Foolish No More?
The February 7 edition of the NY Times ran a story that Rev. Ted Haggard claims to be “completely heterosexual” after three weeks of intensive counseling. “Jesus is starting to put me back together,” Mr. Haggard wrote in an email message to members of the old megachurch he once led. “I have spent so much time in repentance, brokenness, hurt and sorrow for the things I’ve done and the negative impact my actions have had on others.”
“He is completely heterosexual,” a church official, Rev. Tim Ralph, told the Denver Post, adding Rev. Haggard’s homosexual activity had not been “a constant thing.”
Dr. Jack Drescher, a New York psychiatrist who is an expert on the issues of gender and sexuality, said the notion of being able to change one’s sexual orientation was “not consistent with clinical presentations, but totally consistent with theological belief.”
“Some people in the community that Mr. Haggard comes from believe homosexuality is a form of behavior, a sinful form of behavior based on certain things in the Bible, and they don’t believe you can create a healthy identity based on sinful behavior,” Dr. Drescher said. “So they define it as a behavior that can be changed, and there is this thinking that if you control those behaviors enough, heterosexual attractions will follow.”
Looking for a picture of Rev. Ted to post with this blog, I stumbled across the cover a book he wrote called “Foolish No More!” It seemed a perfect match with this post. A synopsis of the book is below.
“The Apostle Paul was a wise saint who often revealed a crusty attitude-especially when the truth of the gospel was under attack. So when he penned his letter to his “dear children” in the faith-the Galatians-his frustration over their warped thinking had him about to blow his top. Though he tried to restrain himself, he couldn’t help but call them “foolish”!
Paul simply could not understand how any follower of Christ, adopted by faith into the most free and exciting life possible, could want to go back to the old way of bondage to rules and regulations.
You’d think by now, two thousand years later, things would have changed. But even today Christians just can’t seem to “get” the revolutionary message of spiritual freedom and power advocated in the book of Galatians.
In Foolish No More! Ted Haggard, senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, retraces Paul’s arguments to make the clear case for breathtaking freedom in Christ.
So wise up! Discover how to put off the old ways and walk in the Spirit, enjoy freedom in Christ, and wield the power of God on behalf of His Kingdom.”
