Ted Haggard Takes Another Man

I suspect Jack in San Francisco is VERY single. I want to see Ted Haggard naked with his legs spread wide open in some dirty, smutty porn magazine.

I just wanted to say that even an out and proud Ted Haggard may very well have ended up with a prostitute in an inconspicuous hotel room and that there’s nothing inherently wrong or unhealthy about that.

New Life Church, like most evangelical megachurches, was founded as a cult of personality around a charismatic preacher, in this case Haggard. For such institutions no greater blow can come than revelation that their leader doesn't meet their saintly ideal of him. So cover-ups are quite popular. This is little different than the Catholic Church's rationale for covering up sexual abuse. The really sad part is that they create this problem for themselves.

I believe "participle clause" should, in fact, be "participial clause." "Participal" is the nominative form of the word. "Participial" is its adjectival counterpart. Yawn!

What I am tired of is the need for gay males to hide their sexuality and conform and marry in order to fit into their work, religious organization, political career. Whether from being raised in straight families and receiving undue stress and self-doubt to conform and hide or trying to fit in as an adult, we have seen too many closeted gays become our worst enemies, develop warped sex lives, or hide with their beard (wife) and then play around on side and get caught making us look bad. With the study results showing 10% of all "straight married Men" having sex regularly with other men, I really think this is the main issue for legalizing gay marriage and for straights to accept us. How can they keep marriage sacred, when their beliefs, actions and laws foster sham marriages, adultery, prostitution, drug use, hypocrisy, and hate. If they can't change from that argument, then they are not following Jesus teachings or the Commandments .

What a terrible waste of a life to deny one's truths and realities. And equally troubleling, but not the least bit surprising, is the fact that a religious institution is behind a cover up and provided hush money to keep a young man's story to himself. Lane Hudson, in his writing, could have been no clearer and closer to the truth in explaining that "church leaders would do better to spend some time reflecting on how they contributed to the problem and how they might change themselves to confront reality". The Church must re-evaluate itself, recognize the lives it is destroying and take positive steps towards a healthier and happier environment for each and every one of their parishners, gay and straight.

Dear Lane Hudson, Forgive this old gay English teacher, but will you please brush up your English grammar if you wish to write for the professional GLBT press. Having made an error with an introductory participle clause, you might wish to correct this flaw. The mistake occurs in your sentence about Mitchell Gold. When in doubt about what subject should follow the introductory participle clause, please think about this sentence: "Crawling over the tomato vines, Grandma saw many worms." Other than that, I enjoyed your article. Thank you.

I expect Haggard will be doing porn next. I sincerely hope he gains some insight into himself. I joined an evangelical church five years ago after a family tragedy. Once inside the church I was reminded of Faulkner's "quality of furious unreality". After two years of endeavoring to fit in I left the church and I will never look in that direction again. The church teaches you to be ashamed of every natural impulse.

This article is dead on. Church hypocrisy is certainly not new. It will be exposed more and more as more and more gays and lesbians across society come out. Closeted church members do and will simply have more access to 'sexual outlets'. One can expect that they will use them. The problems facing fundamentalist churches are only going to get more difficult. And I have little sympathy for them.