A Bad Week for American Evangelicals

Copyright 2006 by Shea Oakley

All rights reserved

I first read about Rev. Ted Haggard several months ago when his photograph was on the cover of the American Magazine Christianity Today. For those of you who might not know him Haggard was the pastor of a 20 thousand-member mega-church here in the United States and, more importantly, president of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). Last week a gay prostitute came forward and announced that he had been having sex with Haggard for three years while supplying him with methamphetamines for his apparent drug habit. An initial partial denial of the charges by Haggard soon gave way to confession, assumedly under the weight of evidence. He has since resigned from both his pastorate and his leadership position at the NAE. It has been a bad week for evangelicals here.

Personally I liked Haggard. The article and interview in Christianity Today seemed to reveal a man with whom I shared a number of convictions about both the Church and the larger culture. I particularly appreciated his view that entrepreneurial capitalism could be harnessed to the cause of Christ. He also seemed refreshingly non-judgmental in his outlook. Now I find myself wondering if it was a case of people in glass houses not throwing stones.

Haggard did take a strong public stand against gay marriage. To say this is ironic is a particularly tragic understatement. In fact it was his public opposition to gay marriage that finally caused his sexual partner to come forward with the truth. Apparently the hypocrisy was more than this man could take. It is frankly difficult to argue with him. I think it is safe to assume that the prostitute’s decision to speak out was inspired, whether he knew it or not, by God. "Sin in the camp" was exposed. The NAE is a very big camp.

Now many American evangelicals, the author included, are left to wrestle with how to respond to this early 21^st century repeat of the Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart scandals of the 1980’s. On one hand there is a great temptation to disgust and judgment; on the other the chilling realization that if such a trusted, seemingly mature Christian leader can fall this far then so could any of us. I’m afraid I must be honest and admit I’m still leaning towards disgust. God help me, but this was a truly terrible revelation and has done great damage, I fear, to the Church’s witness in my nation.

Of course ultimately I will need to grapple with my own sin "issues" before I presume to judge. While I try to be transparent with those in the faith whom I consider to be my accountability partners, a habit that Haggard apparently neglected to pursue, I must confess to my own struggles with lust and the grim potentiality of such sin to shipwreck my Christian life. I have my own glass house. I suppose we all do to one degree or another.

For now, though, I remain shocked by it all and, yes, angry. Like some other Christians I’ve talked to I cannot help but wish that Haggard had taken a look at his own propensity to sin in these ways before he had agreed to head the largest evangelical organization in the nation. Now it feels as if his fall has been telescoped onto the rest of us. It is that much harder to hold up our heads as American Evangelicals now. At least it feels that way. It also feels like a day of reckoning is on its way and not only for Haggard. In my opinion the American Church as a whole has been in moral decline for some time now, and I will not presume to excuse myself in that pronouncement.

So we are left to ponder this question: what if Ted Haggard is us?