Gayle Haggard Tells The World That Her Husband Ted Is Completely Heterosexual!
Written by Bill Berkowitz Wednesday, 03 February 2010 07:54
On the "Today" program, Gayle Haggard declared that her husband was "cured" of his homosexual inclinations. "Ted was dealing with certain compulsions that were unwanted," she said. And while she allowed that not everyone could rid themselves of homosexual "compulsions," her husband was successful in doing so. Gayle told Meredith Vieira that "In Ted's case, he had had some experiences as a child that kept replaying themselves in his mind. Once he went to therapy he was able to identify that and was given the tools to deal with it. Because of that, he no longer has those compulsions. That's not true for everybody. That's his story."
You have to feel bad for this woman.
The mega-takeaways from Gayle Haggard's new memoir about the trials and tribulations she went through after her husband Ted's involvement with a gay prostitute and his solicitation of drugs came to light in November 2006, are: 1) she forgives him, 2) he has put it all behind him; and, 3) he is now free of any and all homosexual "compulsions."
Over the past several days, Gayle and Ted Haggard have been off on a media tear, on a book tour that might be called the Ted-Is-No-Longer-A-Homosexual-And-I'm-Sticking-With-My-Man Tour. In support of her new memoir (co-written with Angela Hunt) titled Why I Stayed: The Choices I Made In My Darkest Hour, one, the other, or both of them have appeared on the "Today" show, "Oprah," "The Larry King Program", and numerous other radio and television programs.
As the "Publisher's Description" to the book points out, "On November 2, 2006, [her] life changed forever when her husband, Ted Haggard, founder of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, was publicly exposed in a scandal. In the days and with the church community she had been a part of for more than 20 years. In Why I Stayed, Gayle walks us through the choices she made in her darkest hour and shares her renewed passion for the central message of the Bible -- the liberating message of forgiveness and love. Why I Stayed reminds us of what less-than-perfect people desperately need--a community of family and faith that offers healing love and a path to restoration."
On the "Today" program, Gayle Haggard declared that her husband was "cured" of his homosexual inclinations. "Ted was dealing with certain compulsions that were unwanted," she said. And while she allowed that not everyone could rid themselves of homosexual "compulsions," her husband was successful in doing so. Gayle told Meredith Vieira that "In Ted's case, he had had some experiences as a child that kept replaying themselves in his mind. Once he went to therapy he was able to identify that and was given the tools to deal with it. Because of that, he no longer has those compulsions. That's not true for everybody. That's his story."
In an appearance with a sympathetic Oprah, Ted Haggard said that "The biggest thing" that "helped" him "is therapy. Since that time, I have not had one compulsive thought or behavior." Haggard said that he was a heterosexual and, he added, "we have a lot of evidence." How Haggard went about gathering up the "evidence" teases the brain.
"Her book is an opportunity to talk about a huge problem in the church," Renee Dallas, wife of author and sex addiction counselor Joe Dallas and founder of WifeBoat, a blog and support group network to help women whose husbands battle same-sex attraction and other forms of sexual immorality, told CharismaNewsOnline.
"There are Christian women married to men who have been leading secret lives, and this is a huge problem in the church," Dallas added. "Sometimes these men are involved in homosexual sin, sometimes adultery, sometimes pornography, but in all cases there is the shock of finding out, there is the humiliation and embarrassment, there is a loss of community--all of these things these women face."
Even a successful book tour cannot make up for the revenue, prestige, and political influence that Ted Haggard lost after his November 2006 fall. By putting all the mess behind them, however, the Haggards might be able to move out of their little living room - where they're conducting prayer sessions -- and into digs more suitable for a "cured" homosexual.
(For a delightfully irreverent take on Haggard's condition, listen to "Ted Haggard is Completely Heterosexual". And for Christianity Today's extensive interview with Gayle Haggard, go here.)
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Read the original article in The Smirking Chimp
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