In a wide-ranging interview with GQ, the Reverend Ted Haggard, former pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, talks about his ministry, his family and, yes, his sex life. He also poses for beefcake photos. It’s a very late-21st-century effort to rehabilitate his image.

For the first time since we’ve met, Ted isn’t looking directly at me. “Here’s where I really am on this issue,” he half whispers. “I think that probably, if I were 21 in this society, I would identify myself as a bisexual.” After a weekend of Ted trying to convince me of his unambiguous devotion to his wife and kids, I’m at first too surprised to say anything.

“So why not now?” I ask finally.

“Because, Kevin, I’m 54, with children, with a belief system, and I can have enforced boundaries in my life. Just like you’re a heterosexual but you don’t have sex with every woman that you’re attracted to, so I can be who I am and exclusively have sex with my wife and be perfectly satisfied.”

Remember, Haggard was once leader of a national organization of evangelicals and had weekly phone calls with the White House. Mike Jones, the man who exposed Haggard’s double life as a minister who took drugs and paid for sex, said if he had it to do over again, he wouldn’t. “It ruined my life too,” he said.

Much of the lengthy GQ article is frankly too racy for us, but you can read a mainstreamed take on the whole sordid affair at The Denver Post.

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Ted Haggard climbed onto a bale of hay, Bible balanced in his palm.

“Welcome to my barn,” he called out.

“Does anybody need a blanket?” his wife, Gayle, inquired as men and women in down coats shivered in the frigid November air. Some huddled underneath a space heater.

Then the blue-jeans-clad preacher began chanting: “God is good, God is good, God is good.”

This musty barn next to the Haggard home is barely two miles — but a universe away — from the massive stage the former evangelical star once occupied at New Life Church. There, he would appear every Sunday before microphones, giant television screens and a congregation so large that services had to be held in shifts.

But in late 2006 came what Haggard, now 53, refers to as “the crisis,” the revelation that he’d had a sexual relationship with a male escort. Haggard resigned from the church he had started in his basement 25 years ago and left Colorado Springs.

Now he’s back and, some speculate, launching his second act.

Last month, Haggard — who declined to be interviewed — opened his home for a prayer meeting. He expected a dozen people. More than 100 came, and the Haggards moved the furniture out of the living room to make space.

A week later, he swept out his barn and rented 75 chairs. When they were filled, people stood against the back walls.

Many were former or current members of his old church who called him Pastor Ted. They said they had missed him, that he was born to preach — not to sell insurance as he had when he first returned here. They said they had forgiven what they and Haggard regarded as his sins.

“I love a good redemption story,” said Elly Kraai, a former New Life member. “I’m seeing one playing out here.”

Another issue is the nature of the scandal itself. “Even though evangelical theology doesn’t make distinctions between sins,” Hamilton said, “homosexuality is a hard one for evangelicals to cope with.”

But for two weeks in a row, Haggard — who now makes a living giving speeches at churches across the country — proved he could draw an audience.

As guests parked in his snow-crusted field and carried chocolate chip cookies and jugs of apple juice into the barn, he greeted them enthusiastically. “Look, everybody,” Haggard announced when one person arrived with a special treat: “Chocolate cake!”

As the service began, he was jovial, even joking about his indiscretion. “If you’re not getting enough snuggling [from your spouse], don’t do it the way I did it,” he said.

His audience chuckled, but grew hushed as he spoke of his ouster from New Life, describing his self-loathing and doubts. “Am I full of the devil?”…

It’s hard not to just keep blockquoting!

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Fallen pastor Ted Haggard is coming to Albuquerque to speak at New Life City this Friday through Saturday, writes our New Mexico Independent colleague Matthew Reichbach.

Ex-Pastor Ted Haggard to speak in Albuquerque

According to the Albuquerque Journal’s Newseeker blog, “The Rev. Alan Hawkins, pastor of New Life City in Albuquerque, said he extended the speaking invitation to Haggard to help people who may be struggling with ‘confused sexuality’ and other issues that led to catastrophe in Haggard’s life.”

New Life City is not related to New Life Church, the evangelical mega-church that Haggard founded in Colorado Springs.

