If a recent article in AMERICAblog is to be believed--in reference to some of the text of the GigoloGate voicemails from Ted Haggard which was revealed on "Good Morning America" (video in the second link)...

...it is suddenly *very* obvious why Ted Haggard bailed his leadership positions, and we may have a *MAJOR* shitstorm in the making with the dominionist movement:

Mike Jones: "He goes 'a fantasy of mine is to have an orgy with about 6 young college guys ranging from 18 to 22 in age."

If this in fact pans out this has the potential to be downright thermonuclear:

a) This would rank right there with PageGate in that it would not only destroy Haggard's career, but potentially destroy any respectability in the dominionist community that anyone with any association with Haggard whatsoever has. (Yes, this could go all the way to Shrub himself as well as numerous major dominionist groups like Focus on the Family--Dobson and other dominionists have been defending Haggard, and Shrub is known to regularly consult with both Haggard and Dobson on public policy issues. You do not want to *imagine* the shit-*hurricane* that would erupt from revelations of Dobson, Wildmon et al shielding someone wanting to have gay orgies with young men--even as they use the "THEY'RE RECRUITING UR KIDZ!" line in the continuing blood-libel against LGBT people.)

b) This could have potential for blowing the doors clean off one of the darker secrets of dominionism--the fact that, for several years now, there has been a bit of a problem with sexual abuse among dominionist clergy (whilst this was revealed in part with the Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart scandals, tolerance of sexual abuse is surprisingly rife in abusive dominionist churches--ranging from kids being subjected to physical abuse by pastors for reporting sexual abuse in their families to even sexual abuse by national-level leaders of dominionist denominations which are part of a repeating pattern involving both multiple parties and bullying of victims to remain silent).

So far, people have had a hard time to even speak about, much less gain justice, in regards to sexual abuse occuring in dominionist churches (reports to pastors often are ignored or the pastor himself is the abuser; church leaders also have historically had a strong bias against conviction in the courts, especially in rural and suburban areas where many of the potential jury members may well be members of the abusive church and where the pastor may be a respected community leader; persons reporting abuse are often demonised explicitly in sermons, being called "jezebels" or even "serpent seed" and "servants of Satan trying to destroy the church").

Even in cases of physical abuse, dominionist leadership has tended to close ranks and--with groups like the American Center for Law and Justice and Liberty Counsel supporting dominionist groups in lawsuits--it is notoriously difficult for people who suffered even extreme abuse to be able to recover damages, much less see that justice is done to the perpetrators. Often the abuse is discovered for decades, and even posts in this community have noted the high percentage of sexual predation in dominionist communities as opposed to the non-dominionist population.

UPDATE 2:46PM EDT: Apparently now Haggard has admitted publically to purchasing meth from the gay escort in question, though--in some *very* suspicious lines--claims he "threw away" the meth in a location he cannot recall, and claims he contacted the gay escort for "massages":

Haggard says he bought the meth from a gay escort, 49-year-old Michael Jones, after contacting him for a massage.

Haggard says he never used the meth and instead threw it away.

However, Haggard could not remember where he threw the meth away.

According to Haggard, he met with Jones in a Denver hotel room.

Haggard admitted it was his voice on the voice mail messages left on Jones' phone.

A forensic voice expert tells 9NEWS he has a conclusive match of 20 words and phrases that Haggard left the in the voice mail.

(Video here.)

Seeing as there are legit massage parlours and spas in Colorado Springs, this is a rather unlikely explanation--especially since New Life is also a major promoter of the dominionist "parallel economy" which includes "Christian massage parlours".

UPDATE 4:34PM EST: Reportedly Mike Jones also has envelopes postmarked from Haggard. Video from MSNBC here.

UPDATE 5PM EST: And as it turns out, a simple Google Search would have turned up the fact that Mike Jones is most well known in gay bodybuilding circles as a trainer and massage therapist--as noted on bodyworkformen.com, a site designed for men seeking men for massage, so to speak.

Also, the church is apparently in major spin control mode, accusing Mike Jones of making political hay out of the Meth, Massage and Men Affair; video (rather interestingly) shows Ted Haggard actually nodding his head whilst denying having sex with Mike Jones.

UPDATE 2:15AM EST 5 November (Remember, Remember the Fifth of November...): Reportedly Ted Haggard has been officially ousted from New Life Church's leadership due to "sexually immoral conduct", in what may be the most damning evidence yet that Haggard in fact engaged in a sexual liason with Mike Jones and admitted to it in the church council meeting (it is generally very rare for a dominionist church to oust a head pastor under *any* circumstances; just about the only thing that will successfully do so is in fact revelation that he's a man seeking men). The press release from New Life Church itself (noted below) states that "Our investigation and Pastor Haggard’s public statements have proven without a doubt that he has committed sexually immoral conduct"--in other words, the church "inquisition council" has evidence so damning that Haggard *was* involved with Mike Jones that they have no other course of action.

Reportedly a statement and apology from Haggard will be read at New Life Church's meetings this AM; according to a press release issued by New Life Church further investigation is likely and a "plan of healing and restoration" is being proposed for Haggard--most likely involving Haggard being remanded to a group promoting "reparative therapy", if past trends involving deacons and pastors being outed as gay in neopente churches are any guide. It is also *extremely* unlikely that Haggard will *ever* be allowed to return to the pulpit in a neopente church, and this is pretty much the worst case scenario for him.