On Ted Haggard

I feel kind of sorry for Ted Haggard.

Ted Haggard is the founder and senior pastor of the 14,000 member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and President of the National Association of Evangelicals. Or rather, he was, until it came out last week that he is also a homosexual and has been involved in an adulterous homosexual relationship for the past three years.

Teg Haggard didn't suddenly change one day late last week. If he was qualified to be senior pastor of New Life Church and President of the National Association of Evangelicals last week, then surely he is qualified for those positions this week. One's sexual desires, and what one does with them, do not define a person.

The discovery of one's shortcomings, and I'm referring here to Haggard's adulterous relationship and his lies and denial of it, not his homosexuality, also do not define a person. Ted Haggard was an adulterer, a liar, and a deceiver last week, just as he is an adulterer, a liar, and a deceiver this week, yet last week he carried out his responsibilities as pastor and NAE President to everyone's apparent satisfaction. The discovery of his status as adulterer, liar, and deceiver does not change who he is, nor does it affect his ability to carry out the tasks that he carried out to everyone's satisfaction last week.

So, why is Ted Haggard no longer the senior pastor of New Life Church and President of the National Association of Evangelicals? If you believe that homosexuality is a sin, and that adultery and deceit are sins, then Haggard is a sinner. But, as Jesus said, “let he among us who is without sin cast the first stone” (thus ensuring that no stones will be cast). May he who is without sin also be the first to ask Ted Haggard to step down from his leadership positions. If being a sinner was grounds for removal from one's job, we'd all be unemployed and nothing would get done.

So, let's acknowledge that Ted Haggard is a sinner, as are we all. Let us then acknowledge that Jesus loves sinners – every one of us – and let us continue to love Ted Haggard as Jesus does. Let's let Haggard get back to the work he does, knowing that he has done that work well in the past regardless of his being a sinner, and knowing that he can continue to do that work just as well now that we acknowledge his status as sinner as he did before we acknowledged his status as sinner.

Let us from this day forward acknowledge that all of us, like Ted Haggard, are sinners, and that Jesus still loves every one of us and expects all of us to love one another in spite of our being sinners. Let us not judge each other on the basis of the sins we know or believe the other has committed, but rather on the status of each one of us as a child of God.

And let us pray that those who choose to treat homosexuals differently than they treat other people – and that includes Ted Haggard and many of his followers - will recognize that the homosexual could be anyone: your neighbor, your brother or sister, somebody you work with, or even the senior pastor of New Life Church and President of the National Association of Evangelicals.