A staunch opponent of gay rights, Pastor Ted was forced to step down from the pulpit and his role as head of the National Association of Evangelicals in 2006 after he admitted to an ongoing sex and methamphetamine pecadillo with a male escort. Later, Haggard was called to answer additional allegations leveled in Jan. 2009 that he had engaged in an inappropriate and drug-fueled sexual relationship with Grant Haas, a young male church volunteer. Haas claimed that New Life Church leaders knew about the illicit affair and later reneged on a “financial comfort” payoff. Current New Life pastor Brady Boyd vigorously denied the payment was “hush money” as it was portrayed in press accounts at the time.

Read the whole sordid saga at The Compleat Ted Haggard sex, drugs and hush money timeline.

Shortly after being outed in 2006 by Denver escort and masseuse Mike Jones and participating in a church-mandated restoration therapy, Haggard said he was “completely heterosexual.” However, in January 2009, the fallen pastor told the Los Angeles Times, “I am a heterosexual with issues” just as he embarked on a press junket for the HBO bio-pic “The Trials of Ted Haggard” and the Haas revelations were making news.

“My invitation to him is just because I love him, and he’s a valuable human being,” Hawkins said of Haggard, according to the Albuquerque Journal. “My belief has always been that a person is not defined by his worst moments and that his lifetime of good service was not canceled by this action.”

Starting Wednesday, the nation gets to peer inside the couple’s marital crisis while the stern presiding judge wags her finger and raises the sassy questions Larry King and Oprah dared not pose.

Ted Haggard, upper right, and his wife Gayle appear in the Divorce Court rings. (Screenshot/Divorce Court)

Join us as we follow Judge Toler’s conversation with the Haggards.

2:30 p.m. - Judge Lynn Toler — who was an actual judge in Ohio — sits in her chambers with the Haggards. Anyone hoping to see the disgraced pastor taking an oath in a courtroom — hand on a Bible — will be disappointed.

It appears the Divorce Court schedule is as flexible as Ted Haggard’s sexuality — the first of two Haggard episodes was scheduled to air April 1, but the day arrives and KDVR-TV in Denver is showing Part II of the interview.

Quick recap: The Haggards decided not to get divorced. Ted asked for a divorce from Gayle because he had become “toxic,” but she refused.

Haggard blames male escort Mike Jones for telling him about methamphetamine. He says he’s faced temptations in every decade of his life. At the judge’s prompting, he admits he hasn’t acted on his homosexual desires “for the most part,” and says he tried to overcome the urges through prayer. The judge is skeptical he was able to banish these urges so quickly after being exposed.

2:35 p.m - Ted wasn’t born gay — he was traumatized in seventh grade with “some homosexual play” and has successfully prayed it away.

Gayle discusses her process — how does she love Ted? How does she forgive him? She admits to jumping to “a lot of conclusions” and accused Haggard of living a double life. The judge calls her on this — “He did lead a double life.” Gayle says it took time to “get to the place where I could really hear him” after her husband had “been through an internal, private hell.” Initially, she blamed Ted for the crisis. The judge is having none of Gayle’s attempt to blame the victim, herself: “He lied, he bore false witness.”

2:40 p.m. - We’re back after a commercial. Ted says after he disgraced his wife he “went way overboard,” even going so far as to make the bed and pick up his socks. If that’s what it takes to apologize for a meth-fueled affair with a male escort …

Ted and Gayle’s daughter, Christy Haggard, appears on a splotchy video link. Her father was “so apologetic and humbled,” which encouraged her to bond with her father. The judge asks if Ted had been holier-than-thou before the scandal. No, no, Christy says, she put her father on a pedestal. She says Ted is less judgmental and allows her to be “less harsh” on herself.

Christy admits her father could “relapse” and go back to having sex with massage therapists but says she wouldn’t love him any less if it happened.

2:45 p.m. - Cut to another commercial after some flying graphics. Benefiber provides closed-captioning for the show, which is good news for irregular viewers who are hard of hearing.

2:50 p.m. - Judge Toler asks if there’s anything Ted could do that would be “divorceable” — what if he falters again and Gayle finds Ted “with another guy, would that put divorce back on the table?” The judge doesn’t ask how Gayle would react if she found Ted with another guy on a table. Gayle says she can’t guarantee she could go through it again.

Ted says he kept his illicit affairs a secret because he was afraid “she would divorce me.” He also “guarantees you the woman can cuss.”

Here’s some news — Ted says he would preach again if he got the opportunity. It’s because people feel better about him when they finally meet him, whereas before he didn’t live up to their lofty expectations.

