Sunday, February 11, 2007

In the news...

I'm not a big fan on posting about the news, unless it involves Manchester United or the Montreal Canadiens, but this has been building for a while. In fact, I think I've reworded this post about 4 or 5 times. Here it goes...

I am officially sick of hearing about this whole Ted Haggard saga. The final straw was hearing on Jon Stewart the other night (or maybe it was Colbert...either way, it's also been in major news as well, lest I appear like one who relies on Stewart & Colbert for my world news reports) that Haggard is now "completely heterosexual" after 3 weeks in counselling.

Here's a few issues I have...
  1. James Dobson wouldn't agree to help counsel Haggard when this whole thing blew up. the smart-alec in me wants to say, "What?!?! It's too much for you to give 3 weeks to a friend in need?" Come on.

  2. Is it really possible to become "ungay" in 3 weeks? To me this seems to rank up there with every other celebrities attempt at a quick fix (Miss USA, Lindsey Lohan and the guy from "Grey's Anatomy").

  3. All this talk about restoration makes me wonder what restoration really means? Is it just removing someone from leadership, forcing them into counselling and then letting them walk away on their own? Apparently the oversight board recommended that Haggard go into "secular work". Is this restoration?

I don't profess to know all the details of this. Some of these reactions may be of the knee-jerk type, but I can't help but want to shake my head. Is this normal?

1 comment:

Jon Coutts said...

I don't think this is good. I hate the way some Christians abandon their own after a "moral failure". Sure, the guy can't really be a pastor again, his credibility is pretty much destroyed by his hypocrisy. But did Dobson really disown him like that? I guess I should hear this stuff first hand and I'm sure there is more to the story but that is the stuff I can't stand.

Turned heterosexual in three weeks? Does A.A. turn people out and say "healed" and then brush off their hands and move on to the next case? Of course not. I don't know. This guy needs love for his whole life, and it would seem that if the people around him who he loved have disowned them then they have some serious problems.

The most serious hits to my faith in recent years have come not from secular society but from the church of the southern United States that waves the flags of fear and power and claims to love the same Jesus I do.

I guess we all have our problems.