Three to oversee

Fellow evangelicals will direct Haggard in his rehab program

Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 7, 2006 at midnight

Text size

More Local News

Ted Haggard, whose admission of "sexual immorality" has cost him his ranking as one of the world's most powerful evangelicals, will submit to polygraphs and psychological scrutiny at the direction of three men he once considered his equals.

Church bylaws that Haggard himself created at his New Life Church in Colorado Springs are now being used to form an unprecedented committee to oversee his recovery. Haggard's downfall began last week, when a male prostitute revealed details of a relationship with the 50-year-old pastor, who is a husband and father of five.

The three men overseeing Haggard's recovery are:

• The Rev. Jack Hayford, a California Pentecostal pastor who's written 40 books, founded a seminary and numerous churches, and believes in speaking in tongues.

• The Rev. Tommy Barnett, of Phoenix, has founded nearly 250 ministries, and he pastors a church of 15,000.

• James Dobson is trained as a child psychologist but is best known as founder of Focus on the Family, the worldwide Christian media empire that's made him a political force for delivering conservative Christian votes.

In his radio address Monday, Dobson said Haggard will always be his friend, "but because homosexual indiscretions have occurred, they must be dealt with and they will be."

The Rev. Michael Ware, one of the church overseers who helped recruit the three men, said Monday, "We felt like we needed to find the leading spiritual leaders in America, people that America, the church and evangelicals could trust."

Ware said the church's overseers went to Haggard's Colorado Springs home Sunday night after a history-making day, in which the pastor wrote a letter to his 14,000-member congregation that confessed "there is a part of my life that is repulsive and dark."

Ware is pastor of Victory Church in Westminster. The other New Life Church overseers are the Rev. Tim Ralph, of Larkspur, the Rev. Mark Cowert, of Colorado Springs, and the Rev. Larry Stockstill, of Baton Rouge, La.

"He looked us in the eye and said, 'I want you men to know I'm going to do this right. I want the world to see this can be done right. I know I've messed up, but I'm going to do this right, and I thank you for what you've done for my life,' " Ware recalled Monday.

Haggard is expected to take a few days of "family time" before beginning a process that the overseers estimate could take up to two years.

The form of the recovery period isn't known yet, but the men plan to get Haggard into a program with psychologists and church experts on sexual issues.

On Sunday, Stockstill told reporters that they believe Haggard is still "not in touch with truth and reality" and they feel he is still being deceptive about the extent of his problems.

"I can assure you this process is not going to be a slap on the hand, three prayers and go back to ministry," Ware said. "They will be seeking the depths of where Pastor Haggard is."

The men who will minister

• The Rev. Jack Hayford, Pentecostal minister in Los Angeles

Born: Los Angeles

Age: 71

Career highlights: Pastor and founder of Living Way Ministries, also president of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, a denomination of 5 million, with 38,000 churches in 136 nations.

Family: Wife, Anna (Smith) Hayford, four children and 11 grandchildren.

• The Rev. Tommy Barnett, Assemblies of God minister in Phoenix

Born: Kansas City

Age: about 70

Career highlights: Senior pastor at Phoenix First Assembly of God, a 15,000-member church; founder of hundreds of inner-city ministries including a much imitated prototype, the Los Angeles Dream Center

Family: Wife, Marja, three children, seven grandchildren.

• James Dobson, leader of Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs

Born: Shreveport, La.

Age: 70

Career highlights: A child psychologist by training, he founded Focus, which now has a radio audience of 5 million, heard on 2,300 stations in the United States and 70 other countries; author of 35 books; influential conservative political adviser.

Family: Wife, Shirley, two children.

Pronouncements on gays

"Homosexuals are not monogamous. They want to destroy the institution of marriage."

James Dobson, stumping for Oklahoma U.S. Senate candidate Tom Coburn in October 2004

"Today, we are witnessing at pervasive and disturbing dimensions the absorption of homosexuality, masturbation and oral sex into our culture, stamped with society's seal of approval. . . . My remarks presume an understanding that homosexual behavior is not intended for humankind, nor is it biblically supported."

Jack Hayford, from his book, The Anatomy of Seduction

Dobson on 'moral failure'

"One of the most influential ministers in the entire evangelical church, Rev. Ted Haggard . . . has experienced a moral failure. . . . He is my brother. He is my friend. I said through the press release that he will always be my friend. But because homosexual indiscretions have occurred, they must be dealt with, and they will be."

James Dobson, Focus on the Family founder, on his Monday radio broadcast

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News