Free Republic

Ted Haggard was once one of the most power evangelical leaders in America. New Life Church leader Ted Haggard was once one of America's most charismatic and powerful evangelical leaders, with an audience of more than 30 million people. Ted began counseling foreign dignitaries and consulting on a weekly basis with President George W. Bush. By 2005, Time magazine named him one of the most influential evangelicals in America. But no one—not even his devoted wife, five children and his Colorado Springs, Colorado-based congregation—suspected that Ted was paying an admitted male escort for crystal meth. In November 2006, Mike Jones...

A Colorado megachurch's Hispanic congregation is seeing immense growth, so much so that they will be adding another Sunday service for them to meet. New Life Church of Colorado Springs' Nueva Vida congregation will begin to offer an additional worship service starting this coming Sunday. Brady Boyd, senior pastor of New Life Church, told The Christian Post that having to add a second service was "really phenomenal" and testified to the "obviously great leadership" for the Spanish-speaking congregation. "Tons of new people flooding into the church right now," noted Boyd, who explained that in addition to Latinos, "English-speaking people are...

Colorado evangelical pastor Ted Haggard, who was involved in a sex and drug scandal six years ago, appears to have changed his earlier position against same-sex marriage. In an online debate, he said while biblical law is against homosexual marriage, the state should allow it. "We've reached a point where human dignity and mutual respect is so important," Haggard said in a recent online debate with Rabbi Benjamin Hecht, director of Orthodox Jewish think tank Nishma. Responding to the question, "Should same-sex marriage be allowed by the state?" he went on to say, "If someone is dealing with same-sex attraction...

ABC's 'Celebrity Wife Swap' has reportedly lined up two participants: Gary Busey and former New Life Church pastor Ted Haggard. Yep, you read those names right. According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, Haggard and Busey will swap partners ... without the sex of course. The Gazette reports the show will shoot at the GLBT Pride Center in Colorado Springs on Thurs., Sept. 22. Each episode of 'Celebrity Wife Swap' follows two couples as they switch wives for two weeks. For the first week the new wives must live by the manual left by host family. The second week, the new...

In his third featured interview this year, former megachurch pastor Ted Haggard asks why it is so hard for the Church to live out its teachings on forgiveness and restoration, noting that the secular world is doing a better job at this than Christians. "The differentiation between the Church and everybody else is that we should respond with restoration, healing, hope to people's sin condition, our sin condition. We're losing that right now," he argues in a new video interview with Lifetree Café, a Christian-based network of local discussion groups. He expresses frustration over his observation that many celebrities –...

Nearly four years after being fired from his previous church, Ted Haggard returned to the pulpit on Sunday as a "changed" man and with a new church. Some 160 people gathered in a barn next to Haggard's home in Colorado Springs, for the first service of St. James Church, according to The Gazette. Haggard called it his "Easter morning" as he resurrected into a pastoral role. Since 2006 when a former male prostitute claimed the well-known pastor had paid him for sex and had also taken methamphetamines, Haggard has been rebuilding his life with his wife, Gayle, and his family....

“Repentant” former megachurch pastor Ted Haggard will make a “surprise groundbreaking” announcement next Wednesday from his home in Colorado Springs, Colo., a spokesperson reported Thursday. It has been nearly four years since a former male prostitute claimed Haggard had paid him for sex over the course of three years and had also taken methamphetamines. The highly-publicized drugs and sex scandal led to Haggard's resignation from the presidency of the National Association of Evangelicals, forced him out of the church he founded, and moved him and his family into two years of seclusion. Since late 2008, however, Haggard has been stepping...

Mike Huckabee talks to Gayle Haggard, the wife of Pastor Ted Haggard, about her reasons for staying in her marriage after her husbands marital infidelity became public. (there are 2 parts)

Disgraced ex Rev. Ted Haggard is working every angle to stay in the media, and was recently booked on FOX"s "Divorce Court." The former evangelical pastor and his wife are planning another TV appearance after their HBO documentary, "The Trials Of Ted Haggard," aired in January. The two taped an appearance on the syndicated Twentieth Television show "Divorce Court," to be broadcast nationally April 1. The show's judge, Lynn Toler, interviewed the couple about how their marriage survived after a male prostitute was found to be involved in a sex and drugs fueled-relationship with Ted Haggard in November 2006. The...

