PRESIDENTIAL FAITH ADVISER OUTED? Rev. Ted Haggard, pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, is the target of accusations by Mike Jones, a male "escort," that the pastor has been a sexual client of Jones's for the last three years. Haggard belongs to the elite group of right-wing religious leaders party to regular Monday-morning conference calls with President Bush, according to reporter Jeff Sharlet, writing last year in Harper's. As a supporter of the ballot measure for a gay marriage ban, which Colorado voters will decide next week, Haggard's travails have a political taint. 9NEWS of KUSA-TV, the Denver NBC affiliate, reported the accusations last night in an interview with Jones, who told reporter Paula Woodward, according to the 9NEWS Web site, that "he has had a 'sexual business' relationship with Pastor Ted Haggard for the past three years." Jones also alleges drug use by Haggard. 9NEWS reports that reporter Woodward has been talking to Jones for the last two months. Colorado has of course long been a front-line state in the culture wars, particularly on gay issues. Two gay-rights measures will appear on the state's November ballot: one that would grant same-sex couples the right to a civil union, and another that would write a ban on gay marriage into the state constitution.
--Adele M. Stan
