PASTOR TED HAGGARD RESIGNS

Ted Haggard resigns.

The leader of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals, a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage, resigned Thursday after being accused of paying for sex with a man in monthly trysts over the past three years.

I take no pleasure, never have, in any other person's misfortunes. The most important reason why I've always been fanatical about forgiving others is that my faith teaches that if we don't forgive, we won't be forgiven, and on a daily basis I commit sins of commission or omission that need forgiving. In that light, I also have to confess that my anger over various political events requires me to ask God for forgiveness, and offer forgiveness to the perpetrators, multiple times daily.

So I don't rejoice that "evangelical" gay-basher Ted Haggard is suffering embarrassment, exposure (? his so-called lover's allegations haven't been proven yet) and ignominy.

But I'm sick and tired of projection, the practice of people attacking others for the very "faults" or "sins" that they themselves harbor. It's hypocritical, and it's endemic in the U.S. today. And there are just so many right-wing "Christian" evangelicals that have sexual feelings for their own gender but are terrified of being exposed for them, demonizing gay Americans in an attempt to -- I don't know, make themselves feel more righteous, or appear more righteous? Every one of them knows that God knows all, so who are they trying to fool? The obvious answer is, their fellow man. And to what purpose? Personal enrichment? The approval of their fellows?

I just don't get it. How can any professing Christian practice a religion of attack, demean, and exclude? It is so antithetical to the teachings of Christ that I can't account for it.

Tags: Ted Haggard