe. My. God. Read David Frum's blog...if you dare.

Kathryn Lopez didn't really call the piece "excellent," did she? Oh yes she did.

And to think, some people think of the GOP as unhinged or homophobic.

How on earth did anyone get that idea?

He Had Sex
05 Nov 2006 09:37 am

A final confirmation that Haggard was still lying yesterday. But what's interesting to me is that having adulterous gay sex is apparently, in Haggard's mind, a worse sin than buying crystal meth. He copped to the meth before the sex. A reader commented yesterday:

It's telling that Rev. Haggard first admission is to purchasing meth. America can tolerate drug stories. We've heard them before. We like them even. The popularity of James Frey's memoir, err, novel, speaks to our affinity for these tales of dissolution and rehabilitation. After all, a user can be redeemed. Not so with a homosexual. What I believe is most horrifying to many Christianists about homosexuality is that it can't be fixed, or worse, that its practitioners do not even desire to be fixed. Gays are sinners who don't want redemption.(emphasis added)

Recall that Rep. Foley used a similar tactic in the unspooling of his confessions. As I remember it, Foley checked into a substance abuse program just days after the allegations of page abuse surfaced. That strategy: turn pedophilia into a story about alcoholism and Foley's own childhood abuse. We don't know how the Haggard story will eventually unfold, but I bet that his handlers will hide the sex behind the smoke of the meth pipe as much as they can.

Wrong, it turns out. The drugs-worse-than sex may be a story that works in the mainstream; but among some Christianists, drug abuse is nowhere near as bad as being gay.