Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The Secret Gay Preacher - The Ted Haggard story

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

This is the story of Ted Haggard

So one day, this guy, his name's Ted, Ted decides he really wants to smash, with men. So Ted gets on the internet and he comes across a website where you can rent the services of a male escort. And he sees an ad for this beefcake. His name is Mike Jones. So Ted, he goes to a pay phone, he hits up Mike Jones, and they agree to meet. And soon enough, Ted is on his way to Mike's place and they end up smashing. And when it's over, he pays Mike $200. Sounds like a good deal.

Here's the problem with all that. Ted isn't just some regular guy. Ted is actually married to a woman. A woman who doesn't know he's out hooking up with male escorts. Ted is also a well-known Christian pastor of a megachurch. He's also president of the National Evangelicals Association and Time Magazine profiled him as one of the most influential religious leaders in America, he even talks regularly with President George W. Bush. So he's a very influential guy.

Not to mention, Ted is also known to preach plenty of anti-gay rhetoric. One person enjoys sex with a sheep. Another person enjoys sex with a man. Is that where we want to be? Now, at this point, Ted could just confess to his wife or change his view on homosexuality, but that's not what Ted's gonna do. Because he really wants to smell. with men. So instead, he starts secretly hiring Mike Jones once a month for his escort services, while Mike Jones has no idea that Ted's the leader of a well-known anti-gay megachurch. And three years go by, and Ted and Mike Jones are still meeting up at Mike's house once a month and secretly hooking up. But then, one morning, Mike's just lying around, he's watching

the history channel, and there's a show on where they're interviewing people about the Antichrist and Ted appears on screen for a minute as a religious expert and Mike sees him and he's like Oh hey that's the guy I smash with every month and then the next morning Mike Jones goes to the gym and he's working out and I guess one of the TVs there is set on a Christian TV channel and there on the screen he sees Ted again preaching to a whole ass megachurch and so Mike sees it and he's like who is this guy So he gets curious and he goes home and he starts looking Ted up and he sees not only how powerful and influential of a man Ted is, but he also starts reading about some of Ted's anti-LGTP stances on things. And he sees how openly opposed to same-sex marriage Ted is. And this pisses Mike Jones right off.

Because, you know, those are his people. So he comes up with a plan to do something about it. And for the next few months, Mike just waits. And he starts collecting evidence against Ted, like voicemails and proof of payments that Ted had sent him, stuff like that. And then one day, when the time is right, he goes on a local radio show,

and bam, he confesses everything. And he exposes the hell out of Ted. He talks about the meetups and the intercourse. He talks about the meth that Ted would do, because apparently Ted used to like to do meth when he hooked up with Mike. And this story is, so scandalous, it hits the news and it catches on like wildfire. Everyone is talking about it. And poor Ted, the career he built for himself, it starts to crumble. So he does the only thing

he knows how to do. He denies it. And he gives a bunch of statements to the press like, Gay what? Mike who? And the local church leaders and his followers, they all believe him and they continue to support him. But pretty quickly, Mike Jones goes back on the radio and he starts dropping all that evidence he collected against Ted, including the voicemails that Ted had left him. So then Ted has no choice but to publicly admit that, yeah, I did buy some... But he says he didn't do any of the gay stuff. I did call him. And what did you call him about?

I called him to buy some meth, but I threw it away. So he says he bought meth, but he says that he didn't use it. Sure, Ted. But anyway, soon enough, he's under a lot of pressure. and Ted ends up stepping down as the preacher of the church he founded. And he resigns from the National Evangelicals Association, and he ultimately concedes and he admits that he has gay urges. I'm not kidding.

But Ted's wife and his family, they still stand behind him. And after a lot of pressure, they all eventually move from Colorado to Phoenix. And there, Ted gets involved in a spiritual restoration program that is supposed to, to cure him of his gayness. Okay. And then four years after this scandal first broke, Ted founds a new church called St. James. And he basically says, he's straight now.

But that his church now allows gay and bisexual people. So that's nice. And it really seems that now he's learned his lesson and that he's a changed man. Until. One day, all of a sudden, bam, new allegations. come out about Ted. Some young men from his St. James Church, they come forward and they accuse him of touching young male members inappropriately. And they say he even asks one of the youths to get him

some meth. And as more young men start coming forward with allegations, people start to leave St. James Church. And so Ted ends up selling the building and he shuts the church down. And I wish I could say that that was the end for Ted, but since then, he has actually founded a new church that he started literally in his own house. And he's already got some followers, and he has expanded this church to include a room for children's and youth ministry. Yikes.