The Tragedy of Haggard

He previously said he'd struggled with his sexual orientation his entire life; now, he's "completely heterosexual." He is now claiming his sole sexual outlet was the one prostitute, Mike Jones. And yet he is being treated for "sexual addiction." Er: adultery with one other partner is not sexual addiction. Let's put it this way: even the quacks behind reparative therapy for homosexuals do not believe a few weeks of therapy will do the trick. (A few years and you can function heterosexually without wanting to kill yourself.) And so the psychological and spiritual abuse that Haggard has imposed on others and is now imposing on himself continues for another cycle of denial and pathology. And that is what, sadly, a great deal of Christian fundamentalism is caught up in: a vortex of denial of reality and rigid psychological resistance to self-acceptance. It is, in my view, a fear-gripped rejection of the beneficence and compassion of God, not an openness toward the divine. It's a therapy that is actually an illness. And Haggard is getting sicker.