Haggard out in gay scandal

Whoa! Megachurch pastor and National Association of Evangelicals head the Rev. Ted Haggard has stepped down pending an investigation into allegations by a former gay male prostitute that he carried on a three-year relationship with the powerful minister. Haggard -- married with five kids -- denies the charges. Not sure what to say about this one, except that if it's true, why on earth would he risk speaking out against gay marriage?

I was in college when Jimmy Swaggart made his big "I have sinned" tearful confession. In fact, I was on the college paper at the time, and when rumors got out that Swaggart was going to make a bombshell announcement at church the next morning, I went out to his megachurch there in Baton Rouge to hear it. So I was present at the fall. Have to say that I went in there expecting something like this, and expected to be able to chortle arrogantly and snicker cruelly at the poor suckers in the congregation who had been taken in by Swaggart. But seeing up close and personal how broken they all were by what they heard was a shock to my snotty college-kid self. I mean, Swaggart was a bad guy, but I was startled to see how sorry I felt for those ordinary people who had trusted him as a righteous man of God. Leaving the church that morning, I felt ashamed that I had come prepared to take pleasure in their pain.