ABC has apparently never heard that phrase, "There are two sides to every story." On Feb. 1, "World News Sunday" helped shamed former-pastor Ted Haggard take shots at the Christian conservatives who he says "shunned him." Reporter Dan Harris introduced the piece by qualifying Haggard as a former "insider, a powerful pastor at the highest levels of the Christian conservative movement." Haggard, who made headlines two years ago for getting caught in a gay sex scandal, is now offering advice to the Christian conservative movement; and ABC gave him the megaphone. Here is a portion of Harris' interview with Haggard:

Former evangelical leader Ted Haggard on the life he hid from his wife, his children and 30 million devoted followers. The gay sex and drug scandal that took him down. In his first television interview since the scandal, Ted talks with Oprah about why he kept secret a part of his life he calls dark and repulsive. "It was the first time that dark area of my life I'd worked so hard to fight against was coming to the surface," he says. "And to say it, and to talk about it, was so shameful and shocking. Even to me." In...

Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard's former church disclosed Friday that the gay sex scandal that caused his downfall extends to a young male church volunteer who reported having a sexual relationship with Haggard — a revelation that comes as Haggard tries to repair his public image. Brady Boyd, who succeeded Haggard as senior pastor of the 10,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, told The Associated Press that the man came forward to church officials in late 2006 shortly after a Denver male prostitute claimed to have had a three-year cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard. Boyd said an "overwhelming pool of...

Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard's former church disclosed Friday that the gay sex scandal that caused his downfall extends to a young male church volunteer who reported having a sexual relationship with Haggard — a revelation that comes as Haggard tries to repair his public image. Brady Boyd, who succeeded Haggard as senior pastor of the 10,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, told The Associated Press that the man came forward to church officials in late 2006 shortly after a Denver male prostitute claimed to have had a three-year cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard says in a new documentary that he still struggles with his sexuality yet is committed to his marriage for the sake of his children. Haggard, 52, resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was fired as senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs in November 2006 after a former male prostitute went public with allegations that Haggard paid him for sex and used methamphetamine. A father of five, Haggard had said he bought the drugs but never used them. He confessed to undisclosed "sexual immorality" and...

Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee visited Colorado Springs for the second time in less than a year. He met with supporter Dr. James Dobson at Focus on the Family, before going to the Broadmoor for a paid speech in front of the Leadership Program of the Rockies. "He carries an enormous level of influence," says Huckabee about his talk with Dobson, his friend of 14 years. "The contents of it, obviously would remain off the record and confidential, and I'm sure you (the media) would respect that, actually I know you won't, but I will," joked Huckabee. After his news...

<p>COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — At least four people were shot outside of a Colorado Springs church on Sunday, but it was not immediately known whether the shootings were related to an earlier shooting about 70 miles away, authorities said.</p>

Question: What’s harder to get rid of than a cold? Answer: The Republicans getting rid of Senator Larry Craig. It’s a story with (wide stance) legs. And a new allegation: The male escort responsible for the downfall of Christian evangelist leader Ted Haggard is now alleging that embattled Senator Larry Craig also came to see him. While promoting his new book during a radio interview with KNWQ-AM in Palm Springs Wednesday night, Mike Jones hesitated from making the allegation on the air. Management for the radio station says Jones told them he would reveal something about Idaho Senator Larry Craig...

Disgraced pastor Ted Haggard won't be fundraising for a Monument nonprofit run by a sex offender, won't be ministering to anyone and needs to get a job, his overseers said in a statement released Wednesday. "Mr. Haggard's solicitation for personal support was inappropriate," his church supervisors said. The statement came one day after the four-member team of ministers responsible for overseeing the spiritual restoration of Haggard met with him in Phoenix.

... "It looks as though it will take two years for us to have adequate earning power again, so we are looking for people who will help us monthly for two years," the e-mail said. "During that time we will continue as full-time students, and then, when I graduate, we won't need outside support any longer." Haggard left the 10,000-member New Life Church late last year and resigned as head of the after a former male escort accused Haggard of paying him for sex. Mike Ware, an overseer for New Life Church, told The Gazette of Colorado Springs on Friday...

DALLAS -- Nine months after influential US evangelist Ted Haggard was disgraced in a gay sex scandal, the man poised to take his place in the pulpit says he plans to steer clear of overt politics and focus on the Bible instead. "I believe Christians need to be good citizens. . . . But I will not take near the active political role that Ted did," Brady Boyd, recommended by a search committee to be the new senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, said in an interview. Haggard, a vocal critic of gay marriage, was forced from...