Focus on the Family?

Yet another closeted gay republican sex scandal hit the news today, this one involving one of Bush’s regular evangelical advisors who stands accused of snorting a bit of crystal meth prior to engaging in a game of hide-the-salami with a gay male prostitute. The Reverend Ted Haggard, head of the ultra right-wing National Association of Evangelicals resigned from his leadership position with the Church after accusations by a male prostitute that the pastor paid him for sex over three years. Haggard, whose organization comprises some 45,000 churches with some 30 million members, participates in a weekly conference call with White House staffers and other religious leaders. If Bush is receiving advice from this guy it’s no wonder his administration policies are so screwed up.

CNN is reporting that a church official who has temporarily assumed Haggard's post while he goes off and presumably receives treatment for alcoholism or something said late Thursday that there has been "some admission of guilt," but not to all of the allegations. He did not give any more details.

I wonder which part is true, the pole smoking or the drug use? Certainly Mr. Haggard is entitled to have sex with whoever he wants, although his position as shill for Colorado's proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage kind of complicates the matter. Evangelical power-brokers rushed to Haggart’s defense including the odious James Dobson who, as usual, blamed the liberal news media for stirring up trouble.

The revelation of Haggart’s hypocrisy on the gay marriage issue is especially joy-provoking considering that he has been at the forefront of the movement to turn America into a theocratic state based on the Bible and the ten commandments. Haggard was fond of saying that "[Evangelicals] feel comfortable in a guaranteed right to heaven." That is, assuming they actually practice the morality that they incessantly lecture others about.

The fact that a person with ideas so far outside the mainstream about the place of religion in a secular society has ready access to the White House is frightening enough, the fact that Bush sets policy according to the whim of this drug addict wack-job is down right criminal.