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TELEVISION REVIEW

Misery Longs for Company

Ted Haggard bemoans his "exile" in a new HBO documentary.

David Neff | posted 1/29/2009 08:32AM

The Trials of Ted Haggard, a documentary film that debuts tonight on HBO (click here for full listings), opens with a scene of the megachurch pastor toasting marshmallows over an open fire. He tells filmmaker ...

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Nana	Posted: February 05, 2009 2:28 PM

I just perchance tuned in to HBO and saw the final part of the "The Trials of Ted Haggard" and the question I pose all of us - supposedly the body of Christ - who are we to throw stones. As the LORD Jesus the pharisees, when they brought to Him the woman caught in adultery, "which of you without sin, should cast the first stone". Did they? We forget one very simple lesson here: For God so loved the world, that He gave His Son...? We act so pious, and so spiritual, but to literally say that Ted should disappear, that is an insult to the Sovereign Lord God. Let us examine our hearts, that on the day of reckoning, we can stand before the Lord and give good accounts of ourselves. After all, had the LORD not used Ted to start the church, he's been thrown out of, where would they all be. We are forgetting: L O V E

Darlene

Posted: February 03, 2009 10:00 PM

Indeed forgiveness is as important to Christians as air is to all human mankind. But lately, I sensed that, in the name of "not judging others" and 'forgive 7 times 70" , burdens - to forgive -are laid on the one hurt by the perpetrator at the convinience ( of time , place, ways) of the perpetrator. Jesus says that if we are offering gift and remember that our Brother has something against us , WE are the one who has to go TO our brohter and make things right with him. In Ted Haggard's case, I believe it was his Congregation that was in much pain. It was him, then, who should go to them and ask for forgiveness at THE RIGHT TIME, when the shock and the wounds are somewhat healed. Reading between the lines, I think he still hinted that the Bible was too harsh on Homosexuality. And, was Ted not the one who chose to 'drop out' from the one year counseling period offered by Church? And, why did he not choose to 'retire' early, knowing his weekness, before it became a scandal??

judith

Posted: February 03, 2009 8:44 AM


Pastors are under greater attack from the Devil, even in sexual issues. the stronger the man the greater the attack until they fall. Falling in homo vs hetero-sexual sins is the same and should be forgiven. My own pastor had a hetero-sexual issue and divorced, remarried, left church and started another with success. While his seeming unforgiving wife died of complications in health.

Brent

Posted: February 02, 2009 1:23 PM

dg...Some things for you to think through. Jesus sent Peter out to preach the good news during His earthly ministry. So, Peter WAS a preacher. Later, he lied and brought down curses on himself asking God to damn him if he knew Jesus. He did this three times. Yet, after the resurrection, Jesus sent Peter out as an Apostle to preach the gospel in a greater way than ever. Also, after Moses struck the rock, he remained the pastor / leader of the children of Israel for years and years after the rock failure and remained the "shepherd" of God's people he had always been up to the day of his death. Moses was 120. Not like he had a bright future of leadership waiting in the promised land. Joshua had been preped for that business ahead of time. Sounds like you've been listening to John McArthur etc. The turth is, I would much rather sit under a pastor who has suffered failure and been restored, than one for whom sin is just an abstract idea and never really felt its horrible sting personally.

Oyinlade

Posted: February 02, 2009 8:36 AM

Haggard sinned, we all sin and leaders are expected to be very cautious. What struck me here though is the attitude of many other christian leaders to him. If an Israeli soldier falls in battle, the whole nation comes to his aid, had the church stopped learning from this nation? If what others Christians will do is to stab be further when I fall, then is it worth being a 'Christian' at all? Lord help me to look only onto and to trust only you

Barn	Posted: February 02, 2009 6:12 AM

I wonder why it is christians that are the first to always shoot their wounded soldiers. The Bible we hold and believe in teaches us to restore anyone overtaken in a fault in the spirit of meakness considering ourselves less we also be tempted. I wonder if we read such scriptures before acting like some hoier - than - thou judgemental people. Ted fell. He was wrong. There is no doubt about that. But where is the place of forgiveness and restoration? I pray we will not send more people to hell through our attitude. But I know that God will restore His man... it is before Him he either stands or fall.

Marta

Posted: February 01, 2009 11:14 PM

I agree that Mr. Haggard should not be allowed back into a position of authority, but it is truly sad to me that his church has shut him out. This is precisely when he is most in need of fellowship, both him and his family. What it must be like to feel that a part of who you are is contrary to God's will so much that you are completely shunned from a group that admits that *all* are sinners. Sometimes I do not know how to reach this portion of the church - how to hold to the truth of the Bible but at the same time be sensitive to how painful it must be to be told something so fundamental to our identity is faulty. This is something we need to do much better, find a way of reaching homosexual people and making them part of the family. My prayers are with Mr. Haggart and his family.

All have sinned...

