When Ms. Pelosi talked to Mr. Haggard

Nancy's daughter, Alexandra, is a documentarian who recently set her lens on evangelicals for her new HBO special, Friends of God: A Road Trip With Alexandra Pelosi. In an exclusive Q&A the new mom tells The Advocate what she unearthed—and what Ted Haggard is really like.

Interview by Christopher Lisotta

An Advocate.com exclusive posted January 24, 2007

In 2002 TV news producer Alexandra Pelosi’s private video diary on George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign trail became HBO’s documentary Journeys With George, which would win an Emmy. In 2004 she followed up with Diary of a Political Tourist, which profiled the Democratic presidential candidates' campaign trails. On January 25 HBO will premiere her most recent documentary, Friends of God: A Road Trip With Alexandra Pelosi . This time around Pelosi, a blue-state Democrat (and the daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi), spent more than a year traveling across the country interviewing evangelicals from TV minister Joel Osteen to creationist educators to former National Association of Evangelicals president Ted Haggard. Just days after Pelosi completed Friends of God, Haggard stepped down from his position over allegations of crystal meth use and sexual trysts with a male prostitute. The Advocate talked to Pelosi earlier in January about making Friends With God, her relationship with Haggard, and what she learned about evangelicals.

There have been a lot of documentaries about Christian fundamentalists, including the recent feature Jesus Camp. What’s different about your film that other films haven’t already discussed?
Mine is much more mainstream. J esus Camp was about a very small portion, a very small sect. The Pentecostal movement is small. I went to 16 states and spent two years talking to people. I didn’t stay with one family for a year. Don’t make it sound like I’m disparaging other people’s work, because it is so hard to make anything. I don’t want it to look like I’m being critical of what they did. It’s really important to support one another. I tried to make a big cross section of the 50 or 80 million evangelicals there are in this nation. We don’t know how many there are; there’s been debate among the pollsters. But if that’s true, it would include the liberal evangelicals, the Mel Whites, and the Dan Wallaces. I didn’t really focus on the liberal evangelicals, which could be about 20%. The problem with the evangelicals is they have a bit of an identity crisis. They like to escalate their numbers, to talk about how many of them there are, but then they like people to say, “Oh, the Christian [Wrestling Federation], they don’t count, they’re fringy.” Or “Oh, the evangelicals who care about poverty and the environment, they don’t count.” The highest number we’ve gotten is 80 million, and that’s the number out of Jerry Falwell’s mouth.

Now back to the answer to your question: I try not to be like Chicken Little, "the sky is falling." A lot of New York liberal Democrats who go to the megachurches come back talking about how scary they are, and I never say that. I have nothing but admiration for these people and respect for them. I don’t think they are dangerous or trying to take over the country like a lot of people think they are. Maybe they’re trying, but I don’t think they could. I’m not afraid of them, as most New York liberals would be.

But you’re also not some gay kid living in Texas. If you were a lesbian living in a small town, do you think you’d feel the same way?
No, I think they cause pain to the gay community, and you can’t ignore that. That’s why I included [out evangelical] Mel White in the movie. I was trying not to make it a polemic. Everyone I know knows what we think, and I was trying not to include what we think. We know what we think of them, and it’s not a secret. They don’t talk about the war, and they don’t talk about the environment. And they don’t talk about gay rights—well, obviously they talk about gays. So I tried to let them talk about and understand where they are coming from, and of course they are coming from the Bible. Everything comes from a Bible.

You were raised in a Catholic home in a fairly religious family. Did that make it easier for you in making this film and getting to know your subject? Or if you’re not a fundamentalist, it doesn’t matter what you are?  
It doesn’t matter what you are. If you’re not a fundamentalist, you’re going to burn, so it doesn’t matter. The thing about growing up in a religious household is, I went to Catholic school, and everyone in my family went to Catholic school, and we were raised on the Bible, and there was a lot of church in our lives, but we were never told gay was wrong, or abortion was wrong, or evolution was wrong, so you can still be raised on the Bible and walk into the Bible Belt and talk to evangelical Christians, and they are speaking another language. They interpret the Bible in a different language. The way they interpret the Bible is different from the way I interpret the Bible.

