Pastor Uploaded Himself With Man on Facebook
(CNN) -- Evangelical pastor Ted Haggard described Thursday as "fundamentally true" an assertion that he engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a twenty-year-former male volunteer in 2006.
Pastor Ted Haggard best-selling on CNN'due south "Larry King Live" that he had a second relationship with a homo.
The incident occurred when the 2 men were in bed together, Grant Haas said in a videotaped interview played on CNN's "Larry Male monarch Live."
"He pretty much asked me if information technology was OK if he masturbated in front of me or masturbated in the bed next to me," Haas said. "I told him no, it would make me really uncomfortable. But he grabbed a bottle of lotion and started masturbating."
Haas added, "(Haggard) used to say to me, 'Yous know what, Grant, you lot can get a human being of God, and you lot can take a little chip of fun on the side."
Haggard, 52, said the incident was "an indicator of the compulsive behavior" that ruled him at the time. Still, he said he has been undergoing therapy during the two years since and "working it out." 
Controversy involving Haggard first erupted in November 2006, when a former prostitute, Mike Jones, said the pastor had paid him for sexual activity over three years and had used methamphetamine in his presence.
Haggard initially admitted in interviews that he received a massage from Jones but denied having sex with him. He also said he bought methamphetamine, but threw it away instead of using it.
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The assertions received widespread news coverage and sparked charges of hypocrisy, especially because Haggard had condemned homosexual sex.
Haggard is the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals, which claims to correspond millions of people in 45,000 congregations nationwide. He was likewise the head pastor at New Life Church building.
In a settlement with New Life, the church and Haggard agreed that he would retain his six-effigy salary for a year, get out the Colorado Springs area, receive counseling and not speak publicly about what had happened for one twelvemonth, according to a church staff member with knowledge of the settlement but who was not authorized to speak on the record.
In the CNN interview, Haggard credited Jones with having helped him by disclosing that information.
"I recall he rescued me. I'm very grateful to him," Haggard said. He said he would have lost the support of his married woman of 30 years, Gail, and their five children "and been a drug addict" had he non been defenseless.
"I paid a heavy price. Information technology was stupid," he said.
Haggard likened his struggles with his desires to the struggles faced by dieters who say, "'I'm not going to eat today' and then they swallow."
"Many of the charges against me are exaggerated, but it doesn't matter," Haggard told Larry Male monarch. "I'm guilty enough of so many things."
He acknowledged that his deportment were hypocritical, just said he could not control his urges.
"I felt like God's plan was for sexuality to be in a monogamous, heterosexual wedlock," he said. "I wanted that. But at the same time, I had these other things going on."
Haggard said he had idea that focusing on his spiritual life would assist, simply institute that information technology did non. "It actually made me worse," he said.
Haggard said that, for a fourth dimension, he lost the ability to read the Scriptures and became suicidal. "I call back it was divine intervention that stopped me," he said.
Asked if he has engaged in inappropriate conduct with whatever other men, Haggard did not give a direct answer, saying only, "I have thoroughly discussed all of my sexual history with my wife and my therapist and, to some caste, the family unit, and we think that's an appropriate boundary for that."
Asked whether he considers himself bisexual or gay, Haggard said that different therapists have described him in different means. "The first said, 'You are a heterosexual with homosexual attachments.' I wasn't sure what that meant."
His current therapist, he said, described him as "a heterosexual with complications."
Haggard said he has, at least, another year of therapy ahead of him.
"I remember I'1000 all the same deeply wounded and scarred and somewhat confused," he said. Near other men, he added, "I take thoughts from time to time, but not compelling thoughts."
Nevertheless, he said, "Today, I'm 100 percent satisfied with my relationship with my wife, and I accept no compelling things in my life toward others."
He said he initially urged his wife to leave him, merely she refused.
"I really do beloved this human being," she told CNN when asked why she did not get out. But it was likewise her faith that led her to stick with the marriage, she said. "The pedagogy of Jesus is that we forgive and that we love."
She said the ii had "a great sexual relationship in our spousal relationship ... throughout marriage."
Though the news of his unfaithfulness came as a shock, it wasn't completely out of the blue, she said. "I knew that Ted had some struggles in this area, particularly in his thoughts. I never knew that he acted on them."
Marcus Haggard, the couple'south 25-twelvemonth-old son, said he, as well, was shocked by the revelations, but was more disturbed to learn that his begetter had lied. Withal, he said the news brought the family closer together.
"He had lived and so long on a pedestal," Marcus Haggard said about his famous father. "He seemed practically perfect. There was a sense of relief in the fact that nosotros could connect with our dad."
Asked if he wants to return to the pulpit, Haggard said, "I think Gail and I both want to tell our story to the degree that it'southward helpful to other people. I don't know that that would mean a pulpit, but certainly I'd be interested in public speaking."
His appearance Thursday coincided with the debut of an HBO documentary called "The Trial of Ted Haggard."
All About Ted Haggard • New Life Church
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/01/29/lkl.ted.haggard/
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