Ministry News
Reopening Old Wounds for New Life
- Details
- Tuesday, 27 January 2009 13:33
An already dark stain for New Life Church just got darker. After spending the last two years trying to recover from the infamous sex-and-drugs scandal of former pastor Ted Haggard, the Colorado Springs, Colo., congregation now faces new revelations—and criticism—regarding a former church volunteer’s relationship with the fallen leader.
On Friday, New Life pastor Brady Boyd confirmed that a former male volunteer approached church leaders shortly following Haggard’s resignation in November 2006 and said he and Haggard had been in an “inappropriate, consensual sexual relationship” that “went on for a long period of time.” Recent reports indicate that the relationship did not involve physical contact, but that on one occasion Haggard masturbated in front of Grant Haas, who was 22 years old at the time. According to Haas, the two exchanged thousands of sexually explicit text messages over several months, many of which featured Haggard talking about sexual positions, pornography, masturbation and drugs.
According to Boyd, the church offered Haas counseling after he came forward, but when Haas decided to sue the church in 2007, New Life’s leaders—given the “overwhelming pool of evidence” that verified his story—reached a legal settlement, agreeing to pay almost $180,000 to assist with moving expenses, counseling, medical bills and college tuition. The agreement came under the stipulation that none of the parties involved discussed the matter publicly.
Last Thursday, however, local television station KRDO-TV informed Boyd that Haas had provided them a detailed account of his story and wanted to go public because of the media attention Haggard was gaining as a ramp up to his HBO documentary, The Trials of Ted Haggard, airing this week. Boyd responded on Friday by e-mailing New Life Church members about the six-figure settlement: “This decision was made not as an attempt to conceal wrongdoings, but to protect him from those who would seek to exploit him. His actions now suggest that he has changed his mind.”
Boyd added that New Life “received reports of a number of incidents of inappropriate behavior” following Haggard’s high-profile fall. “In each case, we have tried our very best to do the right thing each time, including disciplinary action when appropriate.” Boyd also informed members that the settlement was paid using insurance money, not tithes.
“[This] wasn’t at all a settlement to make [Haas] be quiet or not tell his story,” Boyd told reporters on Friday. “Our desire was to help him. Here was a young man who wanted to get on with his life. We considered it more compassionate assistance—certainly not hush money. I know that’s what everyone will want to say because that’s the most salacious thing to say, but that’s not at all what it was.”
Not surprisingly, Haas disagrees. “I really felt the church staff did what they could to get me to move to a different city, to get me to stop going to the church, to make these promises to do whatever they could to help, but their main focus was to cover it up,” he said. “They think Ted Haggard is not a harm to this community and I really think they’re wrong, they’re dead wrong.”
Although New Life could take legal action against Grant for breaking his silence, Boyd said the church has no desire to. “It’s not great for our church either,” Boyd said of the recent publicity. “I think what caused this young man to be a bit aggravated was Ted being seen as a victim, when he himself had experienced a great deal of hurt. I seriously doubt this man would have come forward if the documentary had not been made.”
On Sunday, Boyd addressed the issue with his congregation, reminding them of their “holy tenacity” that has been revealed throughout both the Haggard scandal and last year’s shootings at the church. “I’m sorry that this wound has been reopened for many of you. One day we may have a little scar tissue, but the wounds will not define us. … While scandal and tragedy has been part of our past, it will not be our future.” [AP, 1/24/09, 1/26/09; krdo.com, 1/25/09, 1/27/09]
Subscribe to our Magazine
Ministry Clip of the Week
Download Video: HTML5 Video Player by VideoJS
 |
|
SITES: Charisma | Vida Cristiana | Spiritled Woman | Ministry Today | Christian Retailing
Click here to enter our new customer service community
Comments
But because the church was doing well--VERY well--under Ted's leadership and he had White
Office connections, no one wanted to say anything or "out" Ted. Ted even tried to get help but the church leaders he spoke to were so repeled by what he told them that they chose to not deal with it.
Hidden things always come to light and Ted's church, sadly, try to hide the depths of what was going on.
There are several more young men out there as Ted told Larry King and it's a shame that in this day and age, the church made Ted leave the state where he and his family lived.
I think this situation--and more to come, I'm sure--shows just how poorly the church handles their gay members. You can get divorced several times and it's not an issue even tho Jesus talks about it ALL the time. Or you can be big and fat (more than 60% of "christians" are overweight/obeses--64% in Texas alone!) and no one says anything. But Jesus says PLENTY about gluttony and not having self control.
But Ted can't even admit he's gay--calls his sexuality "confusing."
It's not. A straight man seeks women outside of his marriage if he's going to have an affair. A gay man who is married to a woman will seek a man outside of his marriage. It's makes sense and I'm not sure why Ted's just not saying the triuth. (Sadly, my former brother-in-law did everything Ted did and once it all came out, eventually my sister divorced him.)
Hopefully, the church/Church will learn to handle these situations with more grace and not run people out of town or pay off those involved. It all comes out. Eventually.
RSS feed for comments to this post