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.