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Haggard Accuser: Other Men May Be Involved

Haggard To Undergo 'Restoration' For 'Sex Addiction'

POSTED: 8:43 am MST November 6, 2006
UPDATED: 6:57 pm MST November 6, 2006

The man who accused Rev. Ted Haggard of using drugs and paying him for sex said that he believes the pastor may have been involved with other men.

Self-described prostitute Mike Jones went on KHOW radio again Monday morning to talk about his allegations against Haggard.

He said, with as much as Haggard traveled, he doesn't doubt there may be other men who were sexually involved with the minister. He claims that he and Haggard have had a sexual relationship for the past three years.

Jones said he has received death threats and is concerned about his personal safety. He said he's sorry for the pain that he caused to the pastor's family but felt that exposing Haggard as a hypocrite was a necessity.

"I definitely wanted to come out before the election and it may change no votes, but if is just changes making people think about it, then that is what is important," Jones said.

He said he questions Haggard's sincerity in his apology to his church on Sunday and that Haggard needs to be honest about his desires and his sexuality.

"I wish the best for him and hope he can become whatever it is he is looking for but all I can tell him is be honest with yourself," Jones said. "I am not quite sure how sincere it is. I mean he talks about demons and dirt and he needs to get rid of that, and what I have to say is that being gay is not demonic. You have to be honest with yourself. I think he is a gay man but only he can decide what he truly is."

Haggard To Go Through Counseling

At Sunday's church services, another pastor read a letter from Haggard to his former congregation. He apologized for putting his family and church members through all this.

Haggard said he is getting counseling from other religious leaders to restore his life, marriage and family. Haggard also promised church leaders that he will stay out of the public eye for one year.

"We've instructed him he can't do any public interviews. He can't have any public meetings. He just needs to disappear," said Mike Ware, a member of New Life Church's Board of Overseers.

Ware met with Haggard on Sunday night and said Haggard has submitted himself to the lengthy restoration program.

"He said, 'I don't know how long this is going to take, but however long it takes, I want to promise you men that I'm going to do everything I can, I'm going to work as hard as I can to make whatever is wrong in my life, I want to make the devil pay,'" Ware said.

The program will be specifically designed to treat what Haggard described as his "sex addiction." Focus on the Family founder James Dobson will be one of the people overseeing Haggard's counseling, which begins next Monday, Ware said.

Dobson will join pastor Jack Hayford of The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, Calif. and the pastor Tommy Barnett of First Assembly of God in Phoenix in overseeing Haggard.

The counseling process, called restoration, could take years, said H.B. London, vice president for church and clergy at Focus on the Family, a Colorado Springs-based ministry.

"Those men will perform a thorough analysis of my mental, spiritual, emotional and physical life. They will guide me through a program with the goal of healing and restoration for my life, my marriage and my family," Haggard wrote.

Ware said he believes that once Haggard completes the restoration program he will serve again, perhaps in an international ministry.

However, Ware said Haggard will never return to the pulpit at New Life Church -- the 14,000-member church he founded in his basement in 1985.

Haggard Condemns Homosexuality In 'Jesus Camp' Movie

At the height of his powers, Haggard is seen preaching to thousands and condemning homosexuality in the documentary "Jesus Camp."

In one scene of the film, which follows a group of children as they develop evangelical Christian beliefs, directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady visit New Life Church in where he told the vast audience, "We don't have to debate about what we should think about homosexual activity. It's written in the Bible."

Then Haggard looks into the camera and says kiddingly: "I think I know what you did last night," drawing laughs from the crowd. "If you send me $1,000, I won't tell your wife."

Later, another joke for the filmmakers: "If you use any of this, I'll sue you."

Ewing and Grady said that when they shot footage for the film in October 2005, they were struck by how enraptured Haggard's followers looked.

"Pastor Ted, they were so proud of him. They thought he was hip, young, he didn't have that stodgy James Dobson feel," Ewing said Monday. "They all really adored him, that's the first thing I thought -- those people, those faces, they hung and took notes on every word he said -- I can't imagine what those people must be feeling."

Haggard has disputed the way he's portrayed in "Jesus Camp," saying on his Web site (in a posting that since has been removed) that the filmmakers shot for hours at his church and only used the parts in which he was playing with negative stereotypes.

