Ted Haggard had it all: prosperity, a doting wife, five kids and a ministry that reached more than 30 million followers who hung on his every word. But in 2006, it all fell apart in a sea of scandal. Journalist/filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi returns to talk with "Pastor Ted"--whom she met while filming Friends of God for HBO--who was exiled from the church he built and the state where he lived after admitting to "sexual immorality" and to buying methamphetamines.
Following Haggard and his family as they move from house to house and motel to motel, Pelosi interviews the sullied ex-minister as he works as a traveling insurance salesman...and maps out a strategy for redeeming himself and supporting his family.
9 comments:
Boy his church really shows themselves to be the unChristian people. The guy made a mistake man. He didn't kill anybody. He hurt a handful of people and he tried to make it better. I'm not saying he was right, but man, I would hate to think we would all have to pay for our sins in such a manner.
Why do I get the idea that this is a white-wash to make us feel sorry for this idiot?
Now I do have some sympathy for his kids, and don't understand why they should be uprooted from their home, School, and friends simply because their dad's homosexual. But the man himself is a total waste of space. Why would a man, given a years severance pay ($120,000), be selling insurance door to door just a year or so later?
Will he get help to overcome his homosexuality, I think not. He'll simply be back in the pulpit claiming (like Jim Baker)that the devil made him do it, but God wants you to give him money to help him defeat Satan. And I bet a lot of people (suckers) fall for it as well.
From
Chris Hill
(Lancaster)
This documentary is probably one of my favorite because it really shows the humanity of someone who is personified in the media as a hypocrite and loser. He may very well be, but he has owned up to it and does not deserve the punishment which he has received.
No punishment is enough for the mathafaka. He, and others like him has filled the US political atmosphere with so much hate towards his fellow man. the evangelical church is a joke within Christianity, because what they preach is so hateful, and so far away from the teachings of Christ.
He deserves no love from the church and his fellow men, because he preached no love for homosexual drug users. he deserves to rot in the hell he created for individuals like him and deserves no sympathy from us.
According to his own preachings, he deserves so much worse.
As i am watching this, I'm starting to feel bad for this guy. but lets not forget, This guys was instrumental in electing Bush, and the abolition of the welfare state.
If he preaches once again, he will preach a very different Bible. and that's the thing with Christianity and other ideologies, when you have power, you preach for those like yourself. When you are weak, you don't get to preach.
Very well put (comment above by yeungx), I fully concur.
Anyone with a heart feels sorry for the man and his family, however he is merely the victim of his own toxic, venomous, hate mongering community. Had a reformed Jewish rabbi "struggled" with male prostitutes and ice, the hype would have died down within a weekend!
I for one do not think it is cool that the man is completely ostracized and his family shunned along with him... but them's-the-ropes in the U.S. of A. Christian game.
Poor guy... he just needed a boy-toy :(
This was one of the saddest documentaries I've seen a while. For Ted Haggard, for his family, and for the huge number of "sinners" he denounced during his career that were doing no worse than he was himself.
I think it really goes to show the failings of modern interpretation of Christian teachings, and of the modern Christian revival in the United States. I only wish that Ted Haggard could have come to terms with his own identity before founding a church so vehemently against a part of who he is.
people need to stop judging others, everyone makes mistakes. People talking shit need to wait till one day something like this happens to them. Then who ya gonna blame. Everyone but yo self!
you can't win; this a documentary by nancy pelosi's kid...but then it's about a phoney pastor, who still wants to be in a documentary, even after his disgrace; he has no shame.
just how though, in america, can a person be exiled from a state??? hagard exiled from colorado?!?
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