More Revelations in the Ted Haggard Gay Sex Scandal

UPDATE: Don't be surprised if even more men come forward about the sexual appetite of Haggard and/or other New Life Church leaders. It never seems to fail that the churches that are the most homophobic are the ones that harbor the predator closet cases. New Life sounds like quite a cesspool. Here are highlights from the Gist:

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Former Denver escort Mike Jones, who blew the whistle on former New Life Church pastor Ted Haggard, came on the show today in the wake of the latest revelations from a young former church member, Grant Haas, who says that Haggard masturbated in front of him -- without his consent -- and sent him over 1000 sexually charged text messages. Haas says he stayed silent about it all for over two years because the New Life Church paid him hush money.

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Jones told me he not only spoke with Haas about his experiences with Haggard about a month about, but that there were two other men who also came to him with similar stories but who are fearful of going public. One of them, Jones says, was sexually harassed/abused by another New Life Church "elder" and Ted Haggard knew all about it. The other one had non-consensual sex with Ted Haggard himself, Jones said. MS: Were these two other men who were connected to the church, or members of the church?MJ: Yes, in fact I know one of them, their parents still go to church, New Life Church, which makes that more difficult for 'em.

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It's amazing how the Ted Haggard/New Life Church gay sex scandal just keeps on going like the Energizer Bunny. More and more surprising and sordid revelations keep springing up. These revelations include but are not limited to the fact that (i) New Life Church agreed to pay nearly $180,000 in apparent hush money to a young church volunteer with whom Haggard had an affair and (ii) Haggard's wife has admitted that she had known about her husband's"struggles" for many, many years. With all the gay sex and hush money, one would almost think that New Life Church was trying to be a mini version of the Roman Catholic Church. It will be interesting to see whether the HBO pulls its "The Trials of Ted Haggard" set to air on Thursday, January 29, 2009, if it turns out that Haggard lied in that documentary. First, here are some highlights from KRDO News Channel 13:

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COLORADO SPRINGS - For more than two years, Grant kept a secret from those he considered his family. "It's a lot of pain, a lot of mistrust with that church," reveals the former New Life volunteer. . . . Back in the summer of 2006, Grant was invited to go to Cripple Creek by the man he trusted and looked up to as a mentor. "He asked me if we were going to be godly or bad that night," Grant says, recalling their trip. The former volunteer says that meant either hanging out as friends, or buying Haggard porn and masturbate.

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"I told him that I didn't want that," says Grant. After a day in the small mountain town, both went back to Haggard's hotel room. Grant says he just wanted Haggard to be his pastor and friend, but according to the young man, as they were lying in bed Haggard asked if he could masturbate. Grant told him no, but says Haggard did it anyway. Grant was fearful to say anything to anyone. "He kind of made me have a guilt trip about it, so I wouldn't say anything about it," Grant remembers.

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Before the encounter in Cripple Creek, Grant came to Colorado Springs after being kicked out of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. The college recommended he come to Colorado Springs to get help with his struggle with homosexuality. Four months into attending New Life Church, Pastor Ted Haggard personally introduced himself. According to Grant, Haggard asked, "What's your story and what are you doing here?" At first, Grant lied about why he was kicked out of Moody Bible, but finally admitted to him that he thought he was gay. "It seemed like at that moment his eyes lit up and his whole attitude toward me changed," says Grant.

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Grant tells NEWSCHANNEL 13 that as their relationship grew, Haggard began text messaging him, sometimes in the middle of the night. "Texting me all kind of weird things, texting me about all the different sexual positions, practices he was engaging in and it was just really weird," says Grant. Over the next several months he would get between 1,000 to 2,000 text messages a month. . . . NEWSCHANNEL 13 obtained a recorded phone conversation between Haggard and Grant. In the conversation, which was recorded in July of 2007, Grant tells Haggard that he deleted those messages.

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I would be happy, happy to find you money for you to move somewhere." Haggard then asks Grant to "forgive." But Grant says he couldn't when the church continually neglected to pay his medical bills - something he says church leaders promised. "I really felt the church staff did what they could to get me to move to a different city, to get me to stop going to the church, to make these promises to do whatever they could to help, but their main focus was to cover it up," says Grant. "They think Ted Haggard is not a harm to this community and I really think they're wrong, they're dead wrong."

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Grant still hasn't seen all the money he was promised. He tells NEWSCHANNEL 13 he is due one more payment check - $46,000. Once all the payments are made, Grant would receive a payout of $179,000. As for the money already paid out, Senior Pastor Brady Boyd says he won't be demanding the money back from Grant for violating the settlement agreement. Boyd also told his congregation on Sunday the money was paid by insurance, not member's tithings.

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Then there is this tidbit about what Haggard's wife has recently admitted as reported by Newsweek:

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Former evangelical pastor Ted Haggard's wife says she knew about his struggles with same-sex attraction for years and felt he was "winning the battle" before a scandal involving a male prostitute triggered his downfall in late 2006.

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Gayle Haggard makes the remarks in an appearance with her husband on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to air Wednesday. She said she was shocked when Haggard first told her the truth about the allegations against him. "The first words out of my mouth were, 'Who are you?'" she said, according to a publicity release issued Tuesday by Harpo Productions.

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However, Gayle Haggard also said her husband told her early in their 30-year marriage that he "struggled with some thoughts." "I felt it was the thing that could destroy Ted if he gave in to it," she said. "So I prayed for him and I felt as though he was winning the battle."