This is Great!

New Life’s “Hush Money” Exposed

Jan 26 by Ingrid Schlueter

When Ted Haggard’s lurid gay hooker adventures were made public some time ago, New Life Church had a little secret they hoped would stay that way. It seems that Haggard’s romps were hardly a one time deal. Now that one of Haggard’s other male friends has come forward and announced that the church paid him money with the agreement that he stay quiet about “Pastor Ted”, Haggard isn’t the only one looking bad.

In that many of the perverted, lost and sociopathic megachurch scandal pastors ultimately end up starting over at some other church, didn’t New Life owe it to the public to let the full story be told? It’s bad enough that the church paid Haggard a six-figure salary for a year after his departure, a seeming reward for his betrayal of Christ and the Gospel, as well as lying through his teeth the night the news story broke. Now we learn that the church tried to hush up another who knew the depth to which Haggard had sunk. It was hush money, whatever other wording they want to use.

These churches who pay these celebrity leaders huge salaries without any serious accountability are just as culpable in the end as the men who fall. If they were serious about cleaning house, they should have come clean about the whole story, publicly apologized to the world for the shameful, Christ-dishonoring conduct of their pastor, and then shown Mr. Haggard the door. Regardless of what the church claims about their behavior being in the best interest of the Gospel and so forth and so on, the real issue was self-preservation of a highly affluent ministry. They couldn’t afford to come clean because they feared a reduction in ticket buyers for the circus, so to speak. Never fear. The church has grown by 1,500, according to the new pastor, so it’s all good, right? Slice readers may remember that the same week their pastor became an international disgrace to Christ, the church went forward with a comedy act scheduled for their sanctuary. No further commentary needed.

This comes from a great website: www.sliceoflaodicea.com, check it out great stuff.