Category: Evangelicals

Dobson Sounding Haggard

Dr. James DobsonMega-Christian James Dobson, one of the saved, said this week that he ‘doesn’t have time’ to be on the panel of Christian experts involved in working to restore disgraced preacher Ted Haggard. Dobson is the founder and chairman of Focus on the Family. Dobson said in a prepared statement:

“It is with great regret – and after much prayer and discussion with friends and family – that I have had to reconsider my involvement in the panel overseeing Ted’s restoration. Emotionally and spiritually, I wanted to be of help, but the reality is I don’t have the time to devote to such a critical responsibility. Ted and his family will be better served by someone whose energies and attention are not tugged on in quite so many directions.”All of us at Focus on the Family will continue to pray for Ted and Gayle and their children. I certainly hope to speak with him – friend to friend – as he moves forward. And I believe if he and his loved ones follow the counsel of Godly mentors and cooperate with the therapeutic process, their best days are ahead.”

The team plans to get Haggard into a program with psychologists and church experts on sexual issues.

Well, that should be fun.

Dobson’s too busy fuming about the elections this week. Quoth he:

“Laura Ingraham said it best. When Congressional Republicans wait until the First of October to begin reaching out to their base, they are destined to lose. That was the GOP’s downfall. They consistently ignored the constituency that put them in power until it was late in the game, and then frantically tried to catch up at the last minute. In 2004, conservative voters handed them a 10-seat majority in the Senate and a 29-seat edge in the House. And what did they do with their power? Very little that Values Voters care about.

“Many of my colleagues saw this coming. I said in an interview with U.S. News and World Report shortly after the 2004 elections, “If Republicans in the White House and in Congress squander this opportunity, I believe they will pay a price for it in four years—or maybe in two.” Sadly for conservatives, that in large measure explains what happened on Tuesday night. Many of the Values Voters of ’04 simply stayed at home this year.

Must be tough to be so right all the time.


Looking Haggard and Drawn

Ted HaggardThis story adds a new category to Turning Left: Evangelicals. And this story fits nicely into three categories: Evangelicals, Republicans, and GLBT.

By now Ted’s story is well known. George W. confidant, president of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals, the largest evangelical group in America, a man who wielded influence on Capitol Hill and condemned both gay marriage and homosexuality, resigned on Thursday after a male prostitute reported that he had drug-fueled trysts with Haggard.

Haggard, who is also founder and senior pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, a man of truth to the last, admits to receiving a massage from Jones after being referred to him by a Denver hotel, and that he bought meth for himself from the man. However, he says he never had sex with Jones, and never used the drugs. “I was tempted, but I never used it,” the 50-year-old Haggard told reporters from his vehicle while leaving his home with his wife and three of his five children.

Jones, who advertises himself as an escort only in gay publications or on gay web sites, scoffed at the idea that Haggard learned of him through an employee at a hotel. “No concierge in Denver would have referred me,” he said.

Haggards web site boasts of his popularity with the media, securing his place as a true leader in the Evangelical community:

Pastor Ted has been interviewed by Barbara Walters, Tom Brokaw, Bill O’Reilly, Chris Matthews, and more. Time included Pastor Ted in their list of the 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America. Harper’s says, “No pastor in America holds more sway over the political direction of evangelicalism than does Pastor Ted.”

Any day, perhaps, but today. AP reports, “Jones did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press on Friday.”