This image is my contribution to the conversation this morning - Ron Burgundy giving Ted Haggard a telling off. I am assuming you have memorized the various Ron Burgundy lines from Anchorman. If not, Ron's line was actually "Milk was a bad choice".
You may have read that Ted confessed to his church yesterday through a letter read out publicly to his old congregation. Denver Post has the skinny:
"There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life," Haggard wrote and confessed to being a "deceiver and a liar" [link]
So does that mean that church is full of hypocrites? Not necessarily. It means that its full of deceivers and liars which is basically every single one of us and church is the best place to go to confess it and get it sorted out. The crying shame is that many Christian communities are no longer safe places to share our bad choices and our dark corners and get them cleaned up so we can live in purity and up-rightness. If you find a church that is, hook up with it. They need you and you need them.
If the story keeps unraveling this week, I think Ted's reputation will be damaged more by hiding the truth than by buying meth and requesting massages from gay model. A church that doesn't have an atmosphere of honest confession is partly to blame for the closet adventures of their leader.
Word up for Gayle Haggard who also "released a letter to the congregation. In it, she professed her commitment to her marriage and her belief in the teachings of the church.
"I would not change one iota of what I have been teaching the women of our church," "For those of you who have been concerned that my marriage was so perfect I could not possibly relate to the women who are facing great difficulties, know that this will never again be the case.
"My test has begun; watch me. I will try to prove myself faithful."
Here is the PDF file of the Haggard apology read yesterday. Thanks Roeman for sending it.
Related:
Ted Haggard. The Video
Meth Was a Bad Choice
Haggard and the Hazzard of Hotels
Carrying Your Dad's Dumbbell
Gayle Haggard: An Excellent Woman Who Can Find?
Alan: Thoughts on Ted Haggard
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