Ted Haggard: the pursuit of the good life

I'm looking at Ted's face on the cover of his new book: "The Pursuit of the Good Life: Advancing on Your Spiritual Journey" (Charisma House: 2006). Inside the dust jacket one of the blurbs reads "Obedience is the path to the holy place".

For those who haven't been following the Ted Haggard news, there is plenty to see and hear. And if you don't know who he is and what has happened, well, I'm sure you have more fruitful things to do. In thinking about this book I'm going to review, and now knowing that the author is at the centre of a personal storm, I am reminded of something I saw at the Sheepcat's blog a few days ago.

We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.
--Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)

I think that we often tend to enter a private program of "sin management" - that is, we think that we can control or manage our sins, as if we have power over them, rather than the other way around.

I'm more curious now to see what he has to say in his latest book...

Comments

[steve the z]

I'm curious to see how the rest of the major evangelical leaders protray Ted, will he be met with negative, or will they extend to him a message of grace and truth? Another question I have is; should one man have that many people to lead spiritually?

[joseph]

I'm curious as well to see how the rest of the leadership responds to him. I suppose in his church world this is pretty big in the "hierarchy" of sins. And will there be redemption or just dismissal? The question about how many folks this guy is leading is an imprtant one. Power, authority, ambition (even for a 'good cause') have their temptations.

[The Sheepcat]

So many scandals have occurred when leaders--be they pastors of megachurches or televangelists or priests under lax bishops--have lacked effective oversight. And of course the phenomenon is hardly confined to clergy: any time someone becomes a law unto himself . . .

I doubt that he will become any kind of permanent pariah--and early signs suggest that the response will be full of grace and forgiveness. I certainly hope this is the case.

At the same time, for his own sake, I'm glad he's now got a panel of spiritual advisors who I expect will not be shy about asking him some really tough questions. One doesn't get this deep into trouble without practising a whole lot of rationalizations and self-deceptions.

I will be very interested to see what you find in his book.