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Real Answers™
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Copyright: © 2006 Gary Hardaway
690 words

THE TRAGIC LIVES OF TED HAGGARD AND ELLEN GOODMAN

By: Gary Hardaway

When the moral downfall of megachurch pastor, Ted Haggard, became public, long-time feminist Ellen Goodman felt compelled to share her opinion.

Yes, she agreed, Haggard was a hypocrite and liar, proclaiming moral righteousness by day while skulking around with male prostitutes by night, heading the National Association of Evangelicals in public while practicing sodomy (my word, not hers) in private.

But to Ms. Goodman, Haggard’s sexual behavior isn’t the problem. You see, Mr. Haggard is actually a victim – a victim of “the ministry of self-hate.” He is “a man wounded by the culture of demonization” (i.e. biblical Christianity). Evangelical Christianity has taught him to loathe himself for being himself, thus preventing him from expressing the true, authentic human being that he is.

Instead of looking upon himself as a sinner, Haggard, we are told, should embrace his “gayness.” Goodman is appalled when he confesses: “There is a part of my life that is . . . repulsive and dark.” To her, the really bad “f” word is faith – faith in those obsolete Scriptures and the unfashionable God who dares to impose commandments regarding one’s personal lifestyle.

Ever the political partisan, Ms. Goodman uses the occasion to promote legalizing same-sex marriages and civil unions, which, she presumes, would liberate Haggard and others like him from the shackles of self-hate.

In Goodman’s culture of self-gratification, any sexual appetite is to be affirmed and celebrated. A person creates his own values; society blesses and applauds. Drag queens, prostitutes, the various “transgendered” among us, sado-masochists (perhaps the bestial?), all should be honored for their special form of “loving relationships.” “Repression” or criticism qualifies as “dark and repulsive.” 

However, all this rhetoric exudes a strong odor of mendacity. When a man leaves his wife and children to shack up with another man, he is applauded as authentic. But if Ted Haggard chooses to resist his urges and renew his commitment to his marriage and family, somehow that’s phony and hypocritical.

In other words he is entitled to adultery but not to renewed marital faithfulness. He is congratulated for unfaithfulness but condemned for staying with those who love him. It’s emotionally healthy to go out catting around in the streets, but not at all good to hold his wife close and tell her he is so utterly sorry for betraying her and hurting her so much.

Ms. Goodman, very displeased that some people still regard same-sex sex as sin, celebrates a poll that indicates that “more ... have come to believe that gayness is not a choice, let alone a sin.” But we’re not talking about mere “gayness.” We’re talking about deliberate, specific acts of betrayal.

One may or may not “choose” one’s urges. We all have dark impulses – to steal, to hate, to get revenge, to splurge in self-indulgence. But our random cravings don’t determine our fate or our destiny. We can choose to reject their temptations. We don’t have to submit meekly to every wild urge. Nor should we.

The Bible presents a moral code to protect us. It indicates that some actions and choices offend God, and He forbids them – calls them sin – because they defy and disrupt his purposes for us. Thus, many desires are intrinsically disordered and dysfunctional. When we act them out, we inflict severe damage on ourselves and others.

Both the Scriptures and creation eloquently reveal the complementary nature of the male-female bond – its unmistakable design and function. Just as emphatically, our bodies reveal the disordered, dysfunctional character of male-male intercourse. 

Rejecting both creation and Scripture, the crusaders for self-gratification seek to destroy the very concept of “normal” and “natural,” and their logical opposites, “deviant” and “perverted.” Scripture describes such activists as “slanderous, without self-control . . . not lovers of the good . . . conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God ....”

None of us is pure or free of sin. We are all deviant in our own way and in need of special grace. But tkhe tragedy of Ellen Goodman is that she glorifies the evil, despises the good, and disdains the cry for grace.

Gary Hardaway has taught in universities in the USA, Lithuania and Canada. He holds a Ph. D. in foundations of education. "Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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