Gay Evangelist 'Cured'

Taken from The Age, Australia, Feb 08 2007
By REUTERS

After undergoing three weeks of therapy, the disgraced American evangelist Ted Haggard has told followers he is convinced he is not gay.

Haggard, former senior pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church, was a vocal opponent of gay marriage who fell from grace last November in a high-profile gay sex scandal.

In an email distributed to his parishioners and posted on the New Life website today, Haggard said: "Jesus is starting to put me back together."

Haggard also said he and his wife would leave Colorado and study psychology.

Referring to Haggard's treatment, the Reverend Tim Ralph, a member of the New Life oversight board, told the Denver Post newspaper: "He is completely heterosexual. That is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing."

The newspaper also reported that he had told the church oversight board that his homosexual activities had been limited to the male prostitute who went public with their liaisons.

Haggard resigned as president of the influential National Association of Evangelicals after the male escort made his accusation.

He also left his senior pastor position and said he was guilty of unspecified "sexual immorality".

Members of the oversight board and officials from New Life Church could not be immediately reached for comment.

In his email, Haggard discussed his recent therapy and outlined his future plans.

"As part of New Life's efforts to help me, they sent Gayle and me to Phoenix for a three-week psychological intensive that gave us three years worth of analysis and treatment," he said.

"Gayle and I have decided to move from Colorado Springs to go back to school. ... We are both planning on getting our master's in psychology so we can work together serving others the rest of our lives."

With his chiselled features, wide smile and five children, Haggard had been a poster boy for social conservative causes and the evangelical movement before the scandal.

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While Shaggard tries to re-start his career, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said it was removing from the clergy a gay minister who announced he has a partner. The Rev. Bradley Schmeling, who has led Atlanta's oldest Lutheran church since 2000, will be removed from the roster effective Aug. 15, according to a report from the ELCA's disciplinary committee. Schmeling, who was open about his sexuality when he took the job, announced last year he had found a lifelong companion. Bishop Ronald Warren asked the 44-year-old pastor to resign, but Schmeling refused.