Just a few short years ago, Ted Haggard sat atop the evangelical empire of Colorado Springs, where he was lauded as the nation's most successful megachurch pastor and most politically connected evangelical. Then he had the most public, ridiculed fall from grace since Jim Bakker, a fall made possible not by lying, or cheating on his wife, or even buying drugs. His great, unforgivable transgression? Being gay.
Back in 2004, it was impossible to see any daylight between Haggard's politics and Rick Warren's. They both were cheerleaders for George W. Bush, and both were fixated on the conservative evangelical imperatives of stopping gay marriage and squashing abortion rights. Yet in the four intervening years, during which anyone with an ounce of political acumen realized that continuing to hitch one's wagon exclusively to the Republicans was a recipe for irrelevance, and that making some Democratic friends might be politically beneficial, Haggard crashed and burned. Warren filled the void with some clever and strategic marketing. Voila! He's not so conservative after all.
While it's not evident that Haggard could have been willing or capable of engineering a Warren-esque shift to become Barack Obama's invocator-in-chief, it is a curious question to ponder. Had no scandal upended his pastoral career, would he have chosen a similar path to that taken by Warren? Could he have repackaged himself as a kinder, gentler homophobe, or firmly aligned himself with the NAE's civil-unions-embracing, contraceptives-endorsing Richard Cizik? Suppose he had just decided to admit to being gay, and to continue pastoring, this time in a gay-affirming ministry? That, if anything, might have landed him a second-tier spot at the Lincoln Memorial two days before inauguration, instead of in front of the Capitol for one of the most important moments in American history.
Banished from church work, Haggard now sells insurance, and, according to a Newsweek article previewing an upcoming HBO documentary, he is flailing in his efforts to come to terms with his sexuality. In the documentary, the magazine notes, Haggard "puts himself back on the couch, asking, 'Gay, straight, bisexual-what are you, Ted Haggard?' Perhaps naively he also allows himself to be filmed lovingly sucking an ice pop."
Haggard's sad tale is a case study in the durability of the conservative evangelical obsession with sexuality and sex roles, in spite of a full-bore marketing blitz over the past few years to convince America that the chief evangelical mission is serving as stewards of the environment and champions of the poor. In addition to refusing church membership to "unrepentant gays," Warren maintains his own version of evangelical patriarchy dogma, which requires male "headship" of the family, the basis for, among other things, his edict that abused wives stick with their husbands. Evangelicalism's most manly man, Mark Driscoll, profiled in Sunday's Times Magazine, might find Warren a limp-wristed sissy. But underneath Warren's public persona as a warm-hearted do-gooder is the fundamentalist view of what the Bible says about how men should act: that they can't be gay, and they're in charge of their wives.
2. Is Warren Transparent About His Charity Finances?
Warren and his wife boast on their Web site that "as philanthropists, Rick and Kay Warren give away 90 percent of their income through three foundations: Acts of Mercy, which serves those infected and affected by AIDS; Equipping the Church, which trains church leaders in developing countries; and the Global PEACE Fund, which fights poverty, disease, and illiteracy."
Acts of Mercy, which claims its mission is to advance "the purposes of The Global Peace Fund (GPF)" and "to advance the Christian faith," has had federal tax-exempt status since 2004. But the organization hasn't filed a tax return since 2006, after revealing several years of paying comfortable salaries to the Warrens (they each made $63,750 in 2004, $121,250 in 2005, and Rick made $75,000 in 2006) and spending millions of dollars on activities such as "a trip to the Philippines to meet with government officials in order to help establish relationships and evangelize and assist in the set up of 40 Days of Purpose throughout the government" and "partner[ing] with OAFLA Uganda (Organization of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS) in Abstinence Training Program for Young People in Schools."
But the Global PEACE Fund, which has had federal tax-exempt status since 2004, has yet to file any tax returns that would reveal its finances. And Equipping the Church, the foundation the Warrens say trains leaders in developing countries, has been dissolved under California law and has no federal tax-exempt status. Warren's spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
3. Inaugural Anointing.
In case the blessing of Warren, and then of the Rev. Joseph Lowrey, isn't enough on Inauguration Day, the religious-right adviser to Congress has anointed the Capitol doorway through which Obama will walk before the swearing-in ceremony. The Rev. Rob Schenck of Faith and Action, with his congressional "host," Georgia Republican Paul Broun, and the Christian Defense Coalition's Patrick Mahoney in tow, videotaped the spectacle as they prayed in Jesus Christ's name for Obama to obey God. "We just need to serve the Lord Jesus Christ," said Broun.
4. Lawyers, Gays, and Money in California.
The Alliance Defense Fund, the religious-right legal behemoth that represented the proponents of Proposition 8, has filed suit on behalf of donors to groups that supported the anti-gay-marriage ballot measure, seeking to have California's campaign-finance-disclosure laws declared unconstitutional. The plaintiffs claim that because they were verbally harassed -- and some say they were issued death threats -- allegedly by Proposition 8 opponents, that they should not be compelled to disclose their personal information when contributing to organizations supporting or opposing ballot measures.
If people are being harassed at their homes or offices, or being threatened with death, that's a matter for law enforcement. It's not a reason to subvert laws designed to keep our political system transparent and free of corruption. But the lawsuit fits perfectly with ADF's long-standing agenda: to assert that the rights of LGBT people are inimical to the rights of Christians to exercise their freedom of expression and religion, and that Christians need to be protected from the gays.
5. Harry Reid Fires First Shot in Abortion-Reduction Debate.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has reintroduced Prevention First, a bill that would inject $700 million into preventing unintended pregnancies -- and thus reduce the need for abortion. The bill, which Obama co-sponsored when he was in the Senate and supports as president-elect, would provide affordable contraception for college and low-income women, fully fund Title X, expand Medicaid to provide reproductive-health services to low-income women, provide comprehensive sex education to teenagers, and require equity in insurance coverage for contraception.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council absurdly calls Prevention First "Reid's abortion bailout," as if Planned Parenthood is going to use federal funds for an AIG-style abortion party.
Even Bristol Palin recognizes the virtues of the Obama-Reid approach: teens, she said after the recent birth of her son, "need to prevent pregnancy to begin with."
Contact me at tapthefundamentalist at gmail dot com.