Rev. Ted Haggard Heterosexual -- Total
February 08, 2007 12:37 PM EST
http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/22621.html

"Forced by a gay sex scandal to resign as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Rev. Ted Haggard now feels that after three weeks of intensive counseling, he is ‘completely heterosexual,’ says an overseer of the megachurch Mr. Haggard once led," per Neela Banerjee of The New York Times.

Haggard has been so caught up in his own ego that now to preserve his presence as well as marriage and family he will claim "healing by Jesus." He’s into the usual quick-fix healing mode of untold numbers in evangelical Protestantism.

Yes, Jesus as God incarnate can heal instantly. And He does.

However, it is one grandstand punch for Haggard to be healed of homosexuality in three weeks of counseling. Many won’t believe it any more than they believed Jim and Tammy Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart and countless Roman Catholic priests who claimed to be something they weren’t.

There are all kinds of stimuli to prod a person in ministry to come out clean pronto. There is image, for one thing. There are relationships with friends. There is sometimes a salary check and health benefits plus housing with utilities. There is also the haunting fear of ????ation if the healing doesn’t pervade in short order.

Any of these stimuli could work for Haggard.

But in the accounts that came out when he confessed his liaisons with another man, it was a personal history dating back to feelings of homosexuality, uncertainty of his own sexual identity, and so forth — all over time since a young person.

So when his colleagues give media the line that these were just solo impulsive reactions on Haggard’s part when with this other man, many will not hang in with that. Some "many" include evangelicals of similar theological stripe to Haggard and company.

Now both Haggard and wife are studying psychology courses online in order eventually to go into some sort of secular employment.

Those close to the Haggards, of course, are wishing them solution. Those particularly close to him in ministry connections will hope for the same. And fast. That is the blur of objectivity dissolved that takes place when persons close to the individual hanker for quick answers.

Nevertheless, only time will reveal facts. It was the same with the Bakkers, Swaggart, and numerous priests, for example. Claiming one thing in one point in time and realizing truth over years are two separate components.

Evangelicals who really care about Haggard, his family, his former congregation, and his friends — as well as his soul — will put all this present testimony on hold until years pass. In other words, it is not anti-God, anti-Jesus, anti-Bible, or anti-divine healing to grant the aforementioned.

It is simply logical and in keeping with the best that evangelical theology has to offer.