You’re a straight gal from San Francisco. Did your gaydar go off when you were around Ted Haggard at all?
I love that question, because everyone says “How could you not know?” He was foreign to me. They all were to me. I don’t know Christian evangelicals, so this is what they were. Maybe someone would have said, “God, they seem really gay.” To me it was all new, so I didn’t know what to call it. He had five children and a wife! Maybe that doesn’t shock you, but he really had pretty good credentials. A wife and five kids—that usually means they are heterosexual.

Watching some of the scenes of Ted Haggard, where he talks to young men in his congregation, it is almost painful.
There’s a community of a lot of young men. He was a father figure, so he related to a lot of young boys from broken homes. That is just what was explained to me, as the culture of his megachurch.

But in your documentary Haggard talks to some of them about how great their heterosexual sex lives are. It was unsettling to watch.
Did I believe that all of the men in their church had sex with their wives every day? Maybe not. That’s why I included [that scene], because this is who they say they are. Not one friend of mine would tell me they have sex every day. That was unusual. But guess what? Being in a megachurch was unusual.

Story continues on next page...

Page: 1 | 2

Christopher Lisotta is a regular contributor to The Advocate.

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

Be the first to comment on this story.

If you would like to submit a comment for posting, please fill out the form above.

All comments submitted via this form are subject to posting or publication. (To send a private letter to an Advocate editor or writer, please use the e-mail button at the top of the page, or use snail mail.) If you would like your comment considered for publication in The Advocate magazine, please include your full name, your city of residence, and a phone number where you can be reached during business hours so that we can confirm your identity. Your e-mail address and telephone number are strictly confidential and will not be shared or used for any purpose other than to contact you about your comment.

See the Contact page for sending comments for reasons other than responding to Advocate editorial and news stories.

Please note that comments sent by fax or snail mail are unlikely to be posted, although they will be considered for publication along with all letters received via e-mail or via this Web page. Comments that chiefly concern Advocate.com content will be considered for posting only on the Web site. The Advocate reserves the right to edit submitted comments for grammar, spelling, obscenities, or libel; we will, however, do our best to preserve the original comment's style and intent. Comments considered for publication in The Advocate magazine may also be edited for length.

More Exclusives

View From the Hill: The End of DADT?
Defense Secretary Robert Gates revealed that lawyers are exploring ways to ease enforcement of the military's gay ban, but cautioned that the law doesn't leave much wiggle room. He need look no further than DOD history for a lesson in altering the policy.

Hot Sheet: Week of July 5
When you get back from that big 4th of July barbecue, unwind with Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno and your favorite B-movie-mocking, basic cable robots.

Hungry Like the Wolf
A master of viola, ukulele, piano, and harp, Patrick Wolf is a music prodigy -- one who, the night before this interview, spit on a cop and got himself arrested.

Soapside: Advocate's Guide to Daytime
Forbes March talks about playing gay, Otalia fans outraged, update on One Life to Live’s Patricia Maurceri’s firing over gay plot point, Phillip Chancellor III big reveal, and Erica Kane goes to Africa.

The Faces of Federal Prop. 8
With the federal challenge to Prop. 8 moving full speed ahead, Advocate.com sits down with the two couples named as plaintiffs in the suit.

Mommy, the Gays Are Coming
After a year of advancements and celebration for gay and lesbian Colombians, the community takes to the streets of Bogota for the country's biggest pride ever.

The Pride of Antwerp
Advocate.com hits the gay-friendly streets of Antwerp with openly gay police commissioner Serge Muyters.

Excerpt: Mean Little Deaf Queer
In an excerpt from her humorous and harrowing new memoir, Mean Little Deaf Queer, Terry Galloway recalls her early childhood, describing feelings of ugliness, confusion about gender, and being one of the boys.

Top Political Blogs
From Joe.My.God to The Daily Beast, Advocate.com spotlights a few of the best blogs that cover politics, inside and way outside the Beltway.

The Diva of French Television
A hot young screenwriter who has made gay OK for millions of French viewers, Nicolas Mercier sips champagne, dons a feathered hat, and says he wants to see Colin Farrell and Jude Law go at it.