“Divorce shouldn’t be a given when you face your darkest day,” Gayle says. She had to look at Ted and see “so much that was painful” but “at the end of the day” wants to grow old with him.

2:52 p.m. - Another commercial! Is it possible to rebuild trust once a spouse has cheated? The judge wants to hear from you for a future show.

2:55 p.m. - The judge wants to “bullet point” the “take-aways”:

Forgiveness is a process. Part of the process involves effort, you can’t just say “forgive me,” it’s a continuous job, even if it takes years. Never stop thinking, understand your bottom-line goal.

Gayle adds a take-away: Value the relationship, be aware of what you want to rescue.

What’s next? Ted says they want to tell their story — and sell insurance. People are nicer to him after the crisis. He’s “so incredibly grateful” that everyone’s so nice. It’s been a wonderful process, Gayle says, leading to the kind of intimacy she’s always wanted.

The judge addresses her own husband directly — she wants this kind of intimacy in the Toler marriage but warns him “don’t go in this direction.” In other words, if a meth-crazed, illicit homosexual affair is what it takes to reach the Haggards’ new-found intimacy, she wants none of it.

And with a quick segue to a Frank Azar commercial, Divorce Court is out.

Ted and Gayle Haggard (Illustration/Ernest Luning)

The Haggards weren’t getting divorced — in fact, their marriage is stronger than ever, the Colorado Springs Gazette reports. No, the couple wanted to talk with the show’s presiding judge, Lynn Toler, about how the former New Life Church leader’s troubles brought them closer together and bolstered their Christian faith.

“This is part of Ted’s journey,” Gayle Haggard told the Gazette. “It’s made him a better man. I see what has happened as a divine rescue.”

The Fox show usually features sordid tales of anger and betrayal — next week, it’s “DNA Week,” involving suspected cheaters who agree to submit their offspring to genetic tests — but when the Haggards’ episode airs, it’ll likely be a sordid tale with a happy ending. No, not the kind of happy ending Pastor Ted sought from male escort Mike Jones.

What will “Divorce Court” watchers learn, come April Fool’s Day? The Gazette offers a taste:

After the scandal broke, Ted says he asked Gayle to divorce him.

“I told her life was going to be difficult for her, but if you divorce me, people will embrace you.”

Biblical principals of forgiveness, compassion, steadfastness and her husband’s genuine repentance helped Gayle through the darkest hours, she said, and she believes his struggles have deepened his Christian walk.

“I think he is better equipped to minister to people than ever before,” she said.

Following a round of interviews on the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” “Larry King Live” and “Good Morning America” earlier this year, Pastor Ted is back on the road with speaking engagements at prominent evangelical churches across the country, the Gazette reports. Here’s the “Ted Haggard Healing Overview” the disgraced pastor sends churches that extend invitations, including the revelation that the Haggards “immediately sensed God’s pleasure” after recent television appearances.

In addition to the anticipated divine pleasure, the Haggards were paid an “undisclosed amount” for their appearance on “Divorce Court,” the Gazette reports. It’s unknown whether that’s the same “undisclosed amount” of hush money as what Haggard’s former church in Colorado Springs paid to a young male New Life parishioner who claimed he shared an “inappropriate, consensual sexual relationship” with the pastor.

That’s the same young male parishioner who subsequently charged the evangelical megachurch with reneging on the hush-money deal after the young man started talking to the press around the time an HBO documentary about Haggard was set to air.

Wait, was that before or after a character from “Dog the Bounty Hunter” set out on a pro bono investigation to determine the extent of Pastor Ted’s picadillos with young male parishioners, and the church’s efforts to cover them up? If you’re having trouble keeping track of the scandals surrounding Haggard, you’re not alone.

So set your TiVo (the show airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on Fox 21, KRMX, in Colorado Springs and at noon on Fox 31, KDVR, in Denver) and pop the popcorn. It’ll be an April Fool’s Day for the books.

Christianity Today urges the New Life congregation to own its part of the saga in Holy Laughter: Remembering Haggard’s sin — and ours:

It is understandable that such churches — and sadly, there are hundreds of them — want to forget, as quickly as possible, the notorious sin and the scandalous pastor who brought shame to it. And that such churches would strive valiantly to tell itself and the world, “We’re not like that. Really. That doesn’t represent us. We’re much better than that.” That it would do its best to put the episode behind itself and move on.

