'RESTORATION' AFTER THE FALL

Fellow Evangelicals Seek to Help the Rev. Ted Haggard Address the
Behaviors That Snared Him in a Scandal.

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- The Rev. Ted Haggard this week formally
begins his long journey toward recovery from a drugs-and-gay-sex
scandal that forced him to step down as one of the most influential
evangelical leaders in the nation.

Haggard, 50, has turned himself over to a team of counselors who are
"assessing his spiritual, emotional and mental condition," said the
Rev. H.B. London, who is helping to guide Haggard through the
process. London and two other pastors will then set out a rigorous
"restoration plan" requiring Haggard to spend hours each week in
counseling, Bible study, prayer and soul-baring talks -- by phone or
in person -- with his mentors.

The team's first task will be to push Haggard to acknowledge any
addictions and come to an honest understanding of his sexuality. "Ted
is not in touch with reality," said the Rev. Mark Cowart, a friend.
The mentors can confront Haggard or rebuke him forcefully; they may
also ask him to submit to a polygraph test.

"Ted says he's not a homosexual," said the Rev. Mike Ware, a good
friend. "The restoration team wants experts to evaluate that."

Haggard's high-profile ministry collapsed last month after a male
prostitute went on talk radio to allege that the pastor regularly
paid him for sex over the last three years. Mike Jones -- who
advertised in gay publications as a masseur -- also said he had seen
Haggard take methamphetamine.

Haggard denied the accusations. But when Jones produced two
voice-mail messages from Haggard, the pastor said he had hired the
prostitute for a massage and had purchased meth, only to throw it
away. In a letter to his congregation, Haggard admitted that he had
succumbed to "desires that were contrary to everything I believe and teach."

"I am a deceiver and a liar," Haggard wrote. "There is a part of my
life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it
all of my adult life."

Haggard resigned as president of the National Assn. of Evangelicals,
a powerful post that brought him in frequent contact with the White
House. He was also dismissed as senior pastor of New Life, the church
he founded in his basement and grew to a congregation of 14,000.

Since his public confession, Haggard has secluded himself with his
wife, Gayle, and their five children. Those close to him say he's
humbled, ashamed and grieving -- yet prayerful that the scandal might
strengthen his family and his faith. "It seems to be a time of hope,"
said Carolyn Haggard, his niece.

New Life's trustees are working on a severance package to sustain
Haggard (who earned about $140,000 a year) and his wife (who earned
about $50,000 a year for her work with women's ministries). Associate
Pastor Rob Brendle said the Haggards had also received a "generous
outpouring" of gifts from congregation members, including donations.

Those close to the restoration will not say whether Haggard will
undergo therapy to try to eliminate same-sex attractions. But the
conservative Christian leader James C. Dobson, a close friend, has
said the healing process -- which could last years -- will probably
aim to eliminate any homosexuality.

White evangelicals as a group tend to view homosexuality as a
lifestyle choice, not an inborn trait, with 56% holding that sexual
orientation can be changed, according to a poll taken this summer by
the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. (By comparison, the same
poll showed 31% of Catholics and 22% of white mainline Protestants
believe change is possible.)

In many evangelical congregations, men and women with same-sex
attractions are expected to use prayer and Bible study to help them
resist the temptation to sin. Haggard comes from a charismatic
tradition that puts particular emphasis on the devil's corrupting
influence. He has described supernatural visions of demons waiting to
infect newborns with sinful desires.

This theology of constant spiritual warfare has led some of his
followers to blame Haggard's fall not on any personal weakness but on
Satan's cunning. As congregation member Jan Long, 60, put it: "The
enemy wants to destroy us."

Such constructions worry the Rev. Tony Campolo, a liberal evangelical
leader who helped guide President Clinton's spiritual restoration
after the Monica S. Lewinsky affair. "The idea that this is a matter
of some evil spirit taking hold of him is setting Ted Haggard up for
disaster," Campolo said. "He may have a tendency to pretend that he's
been delivered from his homosexual feelings ... and all is well."

Campolo said he hoped the restoration team would impress upon Haggard
that "there is no easy fix. These are problems he will struggle with
for a lifetime."

Haggard has been more liberal than many evangelicals on gay-rights
issues; for example, he backs domestic partner benefits. But he has
preached unequivocally that homosexuality is immoral and that those
who persist in same-sex relations will not be welcome in God's kingdom.

His restoration team largely shares this theology. It includes two
veteran pastors of evangelical mega-churches: the Rev. Jack W.
Hayford, 72, of Van Nuys and the Rev. Tommy Barnett, 69, of Phoenix.
Both pastors -- like Haggard -- draw on the charismatic tradition,
including speaking in tongues.

The third member of the team, London, 69, serves as vice president of
Dobson's conservative ministry Focus on the Family, which promotes
therapy to help gays and lesbians change their sexual orientation.

As director of pastoral outreach for the Colorado Springs-based
ministry, London has counseled hundreds of clergy with admitted moral
failings; up to half don't make it through the rehabilitation. "They
grow weary of the regimen and drop out," he said.

Those who stick with the process often feel almost unbearably
isolated. "Many have run for years on the adrenaline that comes from
power and recognition -- and suddenly it's gone," London said. "The
phone's not ringing. People don't need you."

The restoration team will not aim to return Haggard to ministry.
Addressing the New Life congregation last month, Haggard's mentor the
Rev. Larry Stockstill laid out a much more modest goal: for Pastor
Ted to recover enough to serve God "with joy, with dignity, with hope
in his heart."

The congregation responded with a standing ovation.