US PASTOR ADMITS GAY SEX

A high profile anti-gay US evangelical pastor has admitted to having sex with a male escort over a period of three years. Ted Haggard made the admission and apologised following his firing from the church that he created. He has also resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals – which is said to represent around 30 million evangelicals in the US.

Haggard had at first denied allegations, by a former escort Mike Jones, that he had paid Jones for sex, as well as claims that he purchased and used drugs in front of Jones. While he said that he had employed Jones for a massage, there was no sexual contact. He also claimed that while he had bought methamphetamine, he did not use it, and instead threw it away.

But in a letter written by Haggard, and read out by another pastor to members of the New Life Church, he admitted to “being guilty of sexual immorality” and to being “a deceiver and a liar”. He wrote that, “There is part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I’ve been warring against it all of my adult life.” Haggard’s wife has said that, while she is heartbroken, she will stand by her husband.

Jones, who is gay, has said that he decided to go public about Jones because of the pastor’s support of anti-gay laws banning same sex marriage. Jones told CNN that, “For someone who is up there preaching that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, and he’s going behind his wife’s back and seeing a gay man for sex – I felt like I owed it to the gay community to expose the hypocrisy.”

According to Time Magazine Haggard has been an influential conservative religious leader who had regularly telephonic contact with White House aides. Haggard started the church – which currently has 14 000 members – in his basement 26 years ago.