Have some compassion... jerk @$$!!

Despite the somewhat humorous nature of the title for this blog, it is going to be a fairly serious one. Recently, for those of you who live in Colorado, or more specifically Colorado Springs (which I have come to affectionately [sarcasm! sarcasm!] dub "Conservachritsown"), the big news around the place has been that of Ted Haggard the pastor of New Life Church and his not anymore secret life. For those who do not know, about a week ago, word broke that Mr. Haggard, who also was the head of the National Evangelical Association, had been not only engaging in a homosexual affair with a male prostitute, but doing meth as well. While how much of the story is true is still somewhat in the air, it's pretty clear that at least most of it if not all is true. Accusations arose that it was entirely politically driven because this last Tuesday two issues came to the Colorado voters, one that would define marriage as a union between one man and one woman (Amendment 43) and one that would grant Domestic Partnerships to same-sex couples (Referendum I). 43 passed, I did not. Mr. Haggard was a staunch defender of 43, so of course one of the first ideas was, "Those dirty homosexuals are just trying to defame our cause!" While I don't know of anyone that would actually say such a ridiculous and hateful thing, the idea is similar. Obviously, if that were the intention, it failed. So, where am I going with this?

I, being very tired of much of the modern American church (re: Christian right), originally had a somewhat "Yea! F* the system!" attitude when I heard. There was little, to no compassion for a man who pastored a church that I never felt at home at and disagreed with on several theological and political levels. Something began to stir in me, however. I am now at the point, thanks to some very insightful friends and a few other resources, feeling a sense of compassion for the man. For his family. For his church. For all of us really. I have come to the "realization" that Mr. Haggard is a hurt and broken man. For this, he deserves not only my sympathy, but also my prayer. While I can not say I support him, I can say that as someone whom I have to take as his word that he is a brother in Christ, he is in my prayers. I hope that God would use this experience to soften his heart, to transform his mind and to usher him into a newfound awareness and understanding of the Divine. I pray that his family would be brought through this stronger than ever. I pray for healing. What I am trying to get at is this; I think it is time to show the man and the world, what Christ would do. What Christ has done. I can't say I will ever call Mr. Ted Haggard a friend, a positive influence, an intelligent thinker, or a roel model. I can say that my heart goes out to him and his family. I hope they heal.

Now that I am through that, I have another thing to comment on related to both the events of New Life and the election this past week in Colorado. For those of you who have read my blog before, I wrote last time about how there has been created a "leper" class in our society, that being those who are homosexuals. All the legislation, the hate speak and the non-hate, hate speak that has been levied at the homosexual community in our country by the Conservative Christian right has indeed created social outcasts. Those who are simply reviled and shunned and not cared for in the way they should be. Perhaps, the reason why Mr. Haggard went as far as he did (which I will remind I have no way of knowing) is because there has been such an outpouring of contempt for people who are homosexuals that he felt there was no way he could ever tell anyone about his private sin, his inner struggle. To quote a friend; "What's worse? The fact that Haggard may be a bi/homosexual or that the pharisaic politics that Christ never endorsed were so restrictive to Haggard that it drove him to a most likely problematic pathological means of experimentation?" I will leave it at that.

Amendment 43 passed and will be a part of the Colorado Constitution. This Amendment, while being totally unnecessary (it is already in the constitution that marriage is between one man and one woman) also fuels this shunning. The Amendment was created, most likely, to counteract Referendum I and it appears that is has accomplished it's goal. The utter bullshit that is fed to us about needing to "save marriage!" by keeping the homosexuals from marrying is completely wrong. We live in a society that has a 50% divorce rate and those who would call themselves Christians are right up there. My last recollection of an actual percentage taken of those of the more evangelical mindset was something like 48% percent. If marriage needs saving, it needs to be saved from us! We have done a horrible job in keeping whatever sanctity there may be in marriage by splitting up families, turning divorcees into alcoholics, making adultery seem almost passé, and causing children to hate one parent over another. Wake up! No law set in the books is going to save marriage, only a change of the mind and heart. No law is going to cause someone who is gay to wake up and say, "Oh wow! The state says I can't get married because I'm gay. I guess I'm straight now." What this entire legislature about trying to ban gay marriage, domestic partnerships, civil unions, whatever, says is that the Christians have no compassion for us and wish we were dead. For the Christian church to send that sort of message is one of the most horrible things to have happened to the American church. It is time to wake up and realize that the human heart does not operate in "laws." It is time to send a message of the love, forgiveness and grace that can be found in Jesus. To gays. To lesbians. To transgenders. To Ted Haggard. To everyone. It is time to do it, not by laws and regulations written and enforced by a human government, but to do it in the way Christ would. Here is where I give you the answer, right? Wrong.

I do not know the answer to how we should do this. I will admit, the means by which we, as a body of believers, should go about trying to "fix the problem" of homosexuality in our country escapes me. All I know is that the laws won't work. All I know is that there is a group of people out there that are in desperate need of compassion. There are people out there going through the same thing as Ted Haggard who can't come out because they are afraid of the backlash that will befall them. All I know is that a new "strategy" is needed. A new way to look at the issue. A new way to show compassion. And I will leave you with that.