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Church weathers gay sex storm
16/04/2007 08:48 - (SA)
Colorado Springs - Five months after its senior pastor Ted Haggard was felled in a gay sex scandal, the massive New Life church he founded seems to have
weathered the storm.
At services on Sunday morning, the 3 500-seat church was
filled to near capacity with worshipers drawn by its charismatic preaching and vibrant musical stage show.
"Weekly attendance has dipped a bit since the dismissal of
pastor Haggard but the bottom has not fallen out and we have
had a comparatively smaller drop in revenue," said associate
pastor Rob Brendle, a view echoed by other church leaders.
"We recognised quickly that the church was not about one
man or a building," he told Reuters.
Haggard, a vocal critic of gay marriage, was forced from
the helm of New Life - the 14 000-member mega-church he
founded in 1985 - in November after a male escort claimed the
two had sexual liaisons.
Haggard admitted to undisclosed sexual immorality and also
stepped down as the president of the influential National
Association of Evangelicals.
Haggard was not as strident on the issue of homosexuality
as some other US preachers but his chiselled looks and fiery
style made him a poster boy for conservative causes often
embraced by the Republican Party.
Swaggart, Bakker scandals
The scandal was perhaps the biggest to hit America's huge
evangelical community since the 1980s, when sex and underhanded
financial dealings toppled mega-preachers Jimmy Swaggart and
Jim Bakker.
But while their empires came crashing down, Haggard's
church seems to be on firm ground at its base near the
snow-capped Rocky Mountains, which may point to the current
resiliency of America's fast-growing evangelical movement.
"We're not focused on the leadership of the church, it's
the family and the people who are here which draws us closer to
God," said Don Schoenecker, who along with his wife Mary is a
New Life member who converted from the Catholic Church.
They are part of a growing trend in America and elsewhere
which has seen fervent evangelical churches pick up converts
from mainstream churches.
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