Disgraced pastor Ted Haggard Accused by Congregants of Sexually Inappropriate Behavior
Pastor Ted Haggard, 66, used to have it all. He was the pastor of the 14,000-member megachurch New Life Church in Colorado Springs, a best-selling author of over a dozen books, and the president of the National Association of Evangelicals. A prominent conservative, if anyone in the media ever wanted a soundbite, they’d go to him.
Then in 2006, a male prostitute named Mike Jones came forward alleging that Haggard had been paying him for gay sex and crystal meth for years.
While Haggard initially denied it, after voicemails emerged, he admitted that he did buy methamphetamine from Jones but says he never used it. He continued to deny the claims of gay sex, but then his church overseer board announced that “Our investigation and Pastor Haggard’s public statements have proven without a doubt that he has committed sexually immoral conduct.” At this point, Haggard finally relented and confessed that Jones had masturbated him, but still denied they had ‘intercourse’.
Shortly after, another young man from his church came forward claiming that Haggard had masturbated in front of him. Haggard admitted to this, and the church paid the young man nearly $200,000 in counseling and tuition. This was enough and Haggard was kicked out of the church.
After his fall, he did what most disgraced pastors do: start a new church and get back into ministry. He started St. James church in 2010 and has been teaching and pastoring there ever since, in relative obscurity. Then in 2020, his world was blown up again.
Rev. Kirk “Seth” Sethman, a pastor who was ordained at St James in 2012 but who has since resigned, says that Haggard has still continued making sexually suggestive advances toward young men in the church. Two people came forward alleging that that their pastor was touching them in ways that made them feel uncomfortable. In a recorded statement, one teen alleged, in a story reported by the Denver Gazette:
“Sometimes when he touches me, it feels very predatorial and very strange. He’ll touch me on my pecs or my back or hug me in a way that I’m sliding up his hip or the side of his thigh or his bum. You can kind of tell it’s weird…. There’s a lot of highly suspicious things that he does, and you’re like, ‘that doesn’t seem or feel normal.’”
They also report: “In their recorded statements, the two young males speak of Haggard taking teens and young men four-wheeling without shirts and their chests muddied, and of a propensity to come in contact with their bodies beyond a typical shoulder squeeze.”
There are no criminal investigations into this incident, nor has Haggard been charged with anything. Still, it has greatly battered his church. Attendance has dropped precipitously, and as the result of these allegations, Haggard sold the church building a few months ago for nearly $2M dollars and rebranded the church as ‘Storyhouse Church’, a house church that now meets at his dwelling and has between 40-60 people, afar cry from both his earlier endeavors.
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Regardless of Haggard’s past and regardless of anything unless there’s some type of direct accusation or claim this kind of subjective interpretation should not even be repeated. Anything can feel creepy to anyone which is how you unfairly injure other parties
Hang it up Ted. Go sell life insurance.
AlexG…. 😄 hahahahaha
Maybe Steven Anderson is right about people like Haggard.