Ted Haggard on the cover of the new Advocate

When speaking to reporters about the establishment of his new church, St. James, an embattled Ted Haggard noted that congregants “gay, straight, bit, tall, short, where you’re an addict, a recovering addict, or you have an addict in your family” have a home there. The Advocate’s Andrew Harmon now visits Haggard and the St. James Church, examining the evolution of a man and ministry.

Haggard’s a fall from grace came in 2006 when, as head of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., he denied any involvement with Mike Jones, then a gay escort in Denver, who now works as a nursing assistant. Reinvention after a public sex scandal is a tough road, and Haggard has already begun making his way. His church now consists of a few hundred people, including some who are openly gay.

And, like President Obama’s, his view of marriage equality seems to be “evolving.” Back in 2006, Haggard supported Colorado’s Proposition 43, which banned gay marriage under the state constitution, although he supported a failed proposition that would have granted domestic-partnership rights to gays and lesbians.

Now Haggard wants to be clear: He supports civil marriage rights for gay couples. “The word marriage is a big deal to people of faith,” he tells The Advocate. “We’ve made it sacred. That’s why I believe that churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples should have total freedom to have whatever types of unions they believe as godly.”

Haggard also renounces the evangelical powers that be, those who he always thought were out to get him. “They’ll always think I’m a closet homosexual. And they hate homosexuals, that crew,” he says. “The number 1 way they can raise funds is not to encourage people to be more loving, not to encourage people to be less greedy, or to encourage people to be more kind. It’s to say there’s a homosexual agenda to siege America, and fund us so we can battle this agenda, to save the family.”

Jones, the man who brought Haggard down, still has plenty to say as well. When he tried to tell his story on Oprah, the show’s producers told him he was irrelevant. “When my world was collapsing, when the media was knocking at my door, I really felt abandoned by the gay community,” Jones says, adding that he’s not looking for any pity. “I have fought for gay rights all my adult life. People said I did this for the money. What money? I’ve been dirt-poor since this happened. I regret I ever said anything. It has simply not been worth it.”

Ted Haggard's at it again

And by "it" I mean starting up churches.

Ted Haggard and wife Gayle to appear on 'Divorce Court'

Ted Haggard and his wife Gayle are now going on 'Divorce Court' to talk about how strong their marraige is. Geez. These people just can't get enough of the cameras. I used to feel sorry for Gayle Haggard, but she's just eating this up. She may still be fooling herself that her marriage is anything but a sham, or she may know the truth and just hope to get her 15 minutes of fame before Ted runs off with the pool boy.

Either way, in my mind she's now officially gone from an object of pity to an object of scorn.

It just boggles the mind.

'Divorce Court'? Really?!

Geez.

Gross

Here's the latest Ted Haggard/New Life Church grossness from Gay City News.

I don't know what therapists Ted Haggard is going to, but they're not doing him any favors. I'd be interested to see what the American Psychological Association or the American Psychiatric Association thought about their diagnoses: "a heterosexual with homosexual attachments" and "a heterosexual with complications." How about "a homosexual or bisexual man who can't deal with his sexuality"? It would be a truer diagnosis, and then, finally, he could start getting some real help.

news.aol.com/article/sex-allegations-true-haggard-tells-cnn/323450?icid=200100397x1217129321x1201198958

News Flash! Ted Haggard lied

Of course.

What hasn't he lied about?

Did he really think we believed him when he said he bought meth but didn't use it?

About as much as we believed Clinton when he said he didn't inhale.

Maybe his wife fell for that, but she seems to fall for a lot of stuff.

Cut her loose, Ted.

If you feel anything for the poor woman at all, cut her loose.

And think of your kids for a change.

Do you think they like seeing their dad on Oprah and in some HBO movie talking about his sordid sex life and drug use?

Ted Haggard on HBO tomorrow - blah, blah, blah

Still don't have your Haggard fix yet? The documentary about him airs on HBO on Thursday. Rocky Mountain News' Mike Pearson calls it an "opening argument for redemption."

But that was before all this new stuff became public knowledge.

