Monday, October 31, 2005
# 104: I Am Outraged
This post is written in response to the TV special on NBC that aired Friday evening, Oct. 28, 2005, titled “In God They Trust.” The narrator was Tom Brokaw from NBC. The majority of the program was an interview with Pastor Ted Haggard, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals.
Although I thought I knew most of what evangelicals preached, I was shocked enough into writing this short segment. I could not believe President Bush would call Haggard—as he does on a regular basis—several hours after this program was broadcasted. And what would they be talking about? Since evangelicals have a strong involvement with politics, would Bush give some advice to Haggard, or vice versa? Repeating, it blows my mind that they can have such a comfy-cozy relationship. If Haggard is giving Bush advice as to whom he should appoint to the Supreme Court or how he should respond to the gay marriage issue, abortion, prayer in school, displaying the Ten Commandments on government property, the pledge of allegiance, and other sensitive issues, we have a “behind-the-back” evangelical theocracy without even knowing it. Now I know why Bush tried to put Harriet Miers on the High Court: she is an Evangelical. This close relationship with evangelicals explains some of the screwy stuff Bush has done in the last five years. I still can’t believe this is still happening in America.
When Brokaw asked Haggard why sin isn’t mentioned in his sermons, he was audacious enough to say, “People don’t want to hear about that. And besides, Jesus Christ took care of the sin issue.” That didn’t shock me to hear that; evidently they are not aware of the satanic power in sin. What startled me was how he said it so nonchalantly. By not mentioning the deadly harm of sin, he is silently teaching that it is acceptable to sin whenever and for whatever reason because after they are done enjoying the pleasure of sinning, all they have to do is to ask Jesus to forgive them and everything will we okay. Please read what the Book of 1st John says about sin.
Another word church-going people, especially evangelicals, don’t want to hear from the pulpit is the word “obedience.” I didn’t hear that word mentioned once in the whole broadcast. I could go on and on as to what is missing in the Evangelical message, but I won’t take up any more of your precious time. Obedience (or lack thereof) is one of the main issues I bring up over and over again in this blog. In short, leave obedience out of the Gospel message and what’s left is secular “Christianity,” which is no Christianity at all. The adage which is as old as the hills is still true: “If you tell people what they want to hear, they will knock down your doors to get in.” If one doesn’t personally know God to some degree, or what genuine Christianity consists of/is meant to accomplish, this form of “Christianity” is extremely enticing, especially if one doesn’t know better. They probably are thinking, “This is just what I am looking for.” Now we know why the mega-churches are so popular. Haggard has a membership of eleven-thousand in his “New Life Church” in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Something else I learned watching this show was that there are now 70 million evangelicals—and growing—in America. It is no wonder Bush won the election. It pains me greatly to see or hear the beautiful name of Jesus Christ misrepresented. That is the main reason I write my heart out: to expose the counterfeits. And besides that, it also hurts me more than one can imagine to see such a large number of honest, loving, intelligent people being deceived.
Every Evangelical who voted for Bush is responsible, in part, for the stupid, no-end-in-sight war in Iraq, which does not even have a possibility of a good end. What did taxpayers get out of it so far? Over 2,000 dead soldiers, countless wounded and their grieving families. Death of a loved one is one of the most hurtful emotions that one can continually experience, and believe it or not, I grieve in tears with them. If Bush could grieve half as much as I do, he would stop this war in a minute—and stop spending the 200 billion dollars or so we didn’t have for fighting this war; Bush just added to our national debt by borrowing it from China. Shame, shame on all you evangelicals. Where is your love and compassion? You should consider changing your ways before it’s too late.
Here are just a few words on current news events, especially the deceptive information Americans and Congress received from the White House in support of starting the Iraq war. In an attempt to get more information for a reason to start the war in Iraq, a senior White House official sent Ambassador Joseph Wilson (Valerie Plame’s husband) to Niger to investigate the truth about Iraq attempting to buy uranium yellowcake. After Wilson found out that information was false, he released the story to a national newspaper. In essence, the story said that Bush lied in order to make a stronger case for the Iraq war by stating in his State of the Union address that Iraq was attempting to buy uranium yellowcake. That was more than enough to ruffle Cheney’s dander; remember that Cheney, an intelligent man, was the strongest proponent and one of the main architects for the war in Iraq. Cheney then, most likely, told Lewis “Scooter” Libby to somehow discredit Wilson. Libby did this by revealing to Robert Novak, columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, that Wilson’s wife was a covert agent working for the CIA in Europe and other strategic countries as an expert on weapons of mass destruction. Only Cheney could stoop low enough to engineer this betrayal. The total damage done by this White House treachery has not yet been fully assessed by the CIA. As I see it, Cheney is a lying scoundrel; Libby is just the fall guy. This is not the end of this episode, but just the beginning. Let’s see how these evangelical politicians get out of this one. Now, let me get back to the evangelical TV special.
