Train Others To Blind Themselves, And They're Still Surprised When You Lie To Them

[nemorathwald]

There is a deeper lesson that I see in the story of mega-church pastor Ted Haggard. John Scalzi took the insight almost all the way on his blog, and stopped just short. Ted Haggard said this:

"The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality. And I take responsibility for the entire problem. I am a deceiver and a liar. There's a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life," [Haggard} said.

John Scalzi commented in his blog:

I think the implication here is that the "dark and repulsive" part of Haggard's life is his desire for men; I, on the other hand, would venture to say that the dark and repulsive part of his life was that his own fear of that part of who he is caused him to punish, in his words and his deeds, at the pulpit and beyond it, those who did not reject that same part of themselves.

An excellent point. But I would add something. A pastor spent his whole life lying to himself by faith, admitting to everyone proudly that he was doing so, calling it a virtue, and making a career of unabashedly training others in the same life of reality denial. His congregation was surprised when he turned out to be (in his own words) a "deceiver and a liar". *gasp* What? Say it ain't so! From a newspaper article:

Haggard's statements to the press and to the board were inconsistent, which Stockstill said was an indication Haggard was "out of touch with truth and reality."

Why is anyone surprised? Am I the only one who sees the connection? Religious faith ought to have a far more serious problem with the perception of its credibility than it does. Here's the bumper-sticker version: It's not the stuff evangelicals are ashamed of that bothers me. It's what they like about themselves that I mind.

Comments

[flutterby68.livejournal.com]

Religion itself, particularly the fundamentalist blinders-firmly-intact sort, has a serious credibility problem.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

It's just too bad the public all too often sees the problem as the institution of religion, the people in it, or the leaders. They say it's been implemented wrong. They often don't seem to notice it's the teaching and mental practice of faith itself.

[flutterby68.livejournal.com]

Faith is one thing I've never had. It's just not in me to believe blindly in something that cannot be proven via fact and logic. To me, by definition, "faith" is not logical. Add to that the complete "do as I say, not as I do" rationalization of the religious leaders, and it tears at the logic of faith even more.

I was raised catholic, and remember much of the rhetoric - more than I want to, really. But when asked if I currently read the bible, I often respond with "I don't like historical fiction." To me, the bible and everything in it is written by MAN, which makes it not only subject to interpretation, but also subject to the writers' own blinders, superstition and biases.

That hurts the credibility factor even more.

[dbvanhorn.livejournal.com]

Agreed. "We'll tell you what to think" seems to be the operative principle behind most religions. We've been attending the local Unitarian Universalist church, which is different. They give you things to think about. :) Also GLBT and Poly friendly.


Apparently he's from here too..
Muncie Star press article clip follows

Yorktown ties
Haggard moved with his parents and siblings in 1969 from Delphi, in western Indiana, to the Yorktown area, where his father operated a veterinary clinic (still in operation under different owners) at Kilgore Avenue and Nebo Road.

Ted Haggard graduated from Yorktown High School in 1974.

His father, J. Marcus Haggard, was featured in one of the episodes of the Middletown series, aired on PBS in 1982, that updated sociological studies of Muncie conducted decades earlier.

The episode -- titled Community of Praise -- touched not on J. Marcus Haggard's work as a veterinarian (his son's Web site also reports he was a creator of Gaines Burgers), but on his ministry, through his founding of the local Church of the Branches and reported faith healing.

In one scene, the elder Haggard is shown attempting to cure a teenager of scoliosis through prayer.

J. Marcus Haggard died at age 58 of a heart attack during a trip to New York City not long after the Middletown series aired in 1982.

Newspaper accounts indicate his son, Ted -- by then a minister in Baton Rouge, La. -- returned to Yorktown to preside over his father's funeral. (The evangelist's Web site reports his career as a minister began at Yorktown Baptist Church.)

The Haggard family was in the news again in 1987, when the evangelist's brother, Timothy, at the time an Albany pharmacist, was convicted of attempted murder in connection with a knife attack on his estranged wife in the couple's northwest Muncie home.

Timothy Haggard, 31 at the time of his conviction, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by then-Delaware Circuit Court Judge Steven Caldemeyer. In 1995, however, Caldemeyer agreed to suspend the remainder of the sentence.

[uplinktruck.livejournal.com]

It's a shame he had to hide what he was to follow his religion. Sounds like a very confused man.

[zifferent.livejournal.com]

I don't see it as possible to take one man's set of values and virtues, extract them and plop them down within another person's points of view and framework. To do so ensures that there will be several disconnects and illogicalities.

You passing judgment on this man for being religious while he eschews his homosexual side only highlights the disconnect.

From his point of view reality is much different, and I feel to judge him you have to do so from his perspective. A point of view that which I'm sure you're more than familiar even if you find it distasteful.

To do otherwise is disingenuous at best.

I can't fault him for his beliefs even if I feel that his energies would be better spent fighting for acceptance of gays within the religious context.

One final disconnected question I have about "sinning" religious leaders is, short of criminal behavior, why do we expect them to be perfect and sinless? I would expect them to exhibit the same anti-social behaviors that are seen in the general public in similar numbers. They are people after all.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

I don't expect him to be sinless. That's the point, the Ted Haggard scandal doesn't make me mad about what Ted Haggard did, it makes me mad at the teaching of faith. He's just a symptom of faith, because one can't be that hostile to truth and alienated from one's own brain without split-personality consequences like this. Pastor Haggard isn't the problem. His teachings are the problem. He isn't a "bad apple".

[zifferent.livejournal.com]

I see. You're pointing out the kind of disconnect that can arise from being faithful and a sinner, and then taking aim at his faith as the crux of the problem.

[zifferent.livejournal.com]

Note: In this case when I use the term sinner, I mean something that goes against any particular individual's set of morals. In this case, Ted Haggerd's principles.

Not sin as in "The 10 Commandments", although in this case both overlap.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

I was not referring to "faithfulness." I was referring to "faith" as a truth-finding method. The behavior of Ted Haggard I was pointing out was not having an affair or taking methamphetamines. It was lying and hypocrisy.

First of all, lying. Faith gets dressed up as a lot of things by a lot of different Christians, but in the end it all comes down to believing without evidence, which is a lie. So Haggard's lies were just an extension of lying to his congregation for a living.

The second thing is the double standard. If it's OK to believe in the bible by faith, I would ask Ted Haggard why he would accuse Richard Dawkins of believing in evolution by faith, as if he disapproves of faith. When I was a Christian I asked myself, "Why is faith an acceptable truth-finding method for me, but when another religion does it, I tell them they're wrong?" So Haggard's hypocrisy was just an extension of the hypocrisy of believing by faith. That method of truth-finding is an unfair double standard.