In fact, 'Today' newspaper carried the story as well, something I noticed myself.

"Why is our mainstream media carrying this so prominently?" asked one of my friends through sms. It's very flattering to think that I should have some kind of inside knowledge, but I don't. In any case, why are we seeing some kind of government-initiated machiavellian plan here with what the newspapers print?

My guess is that the newspapers may think it is important for Singaporeans to understand the likely result of the November 7 midterm elections in America, in which the Republicans are expected to lose Congressional seats. If the Mark Foley and Ted Haggard cases are likely to affect the outcome, then it would be silly to keep Singaporeans ignorant of these factors. It's probably as simple as that.

The Republicans are suffering image-wise. There is a widespread feeling that they're a party of lies and hypocrisy, starting from a false link between terrorism and Saddam Hussein, to the black hole of Iraq ("We're not looking for an exit strategy. We're looking for victory," said Vice-President Dick Cheney to Time magazine, issue dated 30 October 2006), to the whole business of using gay people as whipping boys to fire up conservative voters.

The Ted Haggard case, exploding into the media just a week before polling day, just reminds people how tawdry the entire conservative argument has become.

* * * * *

Ted Haggard is one of those celebrity preachers that personalities-obsessed America has produced. He founded his New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in the mid 1980s (some reports said 1985), which has grown to some 14,000 members.

He was also the president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), which claims a base of 30 million members. He had boasted about his direct line to President George W Bush, participating in conference calls to the White House. Citing this link, Time magazine in 2005 listed him as one of the 25 most influential people in the US.

Colorado Springs is also the home base of James Dobson and his organisation called Focus on the Family, a rabidly rightwing, anti-gay group. Focus has a branch in Singapore and its members pay 'Today' newspaper for a daily advertisement to publicise Dobson's message.

Haggard too has taken anti-gay positions. He preached that homosexuality is a sin and that it "brings grave consequences in this life and excludes one from the Kingdom of God,'' as seen from the website of the NAE.

He used his position to campaign strongly against gay marriage.

On 1 November 2006, Mike Jones, 49, told a radio station that Haggard had been paying him for sex, about monthly, over a 3-year period. Haggard had been trying to buy methamphetamine ("ice") from him as well, Jones said, providing voice mails to the media to support his allegations.

Haggard preaching in his church

Overnight, Haggard resigned as president of the NAE and took a leave of absence from the position of Senior Pastor of his own New Life Church. However, he denied Jones' allegations, saying, "Never had a gay relationship with anybody, and I'm steady with my wife, I'm faithful to my wife."

Within days however, Ross Parsley, the acting senior pastor of the New Life Church told congregants in an email that "It is important for you to know that he confessed to the overseers that some of the accusations against him are true," without elaborating which accusations.

Haggard himself admitted to "some indiscretions."

Pressed further, Haggard then conceded to reporters that he had received a massage from Jones, and had also bought meth. However, he claimed that he threw away the drugs he had bought -- if you can believe that. "I was tempted, but I never used it."

That was 4 November. The next day, on 5 November, Haggard's letter to his congregation was read out. "The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality," it said. It was also announced that he had been formally terminated from the pastor's position in New Life Church by the oversight board, suggesting that they were convinced enough about Jones' claims.

It's been quite a fast unravelling of the initial denial.

* * * * *

If not for the sms messages that I received, I might not be writing about this case, just as I didn't write about the Mark Foley case [1] in Yawning Bread. It may surprise you, but it's not easy for me to write about this, because such things happen with disgraceful regularity. It has reached a point where I ask myself, what else can I say that I haven't said before?

For example, in January this year, Rev Lonnie Latham, another outspoken opponent of homosexuality and a national figure in the Southern Baptist Convention, one of the largest denominations in the US, was arrested in Oklahoma City and charged with propositioning a male undercover police officer.

See also the article Ex-gay ministries and the cures that don't work where more examples are mentioned.

Whether the spokesperson is a deeply closetted homosexual or hate-waving heterosexual, the Christian rightwing's gay-bashing agenda is neither moral nor principled. It is blind prejudice and a lust for political power masquerading as faith. It's based on an unsound interpretation of scripture [2] and on dishonest attempts to speak for all religions, as when they often claim, "all religions condemn homosexuality". In fact, most do not. Buddhism does not, Hinduism does not, Taoism does not. Even Judaism, which shares with Christianity the Old Testament, has its Reform branch adopting a gay-affirmative position.

They mask their extremist minority position by simply shouting louder than everyone else, no different from terrorists claiming to represent an entire population through the louder noise of bomb blasts.

The truth is, Conservative Christianity is built on quicksand. Doesn't anyone there ask himself why their leaders and political positions are repeatedly swallowed up by the ground?

More importantly, freedom of religion includes freedom FROM religion. The Christian fundamentalists' attempts to bend laws and State policy to its agenda -- in Singapore too, witness the politics of Focus on the Family here -- is a dangerous departure from the stabilising ideal of a secular State.

At this point, I'm no longer talking about Ted Haggard or about the United States; I'm talking about Singapore and Singaporeans. I have come across quite a few, almost always Christian, people (including a well-known blogger) who declare that they are all in favour of non-discrimination with respect to gay people. They swear they are not homophobic.

But when I probe if that means that they support repeal of laws and government policies that criminalise, censor or otherwise target gay people, they duck the question. They hem and haw, or they change the subject. Or plead that it is a "very sensitive" matter. Need time to think -- that kind of answer.

Lee Hsien Loong himself, as I have noted in the article The government is not homophobic, the Prime Minister says, did exactly that last October.

© Yawning Bread