I'm very sorry for the Haggards difficulties. However, writing a book which seems to be American Christianity's answer to solving problems, is counter-productive.. This solves nothing except it airs out in book form information that nobody really wants to know, creates suspicion of writing the book for monetary purposes and does nothing to prevent these kinds of tragedies in the future. May He forgive us for we know not what we do. Putting this on TV also puts a sort of seal of approval on the Haggards difficulties since some individuals feel that if it's on this medium it's OK. Strange reasoning. Of course!! However, since many can't seem to separate fantasy from reality, spend a great deal of time in cyberspace (see BP commentary of Feb. 3) and have a moral compass that has north now regarded as south etc., the premise of approving of the behavior that started this unfortunate situation. I posit that the Haggards would be more believable if they had no book to sell, gave interviews and went to various churches to give young people the message that wish to convey. Anything less than that gives the impression that this, in my opinion isn't the way to relate to our youth various & sundry pitfalss.

Quote from Houston article linked above Gayle Haggard responds to the church's decision to remove them...etc. Mrs. Haggard says "...What happened [asking the Haggards to leave] was not a decision made by the church body. Key leaders dictated that and threw our church body into confusion and prohibited their healing process. Their natural response was to forgive and to pull together as a family. I thought I'd have the strength of the church behind me, but the doors were closed. That was almost more devastating to me than what happened in my marriage..." I saw the Huckabee interview where she says about the same thing... Is surprised --maybe quietly upset as to why the church asked her husband to leave... Here I think she has a disconnect with (I suspect) the church leaders' probably sound decision to remove her husband. It was unknown then as to whether his betrayal of her was something that he would repent of and work out...or if it was the beginning of making many choices to take a whole new path---and possibly leading many others in the church away from the faith. The self deception that led him into this sin might be part of a powerful personality where he might have drawn on sympathies of the general church population...as opposed to facing up to the generally more wise counsel of the elders/deacons. I don't know if some key people kept in touch with them to offer counseling, emotional support, etc. even after the Haggards left. That should have been happening... Heard of another man (years back - not well known) who broke his marriage vows while pastoring a church. A friend of the couple says he was removed from that church, went through much counseling...and he & his wife eventually were able to be reassigned to another church. I have no "elder or deacon" experience, but suspect that removal (with GOOD emotional and counseling support) is the answer in major cases like this one... ***** PS Saw the documentary on "evangelicals" made by the daughter of Nancy Pelosi. It (mostly) portrayed evangelicals in a rather creepy light. The Haggards and their church were PROMINENTLY featured. Shortly after this documentary was shot, the Haggard scandal broke. Suspect they made BIG CAMPAIGN money--and (more importantly) DAMAGED the overall reputation of evangelicals...primarily by exploiting Mr. Haggard's bad choices. (There's a camera shot where the Haggard congregation is singing "I am a Friend of God..." while moving their arms back & forth in a quasi salute...Has a touch of Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi Documentary work in the shot...!

This was disturbing on a number of levels.