It’s becoming difficult to keep straight all the political and religious sex scandals. Yet as more and more stories are exposed, constantly flooding media outlets, they still never cease to shock us. This is perhaps why the wildly scandalous Ted Haggard fiasco seduced me.
The fact that such a prominent face in the religious arena could live so opposite to what he preached astonishes me. And although this could be taken as another sex scandal, which news reports treat it as, I don’t think it could be farther from that. It’s simply hypocrisy at its peak and a blow to my faith in an honest power.
For those who’ve been cleaning out their caves for the past three months, the head of the National Association of Evangelists, Ted Haggard of Colorado Springs, was arrested for paying for sex with gay bodybuilder Mike Jones, as well as purchasing and using crystal meth with him. And not until after perpetual denials, did he come forth admitting it to be true, and claiming that his homosexuality had been “cured” after a short stint in rehab.
At first glance, I sided with him. We all screw up. He has taken time off to reflect on and analyze his behaviors. Let’s move on. But then I stop myself, as I am faced with the hypocrisy of his actions. What I think it represents to us is the making of false inspiration, as well as a destructive force on the ethicality of the spoken word.
This man lived and breathed the church. His name and face stood as a symbol of an idealistic man, someone to look up to, someone to inspire our faith and instill ethical and moral values. Isn’t a fundamental aspect of organized religion partly to strive for that ideal lifestyle that God preached? And isn’t Haggard, as the head of a 30 million strong evangelist organization, suppose to embody this flawless individual, and serve as one who has attainted that ideal lifestyle?
Our trust is then shattered after learning of these individuals’ agendas. Haggard deceived his entire religious community by living his own lifestyle while preaching about a different lifestyle to others, showing a complete disregard for the spoken word and a tremendous hypocrisy on the part of a supposedly exemplary individual.
After betraying and letting down his followers, he uses fancy rhetoric to try to gain back their trust. Perhaps he deserves it, considering he was proficient at inspiring people and being an influential figure in their lives. The problem for me is that he has dedicated his life to help keep the faith alive, when in fact his actions are completely contrary.
For me to believe that he’s cured of this “disease” and now wants our trust back is almost offensive. I just don’t feel that he’s genuinely sorry and I begin to question his motives for getting into this position. Is he just in it for the power? He surely does not feel compelled by transcendence or some clever stroke of divinity.
I suppose the argument for whether or not to accept his rehab as legitimate repentance is based on whether people are inherently good or bad. Do they revel in positions of power with complete disregard for the responsibility of it? Do they have their own agendas and preach to us simply to maintain authority? Or are they truly remorseful people who, as mere human beings, make mistakes that happen in the public eye at a much larger scale?
It’s sad to think that if influential public figures deceive us and show no loyalty to their word and beliefs. What motive do we have to be faithful and stick to our own?
Haggard, acting from “divinity,” can’t even keep his word. We have no motivation to be honest if our public influences can’t even do it. Everything this man lived for, stood for, preached and supported was entirely out of line with how he lived his own life, shattering my belief yet again in honest authority.
Celine Dilfer is a senior communications major.
