LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY marciamarcia)

Pastor Ted, he believed, would marshal the shock waves. “I think Pastor Ted is Gandalf,” said Commander Tom. Tom had received a few mini-visions, just glimpses really, and in them he saw a pastor kneeling, praying, in spiritual battle.

“Who's the Balrog?” I asked, referring to a demon that nearly kills Gandalf, the Lord of the Rings's heroic wizard. I expected Commander Tom to reply with the usual enemies, “the culture” and the homosexuals and the humanists. But the Balrog, he said, is inside Pastor Ted, and inside every Christian. Before the church can condemn the world, it must cleanse itself, thought Tom; he believed that American evangelicals were filthy with pride.

“Pride's dangerous,” he said.

Snippet from Harper's 2005 profile of Ted Haggard and New Life Church, Soldiers of Christ.

Trust me, there are more creepily precient moments where that one came from. Keep an eye out for the mention of Pastor Haggard visiting gay bars for evangelization purposes.

Beyond the schadenfreude, this article lends a very interesting perspective to current events. It makes me wonder how the New Life congregation is dealing with this.