Ted Haggard's wife speaks out

And she's going to break her silence on today's 'Oprah'.

Perfect timing.

It just so happened I was considering the strange case of Ted Haggard's wife in the shower this morning.

I'm a very deep thinker in the shower.

Basically I was thinking about all the press and all the attention and everything we've heard from the major players in the Ted Haggard gay sex scandal and realizing that, in all this time, we've never heard a peep from her.

It seems to me that there are three kinds of people who would stay with a man like Ted Haggard after all of this:

1. A person who is utterly oppressed by her faith and the teachings of her church. I feel sorry for a person like that.

2. A person who is so in love with her partner and so committed to her relationship that she is just going to tough it out come what may. I can respect a person like that.

3. A woman who is so in love with the wealth, material trappings, and/or fame that come with being one of the most popular and famous evangelicals in the world that she just can't bear to give up the lifestyle. I'm disgusted by a person like that.

I kinda felt sorry for Gayle Haggard for a while, but now I don't. She claims to have known all along about her husband's "struggle" with "thoughts," and she thought she could pray him out of it. Not only that, but she was "shocked" to find out that he had acted on his desires. She set herself up as much as Haggard set her up. Keep praying, Gayle, 'cuz it ain't over till it's over, and it ain't over yet.

And don't get me started on that new guy - the one that took money to keep quiet about his shenanigans with Haggard.

If I got paid for every relationship I had that turned sour I'd be first of all, rich, and second, a whore.

More gay sex allegations for Haggard

I bet this is just the tip of the iceberg.

There are probably more guys out there and maybe they will eventually come forward.

But the sad part is that the New Life Church, and Focus on the Family, which is so closely associated with it, will not learn anything from this.

They won't learn that you can't just pray away your sexual orientation.

They won't learn that hiding or denying who you are is damaging to a lot more people than just the person in denial.

And they won't learn that the only way to prevent this damage is to acknowledge that sexuality is not a "sin."

I don't know who they think they're saving with their "focus on the family" attitudes.

Ted Haggard's poor family certainly didn't benefit.

Until these viciously anti-gay, right-wing Evangelicals are willing and able to admit that their own attitudes are destroying both individuals and families, the sin is theirs.

Ted Haggard: Out of the 'wilderness' and coming soon to HBO

Ted Haggard is back in the spotlight, blabbing about how he made it through the wilderness, somehow he made it through, didn't know how lost he was, until he found you.

He's plugging his new HBO documentary 'The Trials of Ted Haggard'.

In it he takes responsibility for his mistakes, calls his sexual orientation 'complex', and considers starting a public speaking career to be "helpful to people".

If Ted REALLY wants to help people through a public speaking career, he should tell them that it's okay to be gay, that he made a mistake when he condemned same-sex love, that he accepts his "complicated" sexuality, and that other people should, too.

And he should make sure to tell them that the thing he did wrong - his "sin" - was cheating on his wife, not having a same-sex relationship.

I don't know if Ted's completely "through the wilderness" and out on the other side. But he does seem to be becoming a little more honest--with himself and with everyone else.

That's a step in the right direction.

Ted Haggard comes out

If this isn't coming out, I don't know what is. In his new film, Ted Haggard apparently says that he never claimed to be heterosexual and that he still "struggles" with his sexuality.

Maybe I'm just a big ole softie but something about what he has to say here really humanizes him for me.

Ted Haggard is gross

Ted Haggard just can't stay off the stage and out of the limelight.

Go back to whatever rock you climbed out from under, Ted.

Really--who wants to buy insurance from a self-described "deceiver and liar"?

Don't insurance companies have a bad enough reputation already?

Has New Life Church turned over a new leaf?

Now that Ted Haggard--harangued, harassed, and humiliated by his homosexual hijinks--has left the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, is it becoming ... well, almost liberal? Not quite, but it seems that the church's current pastor, Brady Boyd(left), is not nearly as concerned about the sin of homosexuality as he is about the economy, the environment, and the poor. Is the decade of Dobson finally coming to a close in Colorado? That remains to be seen, but we can only hope.