I recently interviewed Ted Haggard and I must say that he is not the person he used to be. I have known him for almost twenty years and my opinion of him has morph over the years as he went from rags to riches and back to rags.
I have taken Ted to task over the years about his false teachings and false prophecies, as well as his frequent displays of un-christ-like behaviors. But the "new" Ted Haggard is different. In many ways he is the same old Ted that I have known for years: opinionated, defiant, self-sufficient and somewhat narcissistic. But there is a broken side to him now. Broken, as in inoperable. He seems like a shell of his former self. Rather like an action figure. It looks like the real thing but somehow "artificial" and powerless.
But after our recent meeting, I am seeing a side of him that may have been present before, but he kept it more guarded than he is now able. A side that generates both concern and compassion. Concern, because I believe that he may still be dangerous, but compassion, because he is a human being.
Sadly, he currently seems so consumed with bitterness and vengeance, that at times he came across as almost paranoid schizophrenic. Was he always this way? Did his downfall accentuate an untested character flaw? Is the meth to blame? All valid questions. The conversation started with him wagging his finger in my face and calling me a devil. It went downhill from there, at least for the first three hours. He spent most of his time explaining how he was a victim, all the while vacillating between calling me either a brother or a Pharisee. In his attempt to assuage his guilt, he also did a fair amount or rewriting history, such as claiming he has never struggled with homosexuality, just masturbation.
As you may know, Ted and his wife Gayle are back in Colorado Springs to start a new church known as Saint James. They claim that they are just here "to serve." Many have questioned his motives for starting the church and launching it a couple blocks away from his old church, New Life. Make no mistake, he is here to crawl back to the pinnacle of his past. He is striving to rise back to the fame and fortune of his former glory, all the time rubbing as many noses into it as possible.
You see, Ted sees himself as a victim. All you have to do is read his wife’s book, "Why I Stayed." The title was selected to sell books, because that certainly is not the focus of the book. Basically the book can be summed up in one statement: "Sure Ted made a mistake or two, but look how we were treated!" Granted, Ted got shafted. Virtually everyone in a position of authority at New Life either over-reacted, under-reacted or just simply dealt with the situation from a legal perspective rather than a Biblical perspective.
Let’s face it, the church is not a business and it should not be run like a corporation. Unfortunately, leaders of mega-churches tend to get "advice" from lawyers rather than other believers. Not only does that fly in the face of the Scriptures, it makes room for all sorts of tabloid fodder. Why? Because they all chose to do things behind closed doors. The church is supposed to be a crystal cathedral, but in this case the folks in the glass house chose to throw stones.
And that proved to be their downfall. Everyone was so appalled by Haggard’s recently revealed carnality that their knee-jerk reaction was to thrown him out of town and try to do damage control. That’s all well and good, but in their zeal, they did it in an unbiblical way and in the long run, an illegal way. And that’s why…heeeeee’s baaaaack.
So now that he is back, what do we do with him? Jesus said that we must forgive him. But after what he did? Jesus did not make any exceptions. If we want to be forgiven, we must be forgiving. When Peter asked Jesus how many times should we forgive someone, Jesus said 70 times 7.
The Apostle Paul had a similar experience that he wrote about in his letters to the Corinthians. In the first letter he commented about a young man caught in sexual immorality. He told the Corinthians to toss him out of the church! But in his second letter, Paul said to restore him. He says in II Cor. 2:6-8, "The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him."
I find Haggard’s previous behavior to be so repulsive and reprehensible that I want to develop and apply an "Extenuating Circumstances" clause to these verses. But neither I nor you have that authority. No one has a right to condemn but God. So what do we do? Where do go from here? What does the church do with Ted Haggard?
Step One: Forgive. Step Two: restore.
Step One we have already discussed and we hopefully have a consensus.
Step Two is an altogether different animal. To forgive is easy to define. To restore is up for interpretation to a degree. The reason being is that Haggard wants to be restored to a pastorship. The young man in the Corinthian church does not appear to have been holding any position of leadership in the church, therefore his restoration was simply one of fellowship. In other words, he was allowed to come back to the congregation and participate in worship, communion and even serving on some level, after proving himself.
But Haggard wants to be restored to the position of Pastor/Elder, and that’s a whole different ballgame. The same Apostle that wrote the Corinthian letters wrote to the young evangelist Timothy and forever set the biblical standards for that office.
Let's look at those requirements in I Timothy 3:1-7. Does Haggard meet these standards:
1) Above reproach ? NO
2) Faithful to his wife? NO
3) Self controlled? NO
4) Live wisely? NO
5) Good reputation? NO
6) Resists a love of money? NO
7) World speaks well of him? NO
So should we forgive him? Absolutely, but is he qualified to pastor a church? Obviously not. Haggard even admitted as much at one of his many press conferences, "I may not be qualified to be a pastor..." (June 2, 2010)
I asked Haggard about that in our recent meeting, and his answer concerns me. He said, "I know that I do not meet the biblical requirements to be a pastor, but neither does anyone else." He went on to tear down several well known pastors such as Joel Olsteen and others saying that they violate the "greed" standard. He may be right, but his logic is flawed. Just because other violators are serving in the office of Pastor doesn’t mean we lower or throw out the standards altogether.
I Timothy 5:20 says, "Those (pastors) who sin are to be rebuked publicly, so that the others may take warning."
Even more directly, 1 Corinthians 5:11 says, "You must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat."
What Haggard did was wrong, carnal, sinful, harmful and disgusting. But Jesus did not come to save the righteous but the sinner. But until Haggard decides to uphold the scriptural standards, he is not fit to teach from its pages and is especially unfit for duty as a Pastor.
Ted, I implore you, as a brother, to allow the process to take its course. To serve does not mean you have to hold the office of pastor. You have too many issues to deal with before you accept that role.
First, you must be willing to give out what you are demanding of others: Forgiveness. You will not receive that gift until you are also willing to give it out.
Secondly, you must stand down from the office of Elder until you meet its requirements. Currently, most would say you don’t meet the standards of a Deacon, let alone an Elder. Stop trying to rush the process. After committing manslaughter, Moses spent many years in seclusion serving the priest of Midian before God chose to restore him to a position of leadership. Should you serve? Absolutely! Should you take on the mantle of Pastor? To do it now would appear to be premature and presumptuous.
And lastly, use this time to grow. Stop blaming others and accept your lot in life during this temporary era. Understand that you failed and suffered the consequences of your own actions. We all have failed and fallen short of God’s standards. But what we must do is stand back up on our own two feet, grab the hands of that plow, and don’t look back. And take Paul’s advice, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:10-14.
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