What I do find obnoxious about the Gayle Haggard side of this story is not so much her silence, but the personal attacks on her physical attributes by another “man of the cloth”, hinting her physical appearance was so awful it turned her husband gay. Excuse me?
Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and liberties with their wives. At the risk of being even more widely despised than I currently am, I will lean over the plate and take one for the team on this. It is not uncommon to meet pastors' wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband's sin, but she may not be helping him either .
“…Until death do us part” must have a secret “unless she gets ugly and fat” clause written in invisible ink only male DNA can perceive in the Good Book. No one ever points a finger towards a fat minister and says, “Wow Frank!…Since when did you get fat, bald, and need Viagra? I'm surprised your wife doesn't sneak a little side action on ya there, buddy!” We all know God looks through the surface and prizes truth in the inward parts; Naomi Campbell may be beautiful on the outside, but if she's not saved in her heart and soul, she's ugly in God's eyes.
The “wrapping” always starts off nice, but over time the “birthday suit” needs ironing, and gravity plays its nasty tricks. You marry someone to talk to, to spend time with, not because they'll always be a size six with firm breasts at eighty years old, thanks to facelifts and boob jobs. If you push away your wife then it's YOUR fault if you choose to pursue a gay lifestyle; you cannot make excuses and blame someone else.
Gayle Haggard has emphatically stated she will remain married to Ted in her November 5, 2006 letter to the congregation. Even if she knew about the homosexuality issue, she's more of a Christian woman than Mark Driscoll is a Christian man for such shallow comments.
In one other weird side note, I've read several commentaries about the “ homo-erotic art ” inside the New Life Church building, which is a bit disturbing. One doesn't expect to see erotic art inside a church…and church members NOT notice it. Dang! In defense of the artist, Thomas Blackshear , most of his artwork falls under secular (jewelry, marriage) or novelty (Santa Claus, clowns) from what I could see. Either way, the decorating tastes at the New Life Church SHOULD leave something to be desired instead of hanging out the neon sign that reads, “lead me not into temptation…I can find it myself”.
There were many track signals along the rails, warning of danger up ahead but the leaders chanted like town criers, “Nine o'clock and all is well!”
- Revelation 21:8 cautions us that liars will have their part in the lake of fire.
- 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 lists all who will not inherit the Kingdom of God , and that list includes homosexuals and liars.
I'm not a Biblical scholar, but I'm thinking if the leaders won't judge sin amongst themselves, they are surely hypocritical when they judge ours. More frightening, if they cannot lead us down the path of righteousness because they're too busy lusting after power, wealth, and lying and covering up to maintain it, why the heck are we following this train wreck straight to hell? This is a classic case of the blind leading the blind.
The more I read in the blogging world, the angrier and incredibly hardened the unsaved become. They want nothing to do with our hypocritical leaders or our “plastic dashboard Jesus” religion. They look at what our leaders are selling, how we're not living, and it doesn't make sense why they should give up on their secular humanistic lifestyles for what is being offered. How on earth are we supposed to be a light to the unsaved if the self-proclaimed leaders are hard at work smashing the light bulbs to maintain the darkness?
It's time for Christianity to take these so-called leaders to the woodshed, and then unburden them of their keys as we show them the door.
quazen.com articles by this writer can be found here
socyberty.com articles can be located here
relijournal.com articles here
picable.com photographic images here
