Filming and Editing by Daniel Gonzales
Mike Jones, the man who exposed Ted Haggard’s extramarital, same-sex encounters in 2006, has just made a video to get a few more things off his chest. Jones was an escort in the Denver area and Haggard was the Pastor of the huge New Life Church, and President of the National Association of Evangelicals. Haggard resigned in shame after his relationship with Jones was exposed, and has spent the years since going through various phases of counseling, even claiming that he was no longer gay after the first three weeks.
Recent news has brought out yet another such relationship with a young man who was volunteering at New Life Church during approximately the same time. In this latest case, the church paid for the young man’s college tuition and counseling on the condition that confidentiality was maintained.
In a phone call early on, Mike Jones relayed to this writer his dismay at the way he had been treated by both sides of the issue, the gay community included. Some of this spilled over into discussions at XGW, when Karen Booth of the anti-gay Transforming Congregations succeeded in pressuring eBay to remove an auction of Jones message bench (which had obviously gained notoriety at that time). He had promised the proceeds to Project Angel Heart, a very old and worthwhile charity which provides food and assistance to AIDS and cancer patients.
Jones wrote a book about what happened called “I Had to Say Something: The Art of Ted Haggard’s Fall.”
I know Mike Jones is passionate in his intentions. But it IS a complicated situation.
On the one hand he outed a man who contributed greatly to the homophobic anti-gay culture out there. On the other, he made money off of “escorting” him.
On the one hand Mike was brave to come forth with his information, considering how looked down upon “outing” is by many people. On the other hand, people are calling him a whore because he was a male prostitute.
So it’s complicated, like most situations in life. I personally am glad he came forward. I’m not a huge fan of “outing,” but when somebody condemns gays on the pulpit on Sunday but gets BJs on Saturday night, it crosses a line and gives others permission to do the same.
I’ve understood what difference it makes that he was an escort. I’m not sure why that fact complicates anything.
i wish he spoke out sooner