Posted: February 01, 2009 8:49 PM


Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Galations 6:1

ovidliving

Posted: February 01, 2009 8:11 PM

It's a matter of integrity and humility. Restoration is between us and God. Reconciliation is a long, hard road that takes more than just asking for forgivenss and receiving it. It's not that a pastor should never pastor again, but the every church that person serves needs to know. Also, on the Haggard question, I heard that his counselor, which shouldn't be commenting on his case in the first place, said something to the effect that Haggard is a heterosexual with issues. What a copout! Haggard needs to take the time to truly heal. I don't care how much Bible he's reading or how evangelical he claims to be, to me he hasn't shown the integrity to return to the pulpit. He needs to stop worrying about his PR, like the dude in the temple shouting about his prayer so all could hear, and be more like the guy who prayed for forgiveness whom Jesus said was the most holy.

David

Posted: February 01, 2009 2:32 PM


May God bless Ted Haggard for clinging to Christ despite the shame he brought on himself and his church. He could have given in to his orientation and forsaken Christ altogether after being exposed, but he didnt.

Crystal L Brooks

Posted: January 31, 2009 11:21 PM

Wow. What compassion these people on the post have. It is definitely true what they say: The Church shoots its wounded. As I recall, Jesus says what about forgiving others? 70 x 7? It's obvious Haggard is remorseful. We are not talking about a child molester or pedophile here. He'd be in jail if he were caught doing that. Read 1 & 2 Corinthians about the man sleeping with his mother (or stepmother). Read 1 Cor. 5 & 2 Cor. 2:5-11. If the sinner is truly repentant, then he or she should be forgiven and comforted. His church was right in removing him from leadership. But to exile him into poverty is just horrible. There is no reason not to embrace back into fellowship and encourage his family. He can not go back to being in the pulpit, but he can be a member of a loving church. Why I would want to be a part of a church (or any church) that treats people like this? This is a true case why I love Jesus but not his church.

Philip Siew

Posted: January 31, 2009 9:26 AM

I respect and admire Ted Haggard. He has the strong faith to believe in God's Word still and move on despite his fall and the total rejection by his own people. I salute Gayle, his wife. She is the true disciple of Christ who does what Christ said. She exemplifies the teachings of the apostle James to be doer of the word. The family of Haggard expounds the life of the gospel despite Ted's fall: forgiveness, trust in the promises of God for cleansing and restoration. I am ashamed of those who only preaches the gospel but unwilling and not able to live out the gospel that forgives and restores the truly repentant. The church needs to proclaim the gospel authentically with actions that is consistent with what the gospel entails. I believe God knows the heart of Ted. If Ted is truly repentant, God is faithful and just. He will restore him and use him again to bless many others. The gospel is being revealed powerfully in the life of Ted and Gayle. May this happens in God's church.

Steve Schuh

Posted: January 31, 2009 2:03 AM

So, what is the answer to the filmmaker's question, "Do you have to choose between being gay and being evangelical?" Neff claims that many "gay Christians" (his quote marks) answer Yes and only claim their sexuality. But "not Ted Haggard," Neff writes -- Ted answers Yes and only claims his faith. But who are these so-called "gay Christians" who so easily abandon their faith for their sexuality? Are they real, or are they merely Neff's strawman counterpoint to Ted Haggard's sullied but dogged determinism to maintain the traditional evangelical insistence that the answer to the question is Yes, you do have to choose? Of course the other option is No, you don't have to choose between your faith and being honest about your sexuality. And this is where the real gay Christians come down. Forcing non-heterosexual people like Ted Haggard to deny reality OR keep their faith forces them to kill the person God made them to be AND corrupts the faith God would have them to keep.

Cathy

Posted: January 30, 2009 11:46 PM

Haggard should ask for religious asylum in a Christian denomination that will provide structured supervision and alternative employment. Part of the problem is that Haggard was the leader of a mega-church created by his own charismatic efforts without an authority structure over a network of congregations that could have provided more spiritual direction and oversight. I am not assuming that this structure is an automatic solution independent of the people in charge of that institution, as the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church demonstrates. However, there must be a denomination that has a good track record of dealing with sexual sin by clergy and other people who are serving as church staff. Is there a denomination that could reach out to Haggard and his family, give him alternate employment, and monitor his behavior in a restorative justice framework? Would Haggard do his part by responding faithfully to that supervision?

JoanRanger

Posted: January 30, 2009 11:43 PM

I watched the HBO special and the interview with Oprah, and what bothered me about both was not so much that Haggard's battle with homosexual tendencies, but rather, his obvious need to continue to put himself in the public eye. He and his therapist would do well to explore what drives him to seek attention and sympathy from those - Oprah and Pelosi, and also the world at large - who do not share his purported values. Considering that both women are in the camp that typically views Bible-believing fundamentalists as irrational nuts clinging to outdated ideas about homosexuality, I was really bothered that Haggard allowed his story to be used by them in such a way so as to further their case against Evangelicals' traditional views. And for all his supposed soul-searching and new "truth-telling" about his "complicated" sexuality, his honesty obviously goes only as far as the stories he's been forced to acknowledge because guys like Mike Jones and Grant Haas wouldn't stay quiet.

