Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[Denver Post & News 9]

The relationship between Ted Haggard and the Colorado Springs megachurch he founded is over, according to a statement from New Life Church Tuesday evening.

Haggard was fired from the church in November 2006 after he admitted to “sexual immorality,” presumably the allegations made by a gay Denver escort who said Haggard paid him for sex over a three-year period.

The statement notes that Haggard agreed to “a process of spiritual restoration” in January 2007, but now has asked to end his relationship with the church.

In its statement Tuesday night, church officials said, “New Life recognizes the process of restoring Ted Haggard is incomplete and maintains its original stance that he should not return to vocational ministry. However, we wish him and his family only success in the future.”

The change in the status of the relationship between Haggard and leaders of the church who were in charge of his restoration process means the legal contract initially signed by both sides is no longer in place. One person familiar with the arrangement said it’s less of a separation between Haggard and the church and more of a trust that both sides will abide by any further agreements.

Read about it here and here.

[From me]

This is sad.  There has to be more to this story.  Someone isn’t abiding by the accountability and my guess is it isn’t New Life Church.  How can you have accountability if both sided don’t work on it?

What do you think?

[Herald-Leader]

A lawyer for the first officer of Comair Flight 5191 has asserted a novel, and controversial, defense in 21 lawsuits filed against him: that the 47 passengers of the doomed flight share the blame for their deaths.

In response to questions from a plaintiff’s lawyer, James Polehinke’s lawyer asserted that the passengers killed in the Aug. 27, 2006, crash should have known that Blue Grass Airport was dangerous because of considerable media coverage of a massive runway construction project there. They should have known the air traffic control tower was understaffed, that airports in Louisville and Northern Kentucky are safer and that taking off in the dark is dangerous, wrote William E. Johnson, a well-known attorney from Frankfort.

Attorney David Royse, who represents two families, said it amounts to a blame-the-victim strategy. Polehinke had asserted “contributory negligence” — legalese for saying the other party is also at fault and contributed to their injuries.

“We find it ironic and disingenuous that he would suggest the passengers are now at fault when he was the pilot and he had all this information,” Royse said.

Read about it here.

[From me]

This has to be one of the dumbest claims I’ve ever heard!  How is it the victims’ fault?

What do you think?

[AP]

In Australia, Anglican ministers accused of cheating on their spouses may be included on a proposed church database of child abusers and sex offenders, a church official said Tuesday.

“The church has always had a high expectation, a scriptural expectation, that members of the clergy and church workers lead moral lives,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

“Often people that come in touch with clergy are vulnerable because they’re in a pastoral situation and the minister is, in a sense, in a position of power,” he added. “We just want to make sure that whenever people come in touch with the church they are safe.”

Read about it here.

[From me]

Harsh?  Maybe, but it just might keep some people in check.  I think it might be justifiable when a minister takes advantage of a person they are counseling.

What do you think?

[AJC]

When a new couple arrived at Southside Christian Fellowship Church in August 2005, members welcomed them with open arms. Soon, the new couple talked their way into private group support sessions in the Stockbridge home of church member Ken King.

During the private talks, church members confessed abortions, sexual orientation issues, drug addictions and other dark secrets.

No one knew the couple wasn’t actually interested in joining the church. Instead, they were private investigators hoping two church members, Bill and Leandra Pitts, would spill something they could use to discredit the pair in an ongoing lawsuit over a traffic accident.

The private eyes even tape-recorded the sessions. A lawsuit was filed last week in Fulton County State Court names Wisconson-based Progressive Northern Insurance Co., their lawyers and James Purgason Jr. and Paige Weeks of Merlin Investigations as defendants.

Read about it here.

(Thanks to Art Rogers for the proper link.)

[From me]

Wow! I always wondered how they could quote prices of other companies. Maybe the infiltrate those companies just like they did this church. I’m sorry but this is wrong at many levels. There were innocent people pouring out their lives at this meeting and the PI’s taped their confessions. I’d be angry too!

What do you think?

[From Christian Post]

Planned Parenthood, the leading provider of surgical abortions, has threatened to file a lawsuit against an 18-year-old student journalist at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Lilia Rose, who is the student editor and founder of the student pro-life magazine The Advocate, was contacted by the pro-choice organization after she recorded herself going into a clinic in Santa Monica, Calif., posing as a 15-year-old pregnant girl. She went in for an “abortion” with a man named James O’Keefe, who acted as her 23-year-old boyfriend, which would be considered statutory rape.

The tapes reveal that she was advised by employees to invent a birthday, so she did not appear to be 15, making her situation legal. A letter from Planned Parenthood expressed to her that she had no right to tape the incident, and that she did so without their consent.

Life Dynamics, a Texas-based non-profit organization, hired an actress to make approximately 800 phone calls to abortion facilities across several states, acting as a 13-year-old girl. (Watch">Watch" />the video above) She described herself as a victim of sexual assault, but 91 percent of the locations that admitted the action was a crime agreed to conceal it.

Read about it here.

[From me]

I guess the law doesn">Watch">Watch" />the video above) She described herself as a victim of sexual assault, but 91 percent of the locations that admitted the action was a crime agreed to conceal it.

Read about it here.

[From me]

I guess the law doesn" />#8217;t apply to Planned Parenthood.  Sad, millions of innocent babies are killed every year.

What do you think?