"You can expect to learn as much about the Catholic Church from 'Nacho Libre' as you can learn about evangelicalism from 'Jesus Camp,"' he wrote. Ewing and Grady say Haggard is the only one who has complained about the way he was depicted in the film.

"Jesus Camp" also shows Haggard speaking to an aspiring young preacher named Levi, asking him whether people listen to him because he's a kid or because he has something to say. His advice: "Use your cute-kid thing until you're 30, and by then you'll have good content."

Grady said that when she first heard about the accusations against Haggard, "I was shocked but I was not surprised in any way because he did come across as somewhat of a hypocrite even in our movie -- in a smaller way, of course. He was so cynical in that exchange with that child in our movie, it was odd and it popped out."

Haggard also leads the audience in praying for President George W. Bush to select a Supreme Court nominee who supports their beliefs (it would end up becoming Samuel Alito) and later brags about the rapid expansion of evangelicalism.

"It's got enough growth to essentially sway every election," Haggard says with a smile. "If the evangelicals vote, they determine the election."

Pastor Apologizes For Sexual Immorality

Many of the church members said they have already forgiven Haggard, a married father of five.

"We stand behind Pastor Ted because we are all people, we all fall into temptations, and it doesn't make his achievements here, at this church, any less than it is because this is about God. It is not about us, not about Pastor Ted," said church member Heather Hope.

"He preaches from his heart and I don't care what happened, that is one of the purest hearts that we have even been under," said church member Mary Celaya.

Haggard, who had been a leading evangelist and vocal opponent of gay marriage, apologized in a letter read from the pulpit.

Some in the standing-room-only crowd wiped away tears and embraced each other as they heard Haggard's words read by a member of the board that fired him a day earlier.

"The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality. And I take responsibility for the entire problem," Haggard wrote. "I am a deceiver and a liar. There's a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life."

After services, Patty Erwin kneeled near the back of the 8,000-seat auditorium and said a prayer for Haggard.

"We all love him because he's a part of our family. You don't just throw away a sister or a brother," said Erwin, who's been coming to the church for 15 years. "Desperately, we love him, and we wouldn't be here if we didn't."

Haggard, 50, resigned last week as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents 30 million evangelical Christians, after Jones claimed to have had drug-fueled trysts with him.

He also placed himself on administrative leave from New Life. Its independent Overseer Board fired him Saturday.

In his letter, Haggard said "the accusations that have been leveled against me are not all true, but enough of them are true that I have been appropriately and lovingly removed from the ministry."

He did not specify which accusations were true. Haggard had acknowledged Friday that he paid Jones, of Denver, for a massage and for methamphetamine, but said he did not have sex with him and did not take the drug.

The letter was read to the church by the Rev. Larry Stockstill, senior pastor of Bethany World Prayer Center in Baker, La., and a member of the board that fired him. Haggard asked for forgiveness for himself and for his accuser.

In a separate letter, Haggard's wife drew laughter when she promised to remain with her husband and said church members no longer had to worry about her marriage being so perfect she couldn't relate to them.

"For those of you who have been concerned my marriage was so perfect I couldn't possibly relate to the women who are facing great difficulties, know that this will never again be the case. My test has begun. Watch me -- I will try to prove myself faithful," she wrote. "We started this journey together and with the grace of God, we will finish together."

Neither Haggard nor his wife, Gayle, attended.

Youngsters were sent from the room before elders began discussing the church crisis.

"Worshippers are always challenged by crisis. And when tragedy and crisis strikes it is at that moment that you truly decide if you are a worshipper of the most high God. And today, as the worship pastor of this church, I am very proud of you," said the Rev. Ross Parsley, who has replaced Haggard.

Ryan Price and his fiancee, Karen Geyer, were impressed.

"It seemed genuine -- from the heart. It's unfortunate but it happens," said Geyer.

"He's reaching out and asking for forgiveness," said Price.

Jones, who said he is gay escort, said he came forward because he was upset when he discovered who Haggard was and that New Life opposed same-sex marriage -- a key issue in Colorado, with a pair of issues on Tuesday's ballot.

The scandal has disappointed Christian conservatives, whom President Bush and other Republicans are courting heavily in the run-up to Tuesday's election.

Many were already disheartened with the president and the Republican-controlled Congress over their failure to deliver big gains on social issues even before the congressional page scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley.

Haggard, who had been NAE president since 2003, has participated in conference calls with White House staffers and lobbied Congress last year on Supreme Court nominees.


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