Comments on Crystal Cathedral, Part 4

Well I guess, if nothing else, you can't say Ted Haggard's not polite.

“Conservatives saw the savagery of Ted Haggard and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of Ted Haggard and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding.”

Don't be such a liberal wimp, Dan.

Polite, indeed. However, I'm quite sure he's not telling the truth, but frankly, I don't want to know any more details than what he's already said.

I can't say I "feel sorry" for him. But watching that is heartbreaking. He is exactly what I would expect of a deeply sad man who has become accustomed to masking his neurosis with that tight-lipped, deluded smile and Flanders-like pleasantries.

I'd be curious to meet his parents.

painful to watch. it is never nice to see the misery of others, even if they are contemptible humans.

i would feel more sorry for the wife if she hadn't married and stayed with a man that preaches such narrow-minded and hateful ideals. it's kinda like feeling sorry for laura bush. tough to do.

surely she must have had some sort of inkling about his behavior? you know when your man is fucking around on you, even if you don't have hard evidence. especially when it goes on for a long period of time.

not to blame the victim here but, still. seems to me that the haggards have both been employing their own brand of denial for quite some time now.

what a bummer it is to be living in the haggard house. i hope the kids can go stay with some friends or something.

His attitude is a sharp contrast to the other video when he was calling Dawkins (?) arrogant. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I do feel bad for him, it must be difficult for him to think that he is going to rot in hell. Also, who was in the back seat? Was that one of the kids? I hope not.

Certainly sad, but I didn't feel a bit sorry for him. He's lying through his shiny white teeth, not the least when he says to the reporter "I appreciate your work." He more likely wants to chew her face off in a crystal-induced psychotic break.

The wife? I'm with Kerri H. on that one.

mike jones failed the polygraph? or part of it?

yep..
it's been noted that he failed it although it's been said that the tester himself thought the result was skewed by jones stress and exhaustion and wants to test him again.
but it also seems that some of the damning allegations haggard originally denied - that haggard knew jones, that he had contact with jones, that he bought meth from jones have already been confirmed by haggard himself. haggard would have had to resign from his post as a head evangelical and pastor of a church over this alone.
really the other allegations he denies - he didn't use the meth ( which common sense seems unlikely ) and they didn't have sex. i'm thinking he's gonna pull out the clintonian denial on this one. as in a hand job or a blow job does not constitute sex. a funadamentalist/evangelical idea that i first heard when i was a student at trinity evangelical college in the 70's

truly, the polygraph is irrelevant at this point. i do hope mike jones reveals some details of the sex -- just for the entertainment value.

OK, maybe it's just me, but the man is so used to being on camera and speaking directly to his audience that he spends an inordinate amount of time looking into the lens instead of the reporter's eyes and it's creepy. It's as if he keeps reminding himself not to do that ("It's not all about me, but then again it is!") so he turns away only to turn back again a few moments later.

No one I've heard has asked him, "Why?". Why did he "want to tempt" himself with meth? What made him think that was a good idea? Why did he call to get a referral for a massage? And since he stays at many hotels in Denver, how many people referred him back to this same guy?

The man's story is bullshit and we're pretty sure of that. I'd like to see him grilled more, though I know it's not going to happen.

Was just looking at the Harper's article about him from a few years ago, http://harpers.org/SoldiersOfChrist-20061103288348488.html
and noticed this line -

"Pastor Ted soon began upsetting the devil's plans. He staked out gay bars, inviting men to come to his church;"

Sounds like a great excuse to cruise gay bars!

Uhm, he stays in a lot of Denver hotels because he "writes in Denver"? What the hell is that about. He has to go from Colorado Springs to Denver to get a little quiet time away from the family? More likely, that's what he's been telling his family all these years.