But woe to the church that does that. We should wonder, in fact, about any Christian anywhere who does not look at Ted Haggard and say, “Oh yeah, I could have done that,” or more honestly, “To my deep shame, been there, done something very much like that.” Instead of thinking of Haggard and his ilk as ugly exceptions to our general moral uprightness, we should remember that we are part of his ilk.

A much more cynical tone permeates Belief.net’s take on the movie and subsequent interview on Larry King Live, especially St. Gayle Haggard:

She is, instead, thoughtful, kind, gracious, and forgiving. She has stuck with Ted through a truly horrific experience. She has accepted his remorse and granted him forgiveness. And, as a cherry on top, the Haggard’s eldest son, Marcus, joined them for the last bit on LKL and he was even more composed than Gayle. This is a truly extraordinary family…

…Or, they are positioning themselves for a new career. I’ve been told by one insider that the Haggards, basically broke, are hoping to establish an income by writing and speaking about their trials. Indeed, at the end of LKL, both Gayle and Ted said several times that they want to “communicate their story.” Fishing for a book deal? Speaking gigs? A reality TV show? Very possibly. So, my cynical side has to acknowledge the possibility that Gayle’s (and Ted’s and Marcus’s) grace and composure is actually a patina, covering a family in great distress trying to dig themselves out of a massive financial hole.

The power of redemption strikes at the heart of the real story, according to World Mag.com, in Haggard speaks: But can anyone hear over the roar of scandal? discussing the Haggards’ interview for The Oprah Winfrey taped before the second scandal made news:

To his credit, Haggard did clearly articulate a gospel of grace at numerous times throughout the interview, even admitting he’d never really understood it before: “When I was at my lowest point, when I couldn’t pray, I couldn’t read the Scriptures, I couldn’t seek Him anymore, He came after me and the Scripture came alive to me, Oprah, for the first time in a dramatic way. Jesus came for the unrighteous, not the righteous. And I qualify.”

Tragically, many onlookers may miss that message in the sea of scandal still swirling.

The Christian Broadcasting Network, the multi-media powerhouse run by Pat Robertson, has been relatively mum on the subject. It ran a couple brief news stories this week noting the involvement of New Life parishioner Grant Haas and a “six-figure settlement” by the church. Though those reports were largely taken from Associated Press news accounts. CBN hasn’t offered any commentaries unlike its response to the initial 2006 scandal involving gay male escort, Mike Jones.

Can this saga get any more ludicrous?

Brown tells The Colorado Springs Gazette that he has proof of seven more claims of inappropriate relationships involving Haggard and intends to go public with them. He’s also expanding his gumshoeing with a probe into New Life’s “compassionate assistance” financial settlement to the latest victim, Grant Haas.

A long-time colorful character in Colorado Springs, Brown has appeared on the controversial A&E Channel television reality show, “Dog the Bounty Hunter.”

Reports the Gazette, with incredible restraint in this tawdry mess:

Brown’s income from his bail bonds business and bounty hunting on “Dog the Bounty Hunter” earn him enough money to do pro bono investigations, sometimes on cases that have helped the Colorado Springs Police and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department.

His investigation into Haggard and New Life is another pro bono job. His goal, he says, is simple:

“It is my passion to bring all this to light,” he said. “My personal belief is that no one is above the law. I have no an [sic] ax to grind. I want to present the truth.”

I just hope AP religion reporter Eric Gorski got some combat pay for having to report the details of Haggard’s no-hands tryst.

Gorski writes in an article picked up by the Colorado Springs Gazette an incredible story by Grant Haas, a New Life Church volunteer and ex-seminary student, of Haggard masturbating in front of him while on a trip to a popular casino west of town in 2005. It’s not stated if the excursion was church-related or a personal getaway to the craps tables by the two men.

Then 22 years old, Haas admitted to Haggard that he was expelled from the Moody Bible Institute for “struggles with homosexuality.” He further claims that Pastor Ted’s “eyes lit up and his whole attitude towards me changed.” What followed was upwards of 2,000 text messages per month from Haggard chronicling the pastor’s sexual experiences and drug use.

And that’s the tame part.

Gorski’s story, which borrows heavily from an exclusive interview of Haas by reporter Tak Landrock of Colorado Springs ABC-affiliate KRDO-TV, doesn’t provide a time frame in which the apparent non-physical sexual relationship and prolific texting took place.

