Ted Gets More Media with Appeal for Money

Ted Haggard, the recently un-closeted gay anti-homosexual political powerhouse, needs you. Haggard sent out an email this week to his one-time supporters pleading for money so that he could get educated.

Haggard says he needs support so that he can go back to college full time to get a masters in counseling and his wife can get study psychology. He fails to mention in his letter that he was paid $115,000 for his 10 months of work in 2006. He also fails to mention that he received a $85,000 bonus before being fired. He also fails to mention that he lives in a house that appraises for more than $700,000.


I just read tonight on Colorado Confidential that even the non-profit he is recommending people give through (for tax purposes) lost its 501c3 and is lead by a formerly convicted sex offender.

Enough is enough. Please!

I am a Christ-follower. I recently started working for my church and even more recently accepted the title of pastor. I am deeply honored to serve my church and my Lord in this capacity...but the title of "Pastor" is a weird thing. I used to not like it because I was a bit too "organic" and got hung up about calling someone "pastor" when pastoring is really a function not a title. I have identified and repented of my former ignorance and arrogance, but now find myself reluctant to take the title for other reasons.

Try this conversation on for size. I meet someone, strike up an initial conversation, find a bit of normalcy and pretty soon the question comes:

"So what do you do for a living?"

"For a living? I am, well, a ... pastor."

"Oh -- a pastor? Oh, yeah, interesting..." as he guards his wallet and slowly moves away.

There is just too much baggage...too many scandals...too much hypocrisy. I don't like to define myself by what I am not, but feel compelled to say, "I am a pastor, but not like that. I am not a radical conservative republican. I do not think the former moral majority has the corner on the ethical market. I do not steal money from the sick and old. I was not raised in a Christian home and did not spend my entire adulthood getting paid by the church. I do not think I have to be stuffy, legalistic, or separatist in order to follow Jesus. And, no, I do not do drugs and sleep with men while publicly vilifying people who do."

The Apostle Paul got ticked at the religious leaders of his day because they preached one thing and did another. They had one standard for some people and another standard for themselves. In a great twist of irony, he said that the unbelievers watching them would blaspheme the God they claimed to serve because of their behavior.

Not much has changed in 2000 years.

I do not hate Ted Haggard (or others who have fallen before him). I am angry at the way they misrepresent Jesus and those who follow him, but know that the same grace that could redeem a broken person like me can also bring healing and wholeness to him.

I do wish he would just go out and get a job, though, and quit trying to live off the labor of others... I expect it would be good for him to have to put in an honest day's work for awhile.