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

[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.