Jeanne

Posted: January 30, 2009 6:35 PM

I watch the HBO's documentary on Ted Haggard and cried all the way through it. How could anyone stand in Judgement of him? (judging is probably is the biggest sin that God hates!). This man had it all...and you DON'T think that he is repentant of his sins. I , certainly think he and his family have suffered enough for something that he struggled with all his life. Anyone, who has never walked in his shoes, should never make statements that they know nothing about. I think the bigger sinners in this whole mess is the way he was treated by "his" Church. Of course he had to be removed from leadership, but where was the love that Christ has commanded? Ted needed all the love and support that his fellow Christians could give. Instead, they just said, "go away....disappear...do not embarrass us anymore. I wonder what Jesus would have done. You know, I sometimes wonder if God uses people like Ted and other fallen preachers to see how "others" act in these situations. Just a thought.......

Carl R Smith

Posted: January 30, 2009 6:32 PM

Pastors have the greater calling and the greater responsibility to their 'sheep' and their family. What if Ted Haggard had not been 'caught'? How long and to what extent would his sexual 'other life' gone on? It is well to remember that God is not mocked and what a man sows the same shall he reap. Ted has betrayed his greater calling and chosen to ignore his greater responsibility. His continuing presenting himself as a 'victim' to the mainstream media needs to end. "The way of the transgressor is hard". One can either believe the Word of God and act accordingly or reap the harvest of the transgressor. Either way the scripure will not be broken!

JS	Posted: January 30, 2009 1:58 PM

It's amazing to see how many of "believer" will simply use the scripture to say that Pastor Ted should go into exile or should not Pastor. If we look at scripture carefully, the adultorus woman was caught in the "very act" and was brought to Jesus. Jesus then said let he who is free from sin cast the first stone. Jesus in a way was not just implying that we have sins that we don't want exposed, but that if we are not willing to forgive and not condem, the we will fall into the same trap. Matthew 7:1 tells us, "Do not judge, or you will be judge. For with the same rod you measured you will be mearsued as well". So when we look at Pastor Ted's fall, it not only affected NLC, it affected his wife, kids. What saddends me mostly, is that the board of NLC at no point offered a prayer over Pastor Ted and his family. And to exhile him? to tell him to move out of Colorado? Seriously. I guess we can conclude that the blood of Jesus is not powerful enough to clean and forgive sinners. We do.

ketch22

Posted: January 30, 2009 1:38 PM


What Helen Thomas said...

Diane

Posted: January 30, 2009 1:15 PM

Anonymity is this guy's most dreaded existence. He'll do anything to get in front of a TV camera! It seems like a DRUG to this guy!! A truly repentant person is ashamed as they should be, and does not want nationwide public attention drawn to their CRIMES. What's to stop him from repeating these crimes? His own "self-control"???? What a joke!! Has this guy been PROSECUTED?? Also, it is disturbing to see so many people PROUD of "forgiving" for purposes of EARNING their way into God's good graces, like they are earning merit badges (or "indulgences"). THEN, to make it worse, they are being uppity and sanctimonious toward others who know it is wrong to FAKE "forgiveness" for a person they clearly see as unrepentant, arrogant and above the law. A good reading for everyone, Catholic or not, is "The Limits of Forgiveness": http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2003/0309bt.asp When Haggard stays off TV screens for at least 5 years, I'll believe he's humble and repentant.

Todd	Posted: January 30, 2009 1:02 PM


Mr. Haggard, it turns out, is not a salesman of victory in Christ. So why would he be a leader in the church?

Naardski

Posted: January 30, 2009 10:04 AM


I think Haggard needs to consider going back into Exile. After seeing his appearance on Oprah the other day, I am totally confused as to what he thinks or believes. I hope that his familiarity with the spotlight is not the driving force behind this documentary.

JEK	Posted: January 30, 2009 9:16 AM

For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. - Matthew 6:14-15 If members of NLC and the Evangelical movement have not forgiven Brother Haggard, then they are not forgiven of their sins as far as God is concerned. How dare these self-righteous unforgiving people throw this man and his family out on the streets and have nothing more to do with him. They are passing judgment even after this man is displaying repentance, when we like all men should be judged and condemned to hell if it weren't for the saving grace of Jesus Christ. We did not save ourselves, it was Jesus. Get over yourself and humble yourself and welcome this man and his family back with open loving arms if he has truly repented. God will forgive a man who repents, and that should be good enough for us to love and accept him and his family. Also, read Ezekiel 18:21-24.

P.	Posted: January 30, 2009 9:08 AM

Excellent documentary. I don't condemn New Life for what they did because they had a wounded church to take care of, but I do question whether the agreement with Haggard was/is legal. I mean, prohibiting him from being in CO for a year, I believe, and prohibiting him from ministry? I think Ted Haggard's true call is ministry in some form, maybe not as a pastor, but God definitely did give him a call. If Ted lets him, God will use all he's gone through to help him help others.

Patrice

Posted: January 30, 2009 3:35 AM


What a shame that Ted Haggard could not find christlike support from his former congragation and friends. This is not the way God treats us. Of course he cannot be pastor any more, but as he hold on to his faith he should have found a cummunity willing to stuck with him through his wrestling. Hold on Gayle ! A french fellow.

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