A Message From On High

by tristero

I came across this interesting editorial in The Christian Post on what the National Associations of Evangelicals (NAE) should do now that their president, Ted Haggard, has been exposed as a hypocrite.

First of all, what is the NAE?

The National Association of Evangelicals is a group that is 30-million strong with over 50 years of history. However, in the last few years, its headquarters has moved to an office within Haggard’s New Life Community Church with its staffers fully employed by the church.

Oops.

Most of the editorial consists of practical advice for what the NAE should do now, like move out of Haggard’s megachurch, and elect a temporary president, which assumes they can find a leading christianist who isn’t involved in a sex scandal or batshit crazy like Pat Robertson. Or, like Tim LaHaye, too rich to bother. But I digress.

Sprinkled throughout the editorial, you get lines like these:

…the situation in its entirety is a stark reminder of man’s sinfulness and a dark exposure of how deeply the sin of homosexuality has taken root in the American society. …now would be the time for the Evangelical community look within its own walls and battle against the culture of sin that looms before the Church of Christ…

…fighting more adamantly against the culture of sin…

Get it? It’s the “culture of sin” – that’s liberals to you – that done did in poor Ted Haggard and kicked the 30-million strong NAE in the teabags. (And right around now, if you haven’t been following the American theocracy movement closely, you should be saying to yourself: “A 30 million strong evangelical group! Holy fucking shit!!”)

And then the editorial closes with a common invocation of Jesus, who rules over us sinners. Admittedly, we’re not really supposed to read the words so much as feel the goodness and strength that comes whenever Jesus is mentioned with love. But let’s read it anyway:

After all, no matter how sensationalized the reports and how deep the sin, it is Christ – not Ted Haggard – who is the head of this Church.

If that is so, that “Christ is the head of this Church,” then Christ has just sent his Church – through the travails of Ted Haggard – an unequivocal message to stop bashing and obsessing over gays. And stop forcing them to hide in closets.

Since Haggard before his fall was consumed with making marriage for certain Americans constitutionally illegal, Christ now is telling evangelicals to behave with mercy and grace towards gays, to stop obsessing over the gender of two people who love each other, but to accept them, to love them.

And if I were a member of “this Church,” I’d very much attend to this message Christ has sent our way.

Update: Digby here. Just thought you’d enjoy this from Jerry Falwell. Turns out some of the big boys were already mad at Haggard for calling them out for their anti-Muslim slurs. Also notice that Falwell uses political terms to describe critics such as Haggard:

The fact is that we, as Christian leaders, do have a biblically-ordained responsibility to reach out with the Gospel of Christ to all people, including Muslims. This is not a popular concept with many on the left. But our responsibility is to Christ, and not our earthly critics, as we strive to do His will.

I suspect Haggard is going to become the poster boy for the (liberal) “culture of sin.”

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