With Mark
Foley's congressional sex scandal still troubling
Republicans, one of the nation's top evangelical leaders is
now accused of paying for gay sex. Heading into
Tuesday's elections, liberals and some conservatives
are saying the Republican party that prides itself on
family values has a hypocrisy problem.
Ted Haggard, a
staunch foe of same-sex marriage and occasional
participant in White House conference calls, resigned as
president of the National Association of Evangelicals
and head of his Colorado church following allegations
he met monthly with a gay prostitute for three years.
Haggard denies having sex with the man but admits receiving
a massage and buying methamphetamine.
Five weeks ago,
Republican congressman Foley--a vocal advocate for
exploited children--resigned from Congress because of
the discovery of sexually tinged messages he had
sent over the Internet to teenage male
assistants.
Pennsylvania
Republican congressman Don Sherwood, a married father of
three, has been burdened by revelations about his five-year
affair with a mistress who says he physically abused
her. ''The attention focused on these cases will
inescapably lead people to think about these people's
hypocrisy,'' said Matt Foreman, executive director of the
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. ''They make a
career out of defaming gay people and preaching family
values, when it's clear that it's just a veneer.''
Stephen Bennett,
a conservative activist who describes himself as a
former homosexual, also suggested the Haggard case would
have political consequences. ''Will this affect the
elections next Tuesday? ... You better believe it,''
he said in a statement from the Huntington, Conn.,
base of Stephen Bennett Ministries. ''The more and more
hypocrisy I see each day, the more I realize next
Tuesday we are going to get exactly what we deserve.''
Other
conservatives disagreed--saying support for same-sex
marriage bans and for Republican candidates would not
be diminished. And John Green, a senior fellow at the
Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, said Haggard is
not close enough to President George W. Bush to be an ally,
merely a supporter. ''We have great sympathy and
disappointment, and can even be demoralized when a
leader falls into sin,'' said Wendy Wright, president
of Concerned Women for America. ''That doesn't mean we're
going to vote against an amendment to protect
marriage.''
Republican
pollster Whit Ayres acknowledged that religious
conservatives are discouraged about several issues this
fall, but ''are they so discouraged they're going to
participate in any movement to have [Democrats] Howard
Dean and Nancy Pelosi run the country? No.''
The allegations
against Haggard emerged only a few days before Coloradans
vote on two ballot measures dealing with marriage and gay
rights. One, backed by Haggard, specifies that
marriage is only between a man and a woman; the other
would provide many rights to same-sex couples through
domestic partnerships.
Eight states are
considering ballot measures to ban
same-sex marriage. Such measures, which are
proposed state laws that must be approved or rejected
directly by voters, are often held in conjunction with
general elections.
Both the pro- and
anti-ban campaigns in Colorado declined to comment on
how the Haggard case might affect voting on the measures. A
Colorado College political science professor, Bob
Loevy, suggested that there could be a burst of
support for the marriage ban if voters felt the
accusations against Haggard were timed to sway the
referendums. Referring to conservative voters in
Colorado Springs, Haggard's hometown, Loevy said:
''They don't get disenchanted easily.''
Colorado Springs
is the base of the influential Christian ministry Focus
on the Family, which has campaigned vigorously against
same-sex marriage. Its founder and chairman, James
Dobson, said he was ''heartsick'' over the Haggard
allegations. ''We will await the outcome of this story, but
the possibility that an illicit relationship has occurred is
alarming to us and to millions of others,'' Dobson
said. ''The situation has grave implications for the
cause of Christ.''
White House
spokesman Tony Fratto said Haggard was on the weekly calls
between Bush aides and evangelical leaders only ''a couple''
of times. The minister has visited the White House,
but ''there've been a lot of people who've come to the
White House,'' Fratto said. He expressed confidence
that evangelical voters can distinguish between an
individual's problems and the Republican agenda.
The National
Association of Evangelicals represents a political
constituency that has been staunchly Republican in recent
years. In 2004, according to exit polling, 78% of
white born-again evangelical Christians voted for
Bush, and 72% voted for a Republican candidate for the House
of Representatives.
An Associated
Press-America Online News poll in October showed
a mild decline in evangelical support for Republicans,
and 43% said they were dissatisfied with the
Republican leadership in Congress. The poll found them
no more or less likely to turn out on Election Day than
voters in general.
David Kuo, a
born-again Christian and former White House aide who wrote
the book Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of
Political Seduction, said Haggard's situation is
magnified by his and other evangelicals' involvement
in Republican politics. ''It's religious hypocrisy
with a political rocket booster,'' said Kuo, who thinks
politics is corrupting Christianity. ''It's tragedy enough
if a pastor falls, but this is not about a pastor
falling. This is about a politician falling, and the
politician is bringing down Jesus with him.'' (AP)
