More Haggard/New Life Bombshells Coming?

If new information disclosed by Michelangelo Signorile at The Gist proves true, it looks like Ted Haggard and New Life Church are in for a very rough ride and it may well turn out that both Hagagrd and the Church knowingly lied in recent statements and during Haggard's recent television appearances. Personally, it would not surprise me in the least based on some of the things Grant Haas has already disclosed which indicate that he and Mike Jones were not Haggard's only paramours. In terms of New Life Church trying to cover up the mess - both in terms of Haggard and other pastoral staff - I'm not surprised either. One need only look at the Roman Catholic Church for evidence of how far religious institutions will go to try to cover up the misdeeds of the leadership. I suspect that neither Haggard nor New Life care about the truth but rather only are concerned with saving face and shoring up collapsing reputations. Here are highlights from The Gist:

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A Colorado Springs bail bondsman and sometime bounty hunter who has been investigating New Life Church and Ted Haggard for several years appeared on my show late on Friday and told me that he now has information on ten more cases of sexual misconduct on the part of Ted Haggard and that three of these involve minors. He also said that New Life Church had suppressed from the media an earlier case of a pastor at the church (which has many pastors under the senior pastor) who was convicted of sexual assault against a child under the age of 15 and got off easy with help from the church, only to later have his probation revoked. The convicted pastor then illegally left the country, he said, and he speculates that New Life Church may have helped him do so.

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Bobby Brown, reading from what he said was a detective’s affidavit, told me that the pastor, Stephen Evans, was convicted in 1999 of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy and admitted to sexual contact with his own 14-year-old son and his own 15-year-old daughter, in a case that Brown says was somehow kept out of the media and has not been reported until now. Brown says that with the help and backing of New Life Church, Evans served no jail time at all, cutting a plea deal in which he’d agree to a “restoration” at the church – yes, just like the one that Ted Haggard went through to supposedly make him straight! – while serving five years on probation.

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Brown, . . . he assured me – without my asking -- that he is not doing this as part of any agenda against homosexuality (and is critical of those who are antigay) and that his interest is solely in exposing criminal activity on the part of New Life Church and its leaders: the hush money and where it came from, as well any sexual assault on minors and what knowledge the church had.

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Brown said that it’s clear that local law enforcement has been intimidated by the New Life Church and by all the megachurches of Colorado Springs, which is like the Vatican of the evangelical movement. He noted that Ted Haggard continually bragged about how he had friends in the district attorney’s office and police department.