Leaders see long road back

Focus founder, two others will oversee pastor's 'recovery'

Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 6, 2006 at midnight

Text size

More Local News

More stories »

Despite the heartfelt letter Ted Haggard wrote to his congregation, leaders at the former pastor's church believe he is still being deceptive about the extent of his sexual activity, the Rev. Larry Stockstill said Sunday.

Stockstill, Haggard's mentor and head of the church's investigation into allegations by former male escort Mike Jones about Haggard's sexual and drug activity, said officials will require Haggard to take polygraphs and undergo psychological evaluations before considering his return to church life.

Haggard's computer hard drive also will be examined for evidence of longer-term illicit sexual activity, Stockstill said during a news conference at New Life Church.

The church's board of overseers is also undertaking a thorough review of Haggard's financial situation, although no allegations of improprieties have been made and no evidence has surfaced of any financial wrongdoing.

Haggard acknowledged that he is "guilty of sexual immorality."

"If he were to tell me that's all he's done, right now I wouldn't believe him," Stockstill said.

"Our hope against hope was that Ted just had a little slip, but when we began to interview him, we began to realize he's not in touch with truth and reality, and he has admitted that to us," said the Baton Rouge, La., pastor, who gave Haggard his start as a youth pastor more than 30 years ago.

Haggard plunged from the pastorship of the 14,000-member mega-church on Saturday after admitting to a sexual liaison with Jones during meetings with Stockstill and the other three members of the oversight committee.

The other members are the Rev. Michael Ware, pastor of Victory Church in Westminster; the Rev. Tim Ralph, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship in Larkspur; and the Rev. Mark Cowert, pastor of the Church for All Nations in Colorado Springs.

Haggard agreed to accept what the four men decided, and after hearing his explanations, it was unanimously agreed he should be removed from the ministry.

"Discrepancies with his testimony led us to believe he's not ready to pastor a church," Stockstill said.

His "rehabilitation and recovery" will be overseen by James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and a close friend of Haggard's; televangelist Jack Hayford; and the Rev. Tommy Barnett, pastor of a Phoenix mega-church with a special ministry to "the lost and hurting."

Stockstill said the decision to remove Haggard was based on sexual missteps, which the disgraced pastor characterized in his farewell letter as "the darkness . . . which finally dominated me."

It was not based on claims that he bought methamphetamine from Jones or used drugs in his presence.

Haggard told the pastors that pornography is "not a problem in his life." But Stockstill said denial is a major part of sexual addictions.

He said Haggard told the overseers he's had "homosexual urges" over the years, but considers them sexual temptations, not a predisposition toward homosexuality.

"He denies being gay, but that's something clinical psychologists and others working with him will verify," Stockstill said.

Stockstill said Haggard's rehabilitation may take a year or two, but no one anticipates he will return to leadership in New Life Church.

"You don't wave a magic wand and say, 'You're free,' " Stockstill said.

"Ted is going to have to be very careful for the rest of his life. That doesn't mean he won't be in ministry again. We believe he will. Just not here."

Key developments in the Rev. Ted Haggard story

• Haggard confessed to sexual immorality in a letter read by another pastor from the pulpit of New Life Church. In the letter, Haggard also apologized for his acts and asked forgiveness.

• In another letter, Haggard's wife, Gayle, promised to remain by her husband's side but acknowledged she is being tested.

• Church leaders say they do not believe Haggard has been completely honest. They plan polygraphs, psychological evaluations and thorough reviews of his computer, accounts and other records.

• The National Association of Evangelicals, representing 30 million evangelicals, named the Rev. Leith Anderson, senior pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minn., as its interim president. Haggard resigned that post on Thursday.

Excerpts from the letters read at New Life Church on Sunday

FROM TED HAGGARD:

• The fact is, I am guilty of sexual immorality.

• I am a deceiver and a liar. There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it all of my adult life. For extended periods of time, I would enjoy victory and rejoice in freedom. Then, from time to time, the dirt that I thought was gone would resurface, and I would find myself thinking thoughts and experiencing desires that were contrary to everything I believe and teach.

• The public person I was wasn't a lie; it was just incomplete.

• 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 ministry.

• I am a sinner. I have fallen. I desperately need to be forgiven and healed.

• Please forgive my accuser. He is revealing the deception and sensuality that was in my life. Those sins, and others, need to be dealt with harshly. So, forgive him and actually, thank God for him . . . He didn't violate you; I did.

FROM GAYLE HAGGARD:

• What I want you to know is that I love my husband, Ted Haggard, with all my heart. I am committed to him until death "do us part."

• For those of you who have been concerned that my marriage was so perfect I could not 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.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News