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Jennifer Waite, another Examiner, liked my article about the Crucifixion images. Thanks, Jennifer, and I hope to get comments from you now and then.
The Wiseman quotes a proof text while commenting about my 2012 article. I have mentioned that I don't consider proof texts valid because you can find one for anything. He says he is sure that the vertical angle of the Milky Way is a coincidence, but I must mention that many scientists believe that we are in the collision lane of a galaxy that is passing into the Milky Way and will some day be part of it. There's another aspect to this that requires another article.
I read some time ago that two small galaxies are in collision with the Milky Way right now. How do we know? We can only judge by external conditions, and I don't claim to be an astronomer. But this is what I read.
The news today is that Ted Haggard, the disgraced former pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, has decided to re-enter the ministry. Now, whatever studies he completed in the first place to become a preacher and the pastor of New Life are already completed and still in place. He was in the process of completing a course of treatment and study for the conduct that led to his resignation.
Haggard, a married man, was outed by a gay male prostitute who also revealed that they had done drugs during their trysts. Haggard first denied, then admitted the story. I had a great deal of compassion for him at the time because he had struggled to contain his desires over many years, knowing that his behavior would ruin him if it came out, and finally it did.
His dilemma illustrates the fallacy of judging a person by their outward behavior. If you want to be a minister in most fundamentalist groups, you must be a role model and seek perfection in it. You must have the "right" wife, the correct number of children, an attractive appearance, and so forth. In this connection I heard a comment once that some pastor or other could be forgiven his marital trespassing because his wife was fat.
Haggard presented himself as a penitent and has been following the orders of his church until this week, when he announced that he has stopped the "rehabilitation" and is going to start meeting in prayer with some friends in his home. This is the way he started the New Life Church, so I predict that Haggard is the one to watch over the next few years. And by the way, he isn't getting much support from the existing New Life Church. They sniffed that he didn't complete his program and it might be "premature" if he started ministering again. In my opinion, his first ministry was obviously premature, since he cratered and lost everything except his family.
But the big difference--which I applaud--is his attitude. Before he was focused on the Great Commission, but now he says he wants to help people. The profound change in his consciousness that this statement suggests can hardly be overstated. He was a man serene in his belief that he had something that other people don't have, but now he sees his brokenness and wants to help. This is inspiring.
Gazette.com quoted him as follows: “I am much more compassionate, more kind, more patient,” he said. “I’ve learned that God is sovereign, and the number one thing we should do is trust him.”
I'm hopeful that Ted Haggard will rise from the ashes of his former posturing and follow in Jesus' footsteps. I hope he never forgets that Jesus died in disgrace. I hope that people whose lives have crashed will see in him a person who has come back from disgrace stronger and wiser. All the best to Ted Haggard; it takes courage to do what he is doing. It isn't going to be easy for him.
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