In the on-air interview with Landrock, Haas tells a much more sordid tale of pornography, methamphetamine use and mutual masturbation. (Note: This video is not safe to view at work, near children or anybody with a lick of common decency.)

After hearing of Denver male escort Mike Jones’ shocking November 2006 assertions of a long-time cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard, Haas went privately to New Life authorities with his own salacious story.

While Haggard was getting canned by both his own church and the National Association of Evangelicals where he served as president of the 45,000-member strong protestant church network, New Life entered into a financial agreement with Haas. Current New Life pastor Brady Boyd vigorously denies the payment was “hush money.”

Accounts vary slightly with each passing news account, but Boyd claims a congregational insurance settlement of $179,000 — “compassionate assistance” — provided college tuition and counseling through 2009 as long as Haas did not speak publicly about the relationship.

But Haas provided documents to KRDO claiming the church broke its word and stopped making the payments.

“Their main focus was, you know, cover it up, don’t say anything,” he said. “You’ll regret it if you come forward.”

For his part, Haggard says that he apologized to Haas following steamy news accounts of the 2006 sex scandal. Not to be forgotten, Jones released his own YouTube video Monday decrying New Life’s cash payment to Haas and reminding the church community that there are more victims of Haggard’s bawdy advances.

Boyd blames the forthcoming HBO bio-pic, “The Trials of Ted Haggard,” which early reviews lambaste as a self-pitying account of the fallen pastor’s post-scandal life, as motivating Haas to go public.

To add to the growing media circus, Haggard and his wife, Gayle, will appear on “Oprah” in a taped interview Wednesday and on “Larry King Live” Thursday evening immediately following the premiere of the Haggard tell-all movie.

Cue up your TIVO and then smash it.

He’s been named the top Washington, D.C., lobbyist for Focus on the Family, according to a little-noticed “comings and goings” political column in the Fort Wayne, Ind., Journal Gazette.

Goeglein was personally recruited in 2001 by political mastermind Karl Rove to work in the Bush White House as chief liaison to conservative religious groups. There Goeglein rubbed elbows with some of the most powerful men in the evangelical movement — Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition, convicted Watergate felon Chuck Colson who runs Prison Fellowships Ministries and then-president of the National Association of Evangelicals Ted Haggard.

“He is the key person that actually produced the evangelical vote in America,” Haggard told the Indianapolis Star. “It was Karl Rove’s initiative, but it was Tim that actually did it. When we call Tim, his office responds. He’s the one evangelical leaders across America have a relationship with.”

That was until Feb. 29, 2008, when ex-Fort Wayne News-Sentinel columnist-turned-blogger Nancy Nall stumbled across an odd reference in a Goeglein column written for her former paper. An ensuing investigation by the paper’s editors found he had plagiarized 20 of 38 columns and cited the works of such luminaries as the Dartmouth Review, Nixon speechwriter-cum-game show host Ben Stein and the Pope without credit.

Goeglein resigned his position with the White House by that afternoon and has apparently been kicking around the nation’s capital until his political rebirth as Focus’ primo lobbyist.

No word on just what he’ll be prowling the halls of Congress for on behalf of Focus’ many tax-exempt charitable subsidiaries; spokesman Gary Schneeberger hasn’t yet returned an e-mail inquiry. Though I am awfully curious if Goeglein’s pre-employment interview involved a good ol’ fashioned “spare the rod, spoil the child” whoopin’ by Dobson, who advocates corporal punishment for lying and misbehavior in his many parenting books.

UPDATE 6:11 p.m.: Spokesman Gary Schneeberger kindly forwarded a statement from Focus on the Family Action President and CEO Jim Daly announcing Goeglin’s appointment to the newly created position, vice president of external relations, and addressing head-on the matter of his plagiaristic ways:

Goeglein resigned from the Bush administration last February, after admitting to plagiarizing columns written for his hometown newspaper. He has accepted full responsibility for his actions, Daly said, and the matter is behind him.

“Tim has been forthright about his mistakes and humbly accepted the consequences of them – a pretty rare thing in Washington,” Daly said. “He is a Christian, and being a Christian doesn’t mean you’re perfect – only that there is grace and forgiveness when you confess your imperfections. Tim has done that, and we welcome him to our team enthusiastically.”

I guess that dispels the rumors of a “Dare to Discipline” lobbyist thumping. Oh well, let’s hope Goeglein will extend the same sense of charity on Capitol Hill to Focus’ political opponents since the recent track record isn’t so great.

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