To make matters worse, in a ploy to suck in young people, they have one full hour of live “Christian” hard-rock “music” every Sunday. If that is not being bed partners with the world, what is? It is not the religious words in this music that are detrimental, but the sexually-oriented beat. That beat arouses sensual emotions, especially in our youth, who are attempting to somehow figure out what life is all about. Those stirred-up emotions can, and do, lead to trouble. Some of the youngsters/kids, most likely, are led to think something like this: “Sin? Ha-ha. We can do it, and then just ask Jesus for forgiveness, and everything will be okay”—that is, if she doesn’t get pregnant.
What the conservative, Christian, evangelical politicians are attempting to do through Bush and other conservative political leaders is to impose, through legislation, their evangelical morals on other religions, the secular, and the non-churchy Christian population. They must not be aware that Biblical morals are meant only for true Christians who have devoted their lives to furthering the cause of Jesus Christ. This type of twisted, half-baked theocracy they are attempting to form is a serious threat to our American democracy. A democracy can only be as good as the people who run it. And a church can only be as holy/Godly as the men/women who preach from the pulpit.
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This story broke Wednesday, November 1, 2006, concerning accusations against Ted Haggard, the pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Boulder, Colorado.
Ted Haggard, who was president of the National Association of Evangelicals–30 million strong—resigned yesterday while a church panel investigates the allegations that he paid for sex. Haggard told a reporter he bought illegal drugs (meth) from a male prostitute, but denied a sexual relationship with this man, then claimed he didn’t even know the fellow, which was a lie.
Haggard says he is an aggressive opponent of gay marriage. He is one of the leading conservative Christian leaders who has frequent meetings with George Bush and other White House staffers.
Rev. Haggard also gave up leadership of New Life Church, which has 14,000 members, pending the investigation.
Haggard told a Denver TV reporter late Wednesday: “I've never had a gay relationship with anybody, and I'm steady with my wife, I'm faithful to my wife.” Sure.
In an interview yesterday (Friday, 11-3-06) with a Denver TV station, Haggard again denied having sex with any man, let alone a 49-year-old accuser named Mike Jones.
Haggard said he bought meth only once and threw it away before ever using it. “I never kept it very long because it's wrong,” Haggard told the TV station. “I was tempted. I bought it. But I never used it.” However, an acting senior pastor acknowledged that some of the accusations were true.
Jones, who originally went public with his accusations because of Haggard's outspoken opposition to a Colorado referendum issue to ban gay marriage, denied selling meth to Haggard. Jones said Haggard bought meth from one of his acquaintances—covering his own butt—but used it many times before they engaged in sex.
Jones said he decided on his own to go public after he saw Haggard on TV as he was being interviewed on the History Channel. He never knew that Ted Haggard was “Art.” Jones only knew him as “Art” and he always paid cash ($200 every month for the past three years), and that they last had sex in August. Jones laughed when “Art” insisted he only got massages. “If that's what he wants to call it, that's up to him.”
Jones claimed to have a handwritten envelope from “Art” in which Haggard allegedly sent him $200 in payment for sex. In addition, Jones claimed to have voice mail messages from Haggard with excerpts late Thursday that referred to meth.
“Hi, Mike; this is Art,” one call began, according to the station. “Hey, I was just calling to see if we could get any more. Either a $100 or $200 supply.” A second phone call a few hours later went like this: “Hi, Mike; this is Art. I am here in Denver and sorry that I missed you. But as I said, if you want to go ahead and get the stuff, then that would be great. And I'll get it sometime next week or the week after or whenever.” At first, Haggard denied knowing Jones and later acknowledged calling Jones to discuss buying meth.
Jones’ explanation for his reason to go public: “I owe it to the gay community that has to put up with the hypocrisy from the religious right.”
Jones willingly volunteered to have a polygraph test to prove he was telling the truth. Evidently, when taking the test, he was under great stress, which made the polygraph test show inaccurate results. Jones was puzzled by the results. The administrator of the test, John Kresnik, suggested Jones be retested next week, after he had a chance to rest.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The evening of November 4, 2006: Last- minute news: I just heard on the TV that Ted Haggard was found guilty by the four-member church panel of immoral conduct and associated charges.
You decide what type of Gospel Haggard has been preaching every week to 14,000 evangelicals. He is a perfect example of a wolf in sheep's clothes.
A November 7, 2006 update: As most of you know by now, Ted Haggard admitted, in writing, to the charges against him, that he was a liar and deceiver, and asked for forgiveness from his church members, etc.
The troubling question I ask is this: When a person lies and deceives in one area of his/her life, do they do the same in other areas of life? There is no absolute answer to that question; therefore, let us leave it unanswered. But still, the question lingers in my mind; did he lie and deceive from his pulpit?
Most of you who are familiar with this blog know how I believe about the main message that is preached by evangelicals like Haggard. They tell their listeners what they desire to hear and not what they need to hear. That is the main, if not the only, reason for their popularity.
Since Haggard is one of the most prominent and powerful ministers of the evangelical movement in America, what he has done is leveled a damaging blow to all who call themselves evangelicals, like myself. This is as if Michael the Archangel was found guilty of the same offense. Would we still believe God?
It is good to know that people like him are caught with their pants down, as it were, and it confirms what I have been saying for years. But the sinister part is that atheists are jumping for joy, and will spread the message and confirm their belief that we are all phonies. That hurts.
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