Ted Haggard and the Institutional Church

Followers of this blog know that it is partly my own rant about the destructive nature of churches corrupted by money-power politics, and partly my own quest to see the true church rise up in the love of God and live up to her potential as the bride of Christ. If you’re following this blog, I’m guessing you may share my passion about this.

That being said, I have been following the continuing Ted Haggard story with great interest; and if you haven’t, you really should (if you don’t know the story at all, Google it and come back later!). If you’ve lumped this story in with the other famous “church leader scandals” (Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, et al) that have by now faded into outdated comedy material, you may want to reconsider. I think this story is far from over, and personally I believe the implications to the American church are yet to be seen.

I felt uniquely privileged last November to be able to meet Ted personally--not only see him speak in my home church, but also to share meals with him, and to talk casually at a friend’s house an unhurried, informal, heart-to-heart way. How often do you get an opportunity like that? I’m still amazed by this, especially considering I’m part of a small church body in a small town in Wisconsin.

A lot of people might assume that Ted is just another "Christian celebrity”, seeking a big following and a big income, willing to manipulate gullible followers to his own advantage. Simply put, I don’t believe that; I think Ted is the real deal.

I’ve met my share of shallow, phony church leaders, long on image management and short on integrity; outwardly communicating love for people while secretly resenting them--maybe you have too. Because of my own experiences, I think that my pastoral B.S. detector is in peak condition; if anything, it might be a bit too sensitive—kind of like the war veteran that hits the deck in the grocery store when a display gets knocked over. My naivety in this area is long gone.

However, I can honestly say when I met Ted, I didn’t get the “sleazy pastor” vibe—at all. What I did sense was a person highly gifted in leadership, passionate about the church, genuinely interested in people as individuals, brutally honest, and wide-open transparent about the personal struggles that led to his scandal and fall from leadership as a pastor. To me, this is what a pastor should be, but rarely is.

So what does all this have to do with the institutional church? One of my beliefs about churches driven by money-power politics is that they regularly discard gifted leaders that might be "bad for business". Check the statistics; gifted pastors that love the church are being thrown under the bus by church boards all over the country—1500 a month last I checked. The “shepherds” are being regularly replaced by “hirelings” that know how to look good, maintain morale and keep people giving.

Here’s the story with Ted: Yes, he got overtaken by a behavior that violated his relationship with his wife, his family, and his church; he needed to step down. We all know this, but this is not the whole story. We who claim to care about the church also need to take a look at how Ted was treated by the leaders who immediately banned him from entering the church, exiled him from the state of Colorado, while claiming to the congregation and to the world that they had offered him a “restoration process.” You will more about this in months to come.

Institutionalized churches exhibit a very predictable behavior in times of “transition”: Whenever a leader is lost, there is a leadership vacuum, and a power grab naturally ensues. Usually it’s a group that’s felt frustrated and marginalized and has been building up steam, sometimes for years. When a weakness is detected in the current leadership, any opportunity to capitalize on that weakness and gain control over the leadership is seized with all-out intensity. The former leader will often be criticized, even demonized; the new leaders will present themselves as the “saviors” of the church and proceed to win the church body over to their viewpoint. This is the pattern that is repeated, again and again, in churches all over America, on a regular basis. Ted’s former church would be no exception.

Up to this point, much of the story has been focused on Ted and his sin. This is beginning to turn around; Ted’s wife, Gayle, just released her best-seller, Why I Stayed, and is now having the opportunity to share her story all over the national media—not only about her relationship with Ted, but also about their experience of being very un-lovingly exiled by the church leaders. From what Ted told me, he is not done telling his story either; stay tuned over the next year for his side of this whole ordeal.

I believe this story is significant. Money-power-politics churches get away with crucifying their leaders constantly. For the most part, congregations and church members are either unaware of how this works, apathetic, or powerless to do anything about it. Corrupt leadership continues to hold many churches hostage, sucking the life out its members, and preventing the body of Christ to grow, in the name of protecting reputation and cashflow. I believe Ted Haggard has a good chance of addressing this issue in a very public way; I hope this story will help the body of Christ understand what’s really going on in many of their churches, and then do something about it.