White House plays down Haggard ties

Pastor used to be briefed weekly on Bush's agenda

Lee Bowman, Scripps Howard News Service

Published November 4, 2006 at midnight

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WASHINGTON - As president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Rev. Ted Haggard has advised the White House on issues ranging from judicial appointments to steel tariffs.

But he also sought to widen the agenda of Christian evangelicals into areas the Bush administration - and many of his Christian brethren - would rather avoid.

Haggard resigned as president of the association, which says it represents about 30 million evangelical church members, and took a leave as senior pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs amid allegations that he paid a gay former escort for sex and drugs.

Although he had been active in lobbying for conservative Christian causes before, Haggard's profile rose after he became head of the NAE early in 2003.

He made frequent visits to the White House and was included in a select group of religious leaders briefed on the administration's agenda during a weekly teleconference with White House staff, a session meant to "feel the evangelical pulse," he's said.

"We have direct access (to the White House)," Haggard told a Wall Street Journal reporter shortly before the last presidential election, adding that he could take a concern to the president through staff and get a response within 24 hours.

Asked Friday about the Haggard controversy, White House spokesman Tony Fratto downplayed the pastor's connections to the Bush administration.

"He had been on a couple of (conference) calls but was not a weekly participant in those calls," Fratto said, adding that Haggard had been to the White House "one or two times."

"But there have been a lot of people who come to the White House," Fratto said.

Haggard keeps two framed photos of himself and President Bush on the wall outside his church office but also has spoken admiringly in the past of the faith of former Democratic presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Haggard was naturally on the "A" list of evangelical Christians invited to the Bush White House for the signing of a bill banning late-term abortions or to be called in advance of any announcement for a chat about pending Supreme Court nominees.

Still, he criticized the White House for emphasizing the evangelical faith of failed nominee Harriet Miers, rather than her judicial philosophy.

New Life Church sits near the United States Air Force Academy, and Haggard has been at the forefront of evangelicals determined to stop Pentagon regulations that might prevent military chaplains from evangelizing.

At the same time, Haggard has angered some religious conservatives for urging Christians to protect Muslims in the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and more recently for urging missionary outreach to Muslims, but not to win converts or force Christianity on them.

Last summer, he joined an eclectic group of 27 religious leaders who ruffled the White House with a statement published in newspaper advertisements urging the government to "abolish torture now - without exception" in dealings with prisoners, including those suspected of terrorist activity.

In fact, Haggard has argued almost as frequently for freedom from government intervention as he has freedom of religion. He was one of the few religious conservatives to endorse a 2003 Supreme Court decision striking down Texas' anti-sodomy law on privacy grounds.

In a 2004 interview with the Rocky Mountain News, Haggard told the story of meeting with President Bush and a half-dozen other evangelicals and using the occasion to argue against the extension of steel tariffs.

"Your responsibility is the good of the people, and free trade is the way we get cheaper steel," he recounted telling the president during the session.

The taxes were dropped soon after the meeting.

Haggard's recent efforts promoted through the NAE a "broad biblical agenda" that included improving health care, ending racism and addressing global warming, which he recently declared should be an evangelical priority.

Like the White House, however, Haggard seeks to find environmental solutions through a free-market approach rather than through tight government controls or taxes on emissions of greenhouse gases.

Although the association's board approved some broad goals for social activism earlier this year, many Christian conservatives have criticized the move for going beyond the "values" issues that have traditionally been the political focus of the community.

bowmanl@shns.com

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