Ted Haggard and A Secret Life

i'm just catching my wind after the blow from the news of ted haggard. i haven't been able to put together a coherent response ...

scott, in his raw and honest way says it this way:

the ted haggard affair has brought to the forefront, for what seems like the hundredth time, the sick underbelly of religious life. people are shocked to find out that he has had a secret second life, one which seems so inconsistent with the outward message. they wonder how a guy like haggard could maintain a facade for so long, all the while committing the most grievous acts.

we all have.

sometime in our lives many of us, especially the men, have lived with a secret sick underbelly. almost all guys have secreted pornography, or battled lust, or had a hidden addiction, or a deep resentment that they pretended didn't exist. we have been guilty of saying one thing and doing another. i love what tony campolo said about another prominent minister who blew it - 'the only difference between him and us is that he got caught'. how true.

people are shocked and dismayed at haggard. they wonder if what he did negated all he believed and preached. they have called him a hypocrite. a deceiver. a pervert.

haggard was human. like all of us he battled the dragon deep within that threatened to destroy his best intentions. he probably wanted nothing more than to live a life of integrity, he just couldn't win the battle with the beast. if we took a minute to breathe and think, we too might find that we can relate more than we care to admit.

more here ...