Rumors on the Internets... UPDATE

A local TV station has an interesting story running:

DENVER - A gay man and admitted male escort claims he has had an ongoing sexual relationship with a well-known Evangelical pastor from Colorado Springs.

Ted Haggard, the minister in question, is not just any 'well-known' Evangelical - he founded and leads the 14,000 member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, is the President of the National Association of Evangelicals and occupied spot number 10 on Time Magazine's '25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America'.

Mike Jones told 9 Wants to Know Investigative Reporter Paula Woodward he has had a "sexual business" relationship with Pastor Ted Haggard for the past three years.

[...]

He claims Haggard has been paying him for sex over the past three years, even though Haggard preaches that homosexuality is a sin.

Jones also claims Haggard used methamphetamine in his presence on several occasions.

"People may look at me and think what I've done is immoral, but I think I had to do the moral thing in my mind and that is expose someone who is preaching one thing and doing the opposite behind everybody's back," said Jones.

Haggard has denied the claim, saying "I did not have a homosexual relationship with a man in Denver. ... I'm faithful to my wife."

As with all 'outings,' I mention this not to condemn Haggard for being gay but to point out the mind-blowing hypocrisy of spending your time preaching the sinfulness of homosexuality and working to write discrimination against gay people into law - all while engaging in that behavior himself.

I will accuse Ted Haggard of bigotry, but I won't accuse him of hypocrisy yet. I'm sure that this will be investigated and we'll see if the accusations have any merit.

UPDATE: 2:06 pm - Apparently the accuser, Mike Jones, has voicemail recordings, a letter, and will be taking a lie detector test.

Ted Haggard Homosexuality Evangelical Sex Scandal Hypocrisy