Ted Haggard apologizes to gay community, but then states that it's stll not "okay".
I just stumbled across this article bearing the subheading "Former New Life Pastor Says He Is a Failure, Tells Gay Community He Is 'Deeply Sorry'"
My immediate reaction was, "oh my God", but then I got to this part on page two -Haggard regrets having railed against homosexuality in his sermons and now hopes to make amends with the gay community. "I do apologize. All the pain, all the rejection, all the hurt I caused to those men and women, gay and lesbian," he said. "I am deeply sorry for the attitude I had. But I think I was partially so vehement because of my own war."
He's quick to say that being gay still isn't OK, but that the church needs to be more realistic and "serve people in need" rather than dictating to them, or punishing them.
Nice in it's own right, I SUPPOSE, but on the whole I am disappointed.
Recently there seems to be a fair amount of talk about how the Christian Right (or sometimes conservatism/the Republican Party in general) will need to 'evolve' on the issue of homosexuality in the coming years in order to not be deemed irrelevant. Certainly we've seen it happen before historically, as the social conservatism of today is, on the whole, quite progressive when compared to the social conservatism of eras past. I guess my curiosity at this point is whether or not we foresee the Christian Right changing it's tune to what Haggard suggested, that is instead of damning gay people reaching out to them as "people in need". Personally, I find this approach little more than homophobia masked in the a think veneer of love. At the end of the day homosexuality is still wrong and gay people are still pathologized. As far as Haggard goes, I guess it's nice that he publicly apologized, but I feel like he still has a long way to go.
My immediate reaction was, "oh my God", but then I got to this part on page two -Haggard regrets having railed against homosexuality in his sermons and now hopes to make amends with the gay community. "I do apologize. All the pain, all the rejection, all the hurt I caused to those men and women, gay and lesbian," he said. "I am deeply sorry for the attitude I had. But I think I was partially so vehement because of my own war."
He's quick to say that being gay still isn't OK, but that the church needs to be more realistic and "serve people in need" rather than dictating to them, or punishing them.
Nice in it's own right, I SUPPOSE, but on the whole I am disappointed.
Recently there seems to be a fair amount of talk about how the Christian Right (or sometimes conservatism/the Republican Party in general) will need to 'evolve' on the issue of homosexuality in the coming years in order to not be deemed irrelevant. Certainly we've seen it happen before historically, as the social conservatism of today is, on the whole, quite progressive when compared to the social conservatism of eras past. I guess my curiosity at this point is whether or not we foresee the Christian Right changing it's tune to what Haggard suggested, that is instead of damning gay people reaching out to them as "people in need". Personally, I find this approach little more than homophobia masked in the a think veneer of love. At the end of the day homosexuality is still wrong and gay people are still pathologized. As far as Haggard goes, I guess it's nice that he publicly apologized, but I feel like he still has a long way to go.