Ted Haggard still unrestored

Well, via Andrew we learn that Pastor Ted Haggard has apparently flunked out of Straight School:

Dear New Life Church family and friends,
Today, our church's board of trustees will release a statement regarding the end of the restoration process for Ted Haggard. This process may receive some media attention, and I want you to hear of it from us before you read about it in the newspaper or hear it on the evening news.

Let's continue to pray for Ted, Gayle, and their family.

God bless you,

Brady Boyd
Senior Pastor
New Life Church
Colorado Springs, CO

--
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ted Haggard's leadership of New Life Church for many years was extraordinary and the depth of spiritual maturity that is found today in the church is in large part attributed to his leadership as the founding senior pastor.

In January 2007, Ted Haggard voluntarily agreed to enter a process of spiritual restoration. He has selected Phoenix First Assembly and Pastor Tommy Barnett as his local church fellowship and is maintaining an accountability relationship there. He has recently requested to end his official relationship with the New Life Church Restoration Team and this has been accepted by them.

New Life Church recognizes the process of restoring Ted Haggard is incomplete and maintains its original stance that he should not return to vocational ministry. However, we wish him and his family only success in the future.

Because spiritual restoration is a necessarily confidential process, the church does not anticipate that it, or its Overseers or Restorers, will make further comment about it.

Hmm. While we can only speculate about what this means about the state of Ted Haggard's mind, heart and soul, I want to put to the room the question of what Haggard should do next. Andrew foresees Haggard possibly emerging as someone who can speak out for the normality of homosexuality in God's plan, and establishing himself as a figure who can help same-sex-oriented Christians come to regard their orientation as acceptable in the eyes of God.

That cannot be the orthodox Christian stance, though. We are simply not permitted it, by the clear evidence of Scripture and the authority of Church teaching. But what, then, should traditionalist Christians (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant) say to Ted Haggard, assuming that he was not able to resolve his homosexual desires? David Morrison's book "Beyond Gay" has some answers. Eve Tushnet, a Catholic writer who has struggled with same-sex attraction, says that programs like the one Haggard appears to have undergone can be good, or can be disastrous, but one thing they definitely aren't is a one-size-fits-all answer. I know gay Catholics who have been helped mightily by Courage, the ministry that helps SSA-struggling Catholics stay faithful to Church teaching. I know others who weren't.

From my limited experience in knowing and loving good SSA friends who struggle to be chaste Christians, the only thing I feel confident in saying is that there is no such thing as a "cure." I mean, I believe the Holy Spirit can and does heal and deliver, but it is both inaccurate and immoral to teach Christians fighting this battle that God is definitely going to remove these desires from them. Maybe He will, maybe He won't. Similarly, heterosexuals who suffer from disordered sexual desires shouldn't be told that they will be completely delivered from them. Are any of us ever really fully and completely delivered from temptation in this life?

Perhaps God intends a thorn in our flesh for some unfathomable reason, and all we can manage is to endure. It's not as hopeful as one would like to hear or believe, but I think it's realistic. We are all sinners, and broken in a thousand ways. We are called to holiness, whatever our state, whatever our struggles.

So: I know what Christians like Andrew Sullivan would say to Ted Haggard now (and I expect that you progressive Christians on this list will weigh in as well). What I'd like to know is what traditionalist/orthodox Christians would say to him, or a man in his position?