joan garry

I have a lot of strong feelings about Ted Haggard.  I am clear that men like Haggard fan the flames of intolerance.  I wrote about those feelings last week.   Over the weekend I had the chance to see the new HBO documentary, The Trials of Ted Haggard.

I worried that the documentary would be a “Woe is me” portrait of the fallen leader of the New Life Church.    Filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi did offer some of that and frankly, the story of Haggard’s fall evokes a certain compassion towards him.

But in many ways, Haggard was not the star of this documentary.  The star was New Life Church.  The choices the church made define this documentary and are more than a little instructive about the current state of the evangelical movement.

I get firing Ted Haggard.  I get banishing him from a leadership position in the New Life Church.  But kicking him out of the entire state of Colorado?

Put simply by one of the grand poobahs at New Life,  “He needs to disappear.”

That must be the big strategy.   Let’s make ‘em all disappear.

But try though they might, they can’t make us disappear.  Like that arcade game whack-a-mole.  We pesky gay people really are everywhere.   But it’s not just that.  Attitudes are changing.

And the evidence backs me up.  Yesterday on Sunday Morning,  CBS revealed results of a poll conducted with the New York Times on attitude changes in the last thirty years.  Thirty years ago, 54% of Americans believed that homosexuality was wrong.  Today, that number has dwindled to 25%.   We are winning the culture war.

And if that isn’t bad enough, some of these changing attitudes come from within their very own ranks.  Just last month, the lead lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals (the organization Haggard led) “resigned” in the face of criticism for statements he made in an NPR interview.  In response to a question about gay marriage, Cizik made this comment:   “I’m shifting, I have to admit. In other words, I would willingly say I believe in civil unions. I don’t officially support redefining marriage from its traditional definition, I don’t think.”

I need to check and see if he got kicked out of his state.   (at the very least, he should be sent back to soundbite school)

There is a certain air of desperation in all of this. For decades, the evangelicals have relied on the gay community.  They have needed us. We have been the most effective weapon in the culture war and the bad guys who put folks in pews and money in coffers.

It will be most interesting to see how the evangelicals move forward.  The Christian thing to do would be to evolve in some way.  And maybe that will happen.  But in the meantime, it could get even uglier.