Halfway House Rejects Ted Haggard's Offer to "Minister to Men"

Posted by Pam Spaulding at 5:46 AM on August 29, 2007.

This post, written by Pam Spaulding, originally appeared on Pam's House Blend

Guess Ted's "fund me please" letter and ties to a convicted sex offender were a tad too distasteful.

The Rev Ted Haggard's recent pleas for cash and his plan to return to ministry work were doused by a pastor Monday, who said the former New Life Church leader would not work in a Phoenix halfway house.

Compounding the former pastor's troubles, the organization Haggard chose to handle tax-deductible contributions for his family is led by a twice-convicted sex offender.

That man, too, distanced himself from Haggard on Monday.

Haggard, reached by phone Monday, declined to comment.

...Monday, an associate pastor of the Phoenix church, Leo Godzich, said Haggard will not be working or living at the Dream Center.

"That was something that was totally unbeknownst to us when he sent it," Godzich said about the announcement. "It was just something that he thought of in a conceptual stage, and nothing had been decided."

He declined to discuss Haggard further, saying that his spiritual restoration was a private affair that shouldn't be played out in the news media.

Tagged as: haggard, religious conservatives

Pam Spaulding blogs at Pam's House Blend.