You may have heard that Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, resigned last week following revelations concerning drugs and sex with a gay male prostitute.
I have been pondering whether to post anything on that here — given Haggard’s appearance in the documentary Jesus Camp — but haven’t known quite what to say. I have even thought of contacting the filmmakers to see if they have any thoughts on this. But now, it seems the Associated Press has already done so:
The Rev. Ted Haggard has been fired amid allegations of gay sex and drug use, but the evangelical leader can still be seen at the height of his powers preaching to thousands and condemning homosexuality in the documentary “Jesus Camp.”
In one scene of the film, which follows a group of children as they develop evangelical Christian beliefs, directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady visit Haggard’s 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo. He tells the vast audience, “We don’t have to debate about what we should think about homosexual activity. It’s written in the Bible.”
Then Haggard looks into the camera and says kiddingly: “I think I know what you did last night,” drawing laughs from the crowd. “If you send me a thousand dollars, I won’t tell your wife.”
Later, another joke for the filmmakers: “If you use any of this, I’ll sue you.” . . .
“Jesus Camp” is playing in several cities and expands to more on Friday and throughout the year. Ewing and Grady said that when they shot footage for the film at the New Life Church in October 2005, they were struck by how enraptured Haggard’s followers looked.
“Pastor Ted, they were so proud of him. They thought he was hip, young, he didn’t have that stodgy James Dobson feel,” Ewing said Monday, referring to the Focus on the Family founder. “They all really adored him, that’s the first thing I thought — those people, those faces, they hung and took notes on every word he said — I can’t imagine what those people must be feeling.” . . .
Grady said that when she first heard about the accusations against Haggard, “I was shocked but I was not surprised in any way because he did come across as somewhat of a hypocrite even in our movie — in a smaller way, of course. He was so cynical in that exchange with that child in our movie, it was odd and it popped out.” . . .
It seems crass to raise this question, but you have to wonder if the scandal will boost the film’s box-office prospects, or affect the content of the eventual DVD. It appears the film’s American distributor may already be exploiting this development; someone named “MagnoliaPictures” has posted the following clip of “Ted Haggard Bashing Gays” — their title, not mine — to YouTube:
Click here if the video file above doesn’t play properly.
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