Apparently Mr. Haggard "subjected himself" to three weeks of "intense ministry" by four leading evangelical ministers, who declared him to be cured in that time period. A quote from Rev. Tim Ralph, one of the four:
"He is completely heterosexual. That is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing."Hmmmm - so, it was "just the acting out situations" and therefore he's not gay. Interesting concept. This is the kind of convoluted speech that is used by evangelicals and proponents of reparative therapy that bewilders me.
In response, Mike Jones, the escort who had been in those "acting out situations" with Haggard, quoted:
"Well, that's the quickest therapy I've ever heard of. It's hard for me to imagine someone who is performing oral sex and saying that he is 'straight. That just doesn't jive. If you were to ask me 'Do I think is Ted Haggard gay?' I would have to say yes."
Rev. Ralph also made comments that if Mr. Haggard were gay, he'd have had more than one affair, and since nobody else had come out and accused Haggard of having sex with him, it "proved" that Haggard was not gay.
HUH?? So, since he only had sex with one man, Haggard's sexual contact with Mike Jones was simply "acting out." Very strange logic. In my world, we call that "pretzel logic." Twisting the facts to try to make a ludicrous point.
Unfortunately, a gullible church will grab hold and believe it. And Haggard's wife will continue to love and support him, praying with all her might that it is over - that he will never "act out" again. Haggard will either disappear from any publicity at all, or he will become the newest poster child for the ex-gay movement, which attempts to convince the church that homosexuality can be "cured." Which, of course, is another way of saying that they believe it is some sort of disease.
A three year affair with a male escort - and he's "healed" in three weeks. The stats don't back up the claim. More about those statistics another time. The fact is (and any non-fundamentalist will tell you this), if you have a desire to put your mouth on a person of the same sex's genetalia - you are not straight. And THAT'S OKAY!
I'm sure Ted Haggard WANTS it to be true - that he is straight, that he is healed, that he will no longer have to deal on a daily basis with the desire to be with a man, that he will want to be with his wife and ONLY his wife for the rest of his life. I'm sure that is something he would love to have. It is unfortunate that he lives in a society that doesn't value him for exactly who he is...that he felt the need to suppress his attractions at all.
It will be easy for him to deny his attractions to men as long as he is surrounded by all this attention from the "leadership" - but, like John Paulk (James Dobson's former "ex gay" posterboy), as soon as Haggard is back out from under their "leadership", he's on his own with the temptations again. And like John Paulk, who immediately went to a gay bar as soon as he was out of "ministry" covering - Haggard will find that he is faced with this again.
And he and his wife and their children will suffer for it.
Not to mention the millions of gay people out there who are suffering for those attitudes as well.
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