Ted Haggard's Sunday morning sermon last week began with a prayer "that lies would be exposed." In New Life Church's podcast of the October 29 sermon, among Haggard's first words are, "Father, give us grace and mercy. Father, help us this next week and a half as we go into national elections, and Lord we pray for our country. Father, we pray that lies would be exposed. We pray that deception would be exposed. Father, we pray that wisdom would come upon our electorate and that they would think with clarity and with decisiveness, and Lord, that we would be a model for the whole world to see how people can disagree passionately but the rule of law … will prevail." (Link to the original)
Well, Ted Haggard was the head of the American Evangelicals. He was also the pastor of a mega-church in Colorado. Well, why I do quote him? Because in the period that followed, within the week after his prayer, it was certainly answered ... though not as he expected. Actually, God in His mercy,
unveiled the darkness in the life of this brother. I don't know what will this add to the already difficult possition of the church in terms of morality and politics. What I know is that such scandals (ie Swaggart in the 80's) can be a good opportunity for the Church to come out of denial, in the sense that
Christians also struggle with sexuality issues as any other human being.
Actually a broken sexuality, independantly of its manifestation is, to my understanding, the evedience/symptom of deep wounds ... and those wounds influence the choice of illegal compensations for the legitimate needs of love and relationship. Instead of pointing to this man's behaviour, I would ask ... where was the Church? I mean, being the pastor of a mega-Church (14000 members) couldn't he find an accountability partner amongst them? What makes the church so unsafe that sexual brokenness is a taboo? I believe that the Church should be there to offer the option of restoration long before the scandal pops-out like this.
It makes me think of the story of the dragon that invited a prince to fly ... and the prince started to get the same skin of the dragon ... that he hid behind his clothes ... till the dragon started killing people while flying with the prince ... and he was recongised by some witnesses. Everyone wanted to stone him. But then, the king reunited all the people, and just asked who else have been flying with the dragon ... and starting from his elder brother, to the villagers, many came out gulty ... So the king just offered forgiveness to all, and offered a new start for all ...
I don't know if I make sense, but my point is that prevention is better than lamenting. Isolated Christians have no power to struggle against their giants ... particularly addictions and sexual brokenness.
Anyway, often God's answers are not really what we expect.
Labels: Christianity issues
After lots of preparations, like setting up the room, and running from one place to the other to find keys (thanks David for all your help), the defence started. The jury gives you 35-40 minutes to present your work. Bit difficult to compress four years in such a short time. Anyway, as the President of the Jury said, "the most interesting part of the defence comes afterwards".
Exactly 36 minutes later, the presentation was finalised; and the questions started. I don't know anymore how long did it take. I have the feeling that I could answer all of them. 
After the questions, there is a time of "deliberation" where the jury is absent and we just have to wait. This is a view of the room while the jury was in deliberation.
In the picture from left to right Prof. John Van Camp, myself, Prof. Patrick Kolsteren (Promoter), Prof. Wim Verbeke, Prof. Stefaan De Henauw, Prof. Angel Gil (International Jury) and Prof. Jacques Viaene (Jury's President). This picture was taken just after the defence was ended and the Jury awarded me the degree of Doctor.
