Posted on 01/15/2014 5:30:34 PM PST by Gamecock
Ted Haggard, a preacher who stepped down in 2006 from his position as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., following a sex and drug scandal, recently spoke out about Isaac Hunter’s suicide, an event that took the evangelical world by storm last week.
Focusing specifically on the scandals and charges of wrongdoing that have surrounded many famed preachers — himself included — Haggard said that evangelical Christians sometimes fail to properly apply the gospel when dealing with faith leaders who fall from grace.
Hunter, the former pastor of Summit Church in Orlando, Fla., had been facing personal issues since stepping down from his position late last year. His death, following the suicide of Pastor Rick Warren’s son, Matthew, earlier this year, has brought additional attention to mental health in evangelical circles.
“The news about Pastor Isaac Hunter breaks my heart. Great speaker, lover of God, and my guess is he loved the church. But he, like all of us, fell short,” Haggard wrote. “In the midst of divorce with accusations swirling, he resigned from the church he founded. He gave it his best shot, and his heart was broken.”
He continued, “This makes me sick to my stomach. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sick that he fell short, that’s a given for everyone except Christ Himself, I’m sick that our message did not do what we all hoped – it did not fix the problem.”
Haggard said that, in the past, evangelical leaders who have been immersed in scandal were often seen as not true believers, however he said this simply isn’t the case. In fact, he argued that most people who are in ministry “are sincere followers of Christ.”
While many Christians assume that a conversion to the faith heals all past problems, Haggard said this wasn’t the case in his own experience. While he said that becoming a believer made him “a new creation spiritually,” Haggard noted that there was some “simple care” that would have helped him avoid the scandal and pain he caused his family.
“I was so ashamed in 2006 when my scandal broke. The therapeutic team that dug in on me insisted that I did not have a spiritual problem or a problem with cognitive ability, and that I tested in normal ranges on all of my mental health tests (MMPI, etc.).” he wrote. “Instead, I had a physiological problem rooted in a childhood trauma, and as a result, needed trauma resolution therapy. I had been traumatized when I was 7 years old, but when Bill Bright led me to the Lord when I was 16, I learned that I had become a new creature, a new person, and that I did not need to be concerned about anything in my past, that it was all covered by the blood.”
But Haggard said that his past was still impacting his life.
In the end, the former megapastor claimed that his Christian training was delivered by people who didn’t respect the mental health and neural science professions. This translated, he wrote, into a counterproductive situation, as he was taught to view all issues as being entirely spiritual in nature.
“If I prayed and fasted, I was more tempted. If I just worked in ministry, I experienced relief and was not tempted,” Haggard continued. “I thought it was spiritual warfare. It was not. My struggle was easily explained by a competent therapeutic team.”
Haggard said that he believes wholeheartedly in the Bible, but that Christianity has “abandoned the application of the gospel” and that, as a result, too much time is spent on image management and damage control.
“Every one of us have had sin horribly intrude in our lives after being saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, and God is faithfully healing us or has healed us,” he continued. “Why don’t we tell that? He has never left us or forsaken us when we’ve said and done the wrong thing. Why don’t we tell that?”
>> I’m sick that our message did not do what we all hoped
Ah, the tenuous message of hope betrayed — imagine the despair such betrayal instills in those who give their hearts and trust.
>> Haggard said that he believes wholeheartedly in the Bible, but that Christianity has “abandoned the application of the gospel” and
Notice the placement of the quotes. Maybe it’s the author, Hallowell, that has a problem with Christianity.
What denomination are you?
When someone uses evangelical as a wide label....
Nothing personal
But it means they are likely uninformed....even though like u I distrust many TV preacher;;.
Evangical includes most baptists....half of Presbyterians.... methodists.....southern church of Christ..... all charismatics......all assemblies of God
About any Pentecostal......Lutheran Missouri synod (not the others which frankly I find many apostate)
Needless to say all these varying evangelicals I just listed...a partial list....do indeed vary a lot
As a southern Baptist.... evangelical to be sure.....we are quite different than tongue speakers and hands healers....and presbyterians.....and so forth
This broad label is usually pejorative
But really most Christian denominations spread the gospel and look to bring souls to heaven..
