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January 24, 2007

Come to Jesus for Better Sex

Well, if this isn't one of the oddest things I've seen lately: disgraced evangelical pastor, the Rev. Ted Haggard, who was booted out of his position of leadership for having gay sex with a gay prostitute and using meth, is now claiming in a documentary that Christians have the best sex life of all groups. If that doesn't bring people to Jesus, I don't know what will.

Haggard appears in Alexandra Pelosi's new HBO documentary, "Friends of God." Pelosi, incidentally, is the daughter of the new speaker of the House and has done two political documentaries prior to this documentary on Christianity. She says her motivation was to find out how the "other side" lived – the other side being those who live opposite to her liberal "blue" upbringing. Haggard acted as her tour guide through the evangelical community.

I just have to wonder how he got that gig. Did either Pelosi or HBO approach him, or was he recommended for the job by someone else? Because if Pelosi and/or HBO approached him and said, "Hey, Teddy boy. You're obviously a hip and happenin' dude. Hows about you show me around and tell me about what it's like to be a Christian?" then I have to wonder about Pelosi's and/or HBO's motives here. Did they want to show off the seamy side of the Christian right? Did they honestly believe Haggard was representative of Christianity? Did they see him as a conveniently needy vehicle that would enable them to get an inside peek at the workings of a particular theocratic-political group? Or did they want to portray Christianity as offering no greater level of morality than agnosticism?

If, on the other hand, someone from the Christian community recommended Haggard for the job, then one must wonder whether his personal troubles are an indication of a serious problem within the evangelical movement. Either the individual who recommended him is so naïve as to be unable to recognize the damage Haggard did by cheating on his wife and using illegal drugs while professing to be living a godly life, or that person is consciously working to undermine and smear true Christians, for whom morality actually still matters.

No matter how I look at this, it feels very wrong.

Posted by Becky at January 24, 2007 11:27 AM