Nasty Little Man

A Haggard Affair

It's very easy to watch with glee the falling star of Rev. Ted Haggard, an anti-gay civil rights evangelical Christian leader who has been accused of having an affair with a gay prostitute and using crystal meth. Let me be clear: I have a real problem with people who kick around the most vulnerable in our society. That disdain is double for those who are in powerful positions and are able to use that power to inflict the harm they inflict, be it on gays, immigrants, or anyone else.

And I feel that way about people like Haggard whether their personal life is sparkling or tainted.

But when my mind is clear, one feeling comes up again and again for Rev. Haggard- compassion. Unlike those with the Judeo-Christian mindset, I am much more interested in the suffering in the Rev's mind that would lead him to commit these (alleged) actions than I am in the actions themselves. Actions, including those that some would consider sinful, do not happen in a vacuum. Something in a person's mind motivates him or her to commit these actions. It is not a result of being naturally bad or "fallen."

In the Rev's case, one could speculate on what was going on in his head. Perhaps he felt tremendous pressure from his position at the mega-church. Perhaps his marriage is broken. Perhaps he felt lost after spending years in the closet, which may have pushed him to drug use, a point touched on by Andrew Sullivan:

But it is also important to remember that this is what the closet does: it is a dagger aimed at the heart of the family. It has wrecked so many marriages, destroyed so many families, traumatized so many kids. It must end.

No one knows but the Rev himself, but like all of us, he is a suffering human being with his own imperfections. Perhaps now he has learned the lesson of what harm his style of preaching does to real people.

posted by Kinder Gentler Little Man @ 11:29 PM