In other words evangelize to be born anew...
I think its usually an urban Catholic Episcopalian or Jewish outside looking in perspective on those wacky Evangelicals
I mean how many charismatics are media folks
Oddly most religion editors I see in big media are Jewish...makes for interesting but predictable musings
“What is wrong with evangelical Christianity?
“I am,
“Ted Haggard”
A stone cannot sin. We have the freedom, since the fall, to look downward/outward or upward/inward. That doesn't change with death of the body for if it did, our souls would perish.
I'm older and have many things to work on - many I will take to the spiritual world after I die and I'm sure more will be revealed to eternity.
"I'm older and have many things to work on - many I will take to the spiritual world after I die and I'm sure more will be revealed to eternity"
Nothing corrupt/corruptible/corrupting will enter God's kingdom.We need to be persuaded that He is able to keep that which we have entrusted to Him.
"Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy..."
What we really need to work on is what Jesus said we need to work on..."This is the work of God,that ye believe on Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29)...because if we don't do "that good part which will not be taken from us" then we will end up (or remain)"careful and troubled about many things"
I'm still aspiring to the dizzying heights of an unprofitable servant myself but when it's all over it will be 'all over but the shouting' for joy!
I don't know if this will make it easier to accept but Socrates said: "The unexamined life is not worth living"
No matter what your belief (or non-belief) system is, we owe it to ourselves and our loved ones to insure that we are living an upright life. The example we set will always have unintended consequences.
Agreed.
He is mad his meal ticket ended.
and who will vow not to gossip or divulge what they hear in prayer by others in the group.
6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Only the father is to hear our prayer.
Matt 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt , and where thieves break through and steal : 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt , and where thieves do not break through nor steal :
2 Peter 2:4
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
Mark 12:25
For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.
I don,t think the above proves anything unless it is a continual cycle, but God does say there is nothing new under the sun.
There is so much more that we don,t know than what we do know.
I read that verse as corruption of a natural body, which is why I believe Jesus Christ will never walk this earth again.
So, you believe intercessory prayer for others is unnecessary or heretical? How about when the pastor leads the congregation in prayer, or prays at a wedding or funeral?
What happened in his past to traumatize him was not his fault, as in the case for ALL Of us who have issues and trauma, but his responsibility was to deal with it appropriately as a Christian.
There was just too much evidence of pride in his responses. I know pride, I have a chronic (not terminal) condition of it that hasn’t been cured yet.
There is a lot of relevance to Job here but after everything that happened, Job’s response was,
Job 42:5 I had only heard about You before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes.
This “leader” still thinks it is about him and I will trust that God is at work still beating it out of him. But I can comment (judge) on what I observe.
Of course we have to remember this is being filtered through the author and we are not getting the whole truth. The headline gives us a clue to the agenda.
Wrong.
1 John 3:1-2 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
If the person is praying to God, God will hear him. It's irrelevant whether the prayer is for someone else or yourself.
I agree, that God hears our earnest prayers in private. But I also believe that intercessory prayer helps many people, both the person prayed for and the persons doing the praying. Are you sure you have been addressing what I have described above?
He still seems to think of himself as a victim and not as a redeemed sinner. He uses the phrase “apply the gospel” and “fix the problem”.
Dear Mr. Haggard, you, and everyone else are sinners and will remain so until Jesus returns. The problem will never be “fixed” in this fallen world, but with the Spirit’s help, you can live a life of repentance, living in acknowledgement of what Jesus has done for you on the cross.
Yeah, I guess I did miss what you were getting at.
Sorry about that.
Hello. Jesus prayed in public, in front of other people.
Matthew 11:25-26
Luke 23:34
John 11:41-42
John 12:27-28
John 17:1-26
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