Now, now, Sampiro, I think your outrage is overdone a mite here:
I remain as convinced as ever of the effectiveness of ex-gay reparative therapy. Why, I’m absolutely positive that Haggard is 100% as straight today as he was the day before he met his gay-hustler lover.
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::: tries to keep straight face ::::
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I wonder if “Jesus Camp” will be re-released? Or maybe just Haggard’s creepy rant? Because I remember the frisson I experienced upon learning that the same creepily smug guy who was saying that Fundamentalists ruled presidential elections was the same schmuck whose world imploded.
However, this convinces me that Mr. Haggard does not have a choice in his hate and self loathing - and firmly believes that reorientation will work. Because if he didn’t believe that, why would he set himself up to be followed around for the rest of his life by people waiting to catch him when he slips and gives into the temptation of a non-celebate lifestyle. And you know that there are going to be people who dedicate time to watching for - even helping - Ted Haggard slip up.
On New Year’s Day, 1992, I was stumbling of to work after a poorly-judged New Year’s Eve party. Wandering throught a snow-covered Copley Square, I passed the construction barriers that were then surrounding the Boston Public Library.
Spray-painted onto one of them was:
“Jesus Saves. He has the ball! He shoots, he SCORES!”
We just watched the DVD of Jesus Camp the other night, without and with director commentary. They mentioned how different Haggard’s preaching scenes come off in light of his downfall.
They said that Haggard was the only one of dozens of people they filmed for the better part of a year that seemed to be really put off by the presence of the camera.
The meeting between the boy Levi and Haggard they described as the encounter between the True Believer (the kid) and the jaded cynic (the preacher).
Or he’ll surround himself with a lot of people who have a vested interest in seeing to it that he doesn’t step out for a little man love on the side. There’s nothing that Exodus or some other fraudulent organization would like more than to point to their man Ted and say, “See! You can be cured of homosexuality! It works!”
Great. As a Bostonian, I can only imagine the guerilla ad campaign, and what they will hang off bridges that will shut down traffic yet again.
Save a little compassion for the poor dumb shmuck in his congregation, struggling every day with his own gayitude, who’s going to believe this crapola. And when it doesn’t work for him, he’s gonna think its his fault.
These people clearly did not go to the same Sunday School that I did. I mean, what? Jesus hung with lepers, Pharisees, tax collectors, centurions and whores, but draws the line at gays? Huh?
But if you hang out with gays you might catch teh gay and that doesn’t happen with lepers.
Wait…
I, like Nigel Tufnel, disagree.
Oh I’m sure that there have been gay lepers.
Early on, perhaps, but there was a drop off in the population. Still, ya gotta hand it to them…
That’s the thing about this; it’s very easy to yell ‘hypocrite’ (which he is), and to go on about how insincere, deceptive, and keniving people like Haggard are, but the thing is, he believes it. He is horribly caught between the lies he’s accepted and elevated to a state of pure Truth and Right, and the actual truth that, if one accepts it, tears down the world he’s made up for himself.
Haggard is too completely absorbed with his own version of Truth that he is denying himself (not just in a sexual way, but at a very fundamental and elemental level). That’s the point at which a person becomes a little crazy, when one denies the truth so completely.
As a total aside, am I the only one who is all of a sudden picturing Haggard as King Haggard from The Last Unicorn?
“Meth, hookers, adultery, I have tried them all, and none of them have made me . . . happy.”
See, I look at this self-delusion as very dangerous. Sooner or later he’s going to have to face the fact that he is what he loathes. I could easily see this turning into a “rope over the rafter” situation. I think that’s the scariest part of attempts at sexual reprogramming.
So he either spends his life chaperoned by his “friends” to make sure he never does anything as much as go into a men’s room without proper supervision because his friends don’t trust him - or he spends his life being watched by his enemies hoping to catch him in a restroom in a compromised position - very likely with other “friends” who try and entrap him.
What a life.
And when his friends at Exodus hold him up as an example that reorientation works, everyone other than the believers will recognize that Ted Haggard doesn’t take a piss without three guys supervising him to make sure its only his own hand on his dick.
I’m guessing it’s getting to the point where even his fellow gay adulterous drug addicts are getting tired of making excuses for Haggard.
My mom always told me that it took 3 weeks to break a bad habit.
Mom was right! And Ted made it look easy! Thanks, Mom!
(I find myself actually speechless at the effrontery of Haggard et al regarding this, but I give Sampiro a 9 on his rant).
Yeah, but I’m not sure that Ted’ll be given the opportunity to preach. Not right away anyhow. I think that he’ll be surrounded by handlers (heh) who will limit his public appearances.
As Dangerosa says: What a life.
And just like the head (again, heh) of Exodus who got caught in a gay bar, Ted’ll slip up eventually. Or, as someone else said, he’ll shuffle off this mortal coil by his own hand. Either way, as far as I’m concerned, would be all right.
Perhaps Teddie boy realized that the only guys he could get were drug dealing prostitutes. I’d probably switch to being straight if that were the case for me.
I don’t care what Plynck says or implies: NEVER NEVER NEVER ask for or accept a hand job from a gay leper. It’s bad enough when the hand falls off, but the worst part comes weeks later…