Haggard’s profiteering escort
March 21, 2007
So, now the righteous escort is trying to sell the massage table upon which he gave Ted Haggard “massages.” Thankfully, the grown-ups at Ebay stepped in and told Mr. Mike Jones, Escort to find a real job. This guy is shamelessly perpetuating this political drama and it is entirely self-serving. He is writing a tell-all book and has appeared on every major cable news channel to discuss how Ted was in bed. Give him credit: he knows how to handle the media. He gives us just enough to want a little more. And if this were pure entertainment and not a tragic episode in which the life of a man, his family, and a congregation were compromised, then I might be willing to play along.
However, Mr. Haggard’s children are going to have to live in this whirlwind and I don’t think any of us will be lessened by not knowing the intimate details of his infidelity. I don’t need to know whether he smoked the meth or injected it. Is there no sympathy for the difficulties so many LGBT Christians face when they grow up in a culture and church which does not know how to honestly deal with their reality? Maybe Mr. Haggard followed visions of a church to the mountains of Colorado and tried to overcome his defect by being the “best little boy in the world.” It’s a familiar story. And as queer people we should not misconstrue the outrage towards Haggard as an allegiance to our cause: it is the same outrage that Oprah marshals towards men on the “down-low” who compromise the health of their wives. It is a mix of loathing for homosexuality mixed with the self-righteous desire to feel morally superior to others e.g. the Jerry Springer phenomenon. We may stand with the vast majority of Americans on condemning Ted Haggard but many of these folks will not stand with us.
So for Mr. Haggard, I’d say let’s not return the favor. Let’s extend some grace that wasn’t extended to us. Thankfully, I wasn’t born into his world– but I could have been–and I’m not so certain that I (or most of us) wouldn’t have done what he did.
I’m interested in what others think?
Posted by MATT 
Posted in Pop Culture, Posts by Matt, The Church
March 21st, 2007 at 5:23 pm
I agree with what you have to say re: the escort should shut it, and re: the Haggard family deserves to handle its problems in private. I don’t really buy causal relationship you seem to want to draw between the two, but that’s OK.
But mainly, I’m not about to pull too many favors for Pastor Ted. His cirumstance was difficult, to be sure. But dedicating one’s life to (among other things, of course) the spread of fear and hatred toward gays is hardly being the best little boy in the world. There are enough examples of people born into his world who were strong and smart enough to chose better paths that I don’t hold much aprehension toward condemning him as the arbiter of the kinds of loathing you describe in your post. At every turn in the road, Ted had a choice. He chose again and again to be a vehicle for the perpetuation of loathing. As such, you’ve defended him more than I ever will.