Revival Blog

Unlike everyone else I did not try to avoid posting about Ted Haggard.  I have never heard one of his sermons and don’t know his doctrine.  It is just that there is little left to say.  But I do have a couple thoughts on the whole incident post-disclosure.

• I have found it particularly odd that the response has been so gracious toward him.  It is true that he did repent publicly after a short time of denial but there is a long list of religious figures that were lambasted for far less deviant behavior.  I am glad that grace has been shown but could it be that equally disgusting things have at least gone through the minds of most Christians?  While I hope and pray that I will never be tempted to call a drug dealing male prostitute, I have a laundry list of vile filth that goes through my head from time to time and am eternally thankful that God does not gossip about me.  And I definitely don’t want to tempt God to write my sins in the sand.
• Until today, there were three people on Haggard’s overseeing counseling team, Pastor Jack Hayford of The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, Calif.,  Tommy Barnett of First Assembly of God in Phoenix, and James Dobson from Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs Co.  Mr. Dobson, stepped down today.

  When is the last time you think Pastors Hayford and Barnett counseled someone on a regular basis with an issue as life gripping as this?  And on that note, now that there is nobody who lives anywhere near him on his “counseling team” is he going to be shepherded through this crisis via phone?  And how do you get counseled by a team?  And if you are a giga-church pastor, can you only get counseled by another mega-ministry leader?

  I don’t get it.

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