Haggard Accuser fails lie detector
Colorado Springs - As a church-appointed board met privately Friday to investigate the Rev. Ted Haggard, the embattled evangelical leader admitted to reporters that he bought methamphetamine from a male prostitute but denied ever using the drug or having sex with him.
A church official said Saturday Haggard has left Colorado Springs to escape the media glare and spend time with his family.
Haggard said he had called Michael Forest Jones, a gay bodybuilder who claims he had a three-year, sex-for-pay arrangement with Haggard, but Haggard said he had called to buy drugs.
"I did call him," Haggard told 9News Friday as he drove away from his Colorado Springs house. "I called him to buy some meth, but I threw it away.
I was buying it for me, but I never used it," he said.
He also denied having sex with Jones. He said he had received a referral at a hotel for a massage with Jones, but he did not say which hotel.
Haggard also commented on a polygraph test administrator's finding that Jones' answers to questions about sex with Haggard had been "deceptive" during a lie-detector test Friday.
"We're so grateful that he failed a polygraph test this morning, my accuser did," Haggard told 9News. Jones was not asked about drugs during the test.
In an interview with The Denver Post, Jones responded that Haggard should come clean, admit the affair and move on with his life.
"This is ridiculous," Jones said. "Yesterday, he didn't even know me. Today, he admits buying meth but never using it. Who's more credible?"
On Friday, the executive committee of the National Association of Evangelicals met by teleconference and unanimously accepted Haggard's resignation as president of the organization.
Haggard met for several hours Thursday and then again Friday with New Life Church's board of overseers, a panel of Haggard's peers from other congregations who
have the authority to discipline the senior pastor, remove him from his post or restore him to ministry, said Rob Brendle, an associate pastor at the church.
On Saturday, the board was to provide an update to the church's senior staff, which throughout the past 48 hours had not been privy to some of Haggard's admissions until learning of them from the media.
In fact, New Life's administrative pastor, Lance Coles, first heard Haggard's comments about meth on the Internet.
Coles said that he believed Haggard was being truthful in the interview and that if Haggard had used meth, he surely would have exhibited the signs.
"I know who he is at its core," Coles said. "I think in his zeal to love and serve people, he committed himself to so many noble causes that it brought him to a point of weakness that we're seeing exposed."
The oversight group is composed of three Colorado pastors and is led by a Louisiana pastor, Larry Stockstill. He is from the congregation where Haggard worked as a youth pastor more than two decades ago - before, Haggard has explained, he had a vision while camping and fasting on Pikes Peak that caused him to start New Life Church in his basement.
Brendle said the board will "primarily work with Ted," and he didn't know whether Jones would be contacted.
"As Christians, we are never surprised at sin," Brendle said. "Ted has been a mentor and a good friend. I am committed to standing by him and his family. It is a sad time, but I am committed to serving New Life Church and our community. I believe with all my heart our best days are ahead.
"We believe New Life Church is not a man or a building," Brendle said. "It's a community of people who together have a strong and time-tested relationship that will endure and grow."
A message from Haggard - most likely via video - is expected to be aired at services Sunday at New Life Church's $18 million, 7,500-seat sanctuary, the largest worship space in Colorado. Haggard, his wife and five children are expected to leave town this weekend so Haggard can work on family issues, Brendle said.
Services are expected to be led Sunday by interim senior pastor Ross Parsley, a veteran of the New Life leadership team, and also include an address from Stockstill.
When asked his reaction to Haggard's claim that he threw the meth away, Jones scoffed, "It's just like Clinton, who said he didn't inhale."
Jones said Haggard didn't use meth the first year of their meetings but started taking it about two years ago. He said Haggard snorted the meth every time they had sex.
After Jones made the alleged affair public, skeptics began to doubt the story, particularly after Haggard told a television news crew that night that he never had sex with Jones and had always remained faithful to his wife, Gayle.
So Jones on Friday submitted to a lie-detector test. On Peter Boyles' talk show on KHOW radio, test administrator John Kresnik characterized Jones' answers about sex as "deceptive." Jones wasn't asked about drugs.
Kresnik said he discounted the test results because of Jones' stress and lack of eating or sleeping. Jones said he doubted he will retake the test.
"I've made my point," Jones said. "He's the one who has discredited himself. He should admit it and move on."
Jones said he learned how influential and prominent Haggard was when he saw him on the History Channel.
"I got really angry about it," he said. "I owed it to the gay community because of the hypocrisy we put up with from the religious right. He's up there preaching to millions that gays shouldn't be allowed to marry while he's running around behind his wife's back having sex with a gay man."
Also on Friday, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson released a statement about the accusations, and Haggard's admissions.
"All of us at Focus on the Family are heartsick over the allegation, not yet confirmed, that Ted has had a private life with a homosexual for several years. We will await the outcome of this story, but the possibility that an illicit relationship has occurred is alarming to us and to millions of others," the statement read.
It went on to say: "Ted has been my close friend and colleague for many years. ... He will continue to be my friend even if the worst allegations prove accurate. Nevertheless sexual sin, whether heterosexual or homosexual, has serious consequences and we are extremely concerned for Ted, his family and his church."
In a news briefing Friday, White House spokesman Tony Fratto confirmed that Haggard had been to the White House several times but said the allegations shouldn't affect how other evangelicals will vote in Tuesday's election.
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Originally Posted by Tock
Then we'll be treated to another one of his relapses, and then who knows what . . .
