LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ellid)

A slightly more detailed article on Ted Haggard, including what looks like a smarmy portrait at the church. What is this, the cult of personality? Has this guy no shame? Or taste?

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/evangelical-leader-accused-of-gay-affair/20061102182309990027?ncid=NWS00010000000001

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY inkedgeekfreak)

Looks like the fallout is already hitting. He's resigned his post and from the church pending an internal investigation.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/02/haggard.allegations/index.html

I am skeptical of internal investigations.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY velvetpage)

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20061103/25744.htm - Evangelicals pray for Haggard

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20061103/25733.htm - Anti-gay marriage groups are finding it harder to motivate voters.

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:

( More below the cut )

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.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ellid)

Update on Haggard:

According to CNN.com, Haggard admitted to buying meth but claims he simply dumped it. He also claims that he contacted Mike Jones for a massage but never had sex with him.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/03/haggard.allegations/index.html

I wonder if the massage occurred in the presence of one or more handsome pizza delivery boys?


UPDATE:

Even better: Haggard has now admitted that the voice on the voicemails is indeed his. And the polygraph operator who said that some of Jones's answers showed signs of deception added that Jones seemed extremely stressed out and fatigued, which could definitely have an impact on the test results.

http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=af1bbeba-0abe-421a-01e2-01ca2e4711bd&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf



*pops corn and sits back to watch the show*

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

You can debate evolution, but you can't debate the IRS.

Pensacola evangelist and tax protester Kent Hovind winked at his wife and gave her a reassuring smile as he was led away to jail.

Jo Hovind clutched the necktie he had been wearing. She kept her eyes on her husband until he was out of sight.

A 12-person jury deliberated for 2½ hours on Thursday before finding the couple guilty of all counts in their tax-fraud case.

Kent Hovind, founder of Creation Science Evangelism and Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola, was found guilty of 58 counts, including failure to pay $845,000 in employee-related taxes. He faces a maximum of 288 years in prison.

Woops.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY bob_bowers)

A few minutes ago, there was a story on the local news where a group is saying that they have proof that Charlie Crist is gay. Crist sidestepped the issue when they asked him.

Crist is a conservative repub running for office, and has touted himself as a defender of "family values".

I also think that he may be married- in which case he would have been cheating as well.

I wonder who is going to be next?

The situation with Ted Haggard is on the internet news, but so far I haven't seen anything regarding it on the network news. They did have a big story about hip-hop being used by a local church to "connect to modern culture" or something like that.

I think once it starts to hit the mainline press, things are going to get interesting.