Let me second that.

Who? Ted who?

Just goes to show you that men can wreck your life.

While maybe not a big name in the New York Jewish commumnity, he's not an unimportant figure in evaneglical Christianity. The New Life church is one of the biggest of the mega churches though I think the media is blowing his reputation out of proportion for their own reasons.

I think I had heard the name before, but it might just sound familiar because of Merle. This guy really isn't an important figure in evangelical Christianity. The National Association of Evangelicals is not 30 million members strong, as the news stories keep saying; it's a loose association of organizations, denominations, and some individual independent churches. The congregations who belong to those member denominations might collectively have 30 million members. While Haggard might have had some influence over his fellow independent megachurch pastors, he's not a factor for the bulk of us evangelicals, who attend much smaller denominational congregations.

If you want to see who influences evangelicals on a national scale, check out the Christian bestseller list or look at the program schedule of a Christian radio station.

Maybe I'm misreading Ace--if I am, someone please correct me--but it seems like he's scoffing at the idea that the hooker in question came out with his information after he found out that Fitzgerald stood against the community that the hooker was part of.

The part I seem to be missing here is this: how is that wrong? I was under the impression that we were supposed to stand up for ourselves and our interests in this life.

It's not wrong, it's just a little ridiculous that a gay hooker considers gay marriage or gays becoming preachers to be part of his life's interests.

First, they came for Jeff Gannon, then they came for the ... eh...

As Ice T put it "Ain't nobody else's fault, you played yourself". Nobody 'got him' except his own poor judgement.
I'm aware of Haggard as the guy with whom Richard Dawkins discussed his non-belief in a god and trust in science. It went ok, but as Dawkins was leaving, Haggard threw all his toys out of his pram (i.e. he had a childish tantrum); suggesting Dawkins had said he was "a monkey" (he hadn't).

I wrote something about this but I had a different take...

Yes, Alicia, I remember, but honestly IMO I thought that Dawkins was polite to people even though he has a clear disdain for organised religion. His 'mountain' analogy for how life developed made his position quite clear. His interview with the NY jew who became a muslim, and also with the guy defending the guy who shot the abortionist should not have been overdubbed by his commentary, but I think they were showing how extreme things were than to give them a forum.