Michelangelo Signorile's interview today with the man paid hush money by Haggard's former church, Grant Haas, was unreal, folks. The level of drugs and kink going on among the evangelicals at New Life was mind-blowing, considering the PR rounds Haggard is making to shill the sympathetic Alexandra Pelosi documentary airing on HBO.
Grant Haas went public last week to a Colorado Springs TV news station with new accusations against Ted Haggard and New Life Church. But they only told a fraction of his story, which is quite stunning and scandalous.
Trust me, it's way more sleazy and twisted than you can ever imagine. Let's put it this way -- the Haggards' appearance on Larry King last week promoting the Pelosi doco was rife with extreme bearing false witness.
New Life Church sounds more like a closeted gay pickup joint with bible readings. And Gayle Haggard knew a whole lot more than what she said on Larry King Live.
I took notes so that you all didn't have to; I needed to disinfect my keyboard afterwards. No wonder the church wanted to shut this man up. Content NSFW is below the fold; it is ripe for treatment by Jesus' General. This is just a taste of the revelations. Mike Signorile plans to have the full audio up soon.
* Classic sleaze: Haas was asked by Haggard about the young man's sexual preferences in the bedroom -- bondage, toys, groups, bathhouses, top, bottom, versatile, drugs. Ted told Haas that "since I preferred to be in a “top” position that it would be easy to become straight because “an asshole is similar to a vagina.” And eventually Ted started ask about oral, anal, rimming, porn, etc. and explained a “party formula” involving taking crystal-meth, poppers, Viagra, renting pornography and jerking off alone or with others. Haggard also told Hass that he knew a lot of people who were into this type of activity and found it very enjoyable.
* After going on and on in detail about same-sex action, Haggard would then back off and tell Haas that he needed to find a good woman to marry. And listen to this: Haggard offered up his daughter as a dating/marriage prospect for Haas! Knowingly offering to guide his own daughter into a relationship with a closeted man!
* New Life Church had this program called 24-7. It was a program for young men (18-23) who were troubled and trying to get their lives together. They memorized scripture and such, but one feature of the program was the boot camp, that involved intense physical work outs, shaving their heads, etc. So all these cut and hot young men were watched closely by Ted and another church member Christopher Beard, who ran the program. Both went to the gym with these young men, and regularly watched them shower and change clothes. Beard told Haas that "he had the best job in the world" watching the guys in the locker room.
Beard left the church not long after Haggard was expelled; he left over sexual misconduct. It's not known whether this was with men. Haas said that Beard was obsessive about helping Hass overcome his homosexuality to an uncomfortable degree.
* Ted Haggard's drug problem was way worse than disclosed. He was high while up at the pulpit at times, and once contacted Haas from an airport where Ted was high as a kite and had done so much meth that he was sick and staggering around. He sent messages to Haas saying “the room is spinning” , “I think I’m gonna throw up”, and “I did way too much”. He also went into detail via text about how he had bought porn, poppers, and meth and that he jerked off for hours. Ted also told him that he tied up his testicles to some rod (I didn't catch the rest of this kink).
* Haas said that Gayle Haggard knew a whole lot more about what kind of kinky gay Ted activity was going on than she publicly admits to. When Haas asked about her knowledge of these things, Ted told him "yes, she's a freak too", they went to sex toy stores and even molded a dildo together (calling it "Ted Two"), and put it into him. Oy! She also knew that he had had prior same-sex encounters while he was pastor at the church. TMI. BTW, I'm sure the Haggards wouldn't publicly approve of you having that sort of marital or extramarital kink.
Wow. What about that whole sanctity of marriage thingy? I guess he was right about evangelicals having a lot of sex -- it just required that it occur within the humongous closet at New Life.
Related:
* Mike Jones discusses new Haggard scandal on the Mike Signorile show
* Gayle Haggard knows 99% of Ted's sexual experiences were with her