Pastor Ted's gay lover to kiss and tell

Posted by Sarah Posner at 12:31 PM on December 21, 2006.

Fallen evangelical power broker Ted Haggard's ex-prostitute, Mike Jones, has signed a deal to write a "sexually explicit" book about their relationship. Jones is likely tantalizing James Dobson with his comment that the kiss and tell memoir will also describe encounters with "other people who are similar."

Meanwhile, Haggard's former church, New Life, has fired another pastor, Christopher Beard, for unspecified sexual misconduct. The press accounts are fuzzy, but the gist seems to be that nine years ago, before he was married, Beard -- are you sitting down? -- slept with another unmarried person. The vagueness of the charge leaves open the possibility Beard's being punished for having violated the youth ministry's abstinence pledge (he was a youth ministry leader) or that he slept with another man. Only in the repressed world of Colorado Springs would either innocent occurrence be grounds for firing. Expect the purging to continue until there are enough sinners in rehab to start a new church of their own.

Tagged as: haggard, dobson

Sarah Posner is an investigative journalist whose work has appeared on Alternet, The American Prospect, The Gadflyer, and in other publications.