* irenic *
2006-12-01 03:07:41 UTC
Sightings 11/30/06
Ted Haggard's "Sin" -- Jon Pahl
Now that some of the dust has settled from the unfortunate fall of
evangelical leader Ted Haggard -- who has confessed to being a "sinner" to
his congregation -- we can achieve some longer-range perspective on what it
all means.
I agree with Martin Marty that Rev. Haggard, along with his family and all
those involved in this scandal, deserves compassion, and one wishes him
peace (see "Considering Ted Haggard's Plight," Sightings, November 6). But
Haggard's letter to his church reveals a truncated understanding of sin and
a failure to recognize how the movement he led as President of the National
Association of Evangelicals is in part responsible for his plight.
Like most evangelicals, Haggard is the theological heir of Saint Augustine,
finding sin in pride and lust. Unlike Augustine, however, Haggard sees
pride and lust as personal attributes. "I alone am responsible," he asserts
in his letter. "I created this entire situation," he reiterates. And yet a
third time he says, "It was created 100 percent by me."
Augustine has a more sophisticated understanding of the origins of sinful
desire. In his Confessions, he reveals how sin arises from within a social
nexus. In the famous account in Book 2, he describes stealing a bunch of
pears with a gang of his friends. He did this not because he was hungry,
but because it was transgressive. He and his friends constructed a foul
desire and then he acted on it.
A similar dynamic can be observed among many conservative evangelicals with
regard to homosexuality. By targeting gay sex as "sin," the religious right
has mobilized "values voters." But by scapegoating homosexuality, they draw
attention to it as "temptation." As Haggard puts it: "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." It is as if the religious right's culture war has played
out in Ted Haggard's soul. As an individual willing to carry the blame as
a "sinner," he acted out the scapegoating that has in part organized power
for the movement he led.
In its mild form, this scapegoating of homosexuals has been expressed in
"Defense of Marriage" laws, one of which passed in the recent elections in
Colorado. Haggard was a vocal supporter of these laws. Such tension between
his public person and his private behavior must have been excruciating. A
more extreme form of this logic has led to movements like that of the Rev.
Fred Phelps's "God Hates Fags" campaign. Passion for "purity" against
homosexual desire has been used to rally evangelical righteousness, and to
round up voters.
Consequently, those who feel homosexual desire and who are also persuaded by
the logic of a Phelps will likely bear a degree of self-hatred that leads to
isolation and repression. Haggard would appear to be in such a position.
"For extended periods of time," Haggard writes, "I would enjoy victory and
rejoice in freedom. Then, from time to time, the dirt that I thought was
gone would resurface, and I would find myself thinking thoughts and
experiencing desires that were contrary to everything I believe and teach."
But what Haggard does not seem to recognize, as Augustine did, is how his
desires were in part the result of what he believed and taught. Augustine
demonstrates that a dirty desire is desirable precisely because it is dirty.
Similarly, Haggard, I believe, was actually possessed by the social
constructions of the very movement he led. He suggests as much when he
reveals that "when I stopped communicating about my problems, the darkness
increased and finally dominated me." But a problem can only dominate one in
this way when it is constructed as a problem. If, say, gay sex were
considered good within a committed, loving, and publicly recognized
relationship, it would not pose a moral threat.
According to Augustine, an individual either participates in God, who is
gracious and life-fulfilling love, or one falls into lust, which is prideful
assertion of one's desires to dominate. The religious right has had plenty
of experience with domination lately. It is more than a little disturbing,
then, that Haggard, in his letter, imagines that he will be "healed" when
his "sins" are "dealt with harshly," and when, with the "oversight" of
leading anti-gay pastors Dr. James Dobson, Jack Hayford, and Tommy Barnett,
he is "disciplined." (Dobson has since withdrawn from the counseling team.)
It is unlikely that those in this group will actually confess their
collective responsibility for Haggard's sins. To do so, they would have to
acknowledge the systemic violence they have accepted and promoted by
scapegoating homosexuals. Policies produce practices, and when a taboo is
constructed, it invariably becomes a temptation.
Prior to his fall, Haggard had been an admirably clear voice for broadening
evangelical activism to include support for environmental causes and
attention to poverty as a religious issue. One might now hope that
evangelicals and others continue to learn through his example -- by
recognizing with Augustine how desire is rooted in a social nexus.
References:
The full text of Ted Haggard's letter is available at the Colorado Springs
Gazette: http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1326184&secid=1.
Jon Pahl is Professor of the History of Christianity in North America at the
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, and a Fellow in the Center
for the Study of Religion at Princeton University.
----------
The current Religion and Culture Web Forum features "Justification and
Truth, Relativism and Pragmatism" by Daniel A. Arnold. To read this
article, please visit:
http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/webforum/index.shtml.
----------
Sightings comes from the <http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/>Martin Marty
Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Attribution
Columns may be quoted or republished in full, with attribution to the author
of the column, Sightings, and the Martin Marty Center at the University of
Chicago Divinity School.
Ted Haggard's "Sin" -- Jon Pahl
Now that some of the dust has settled from the unfortunate fall of
evangelical leader Ted Haggard -- who has confessed to being a "sinner" to
his congregation -- we can achieve some longer-range perspective on what it
all means.
I agree with Martin Marty that Rev. Haggard, along with his family and all
those involved in this scandal, deserves compassion, and one wishes him
peace (see "Considering Ted Haggard's Plight," Sightings, November 6). But
Haggard's letter to his church reveals a truncated understanding of sin and
a failure to recognize how the movement he led as President of the National
Association of Evangelicals is in part responsible for his plight.
Like most evangelicals, Haggard is the theological heir of Saint Augustine,
finding sin in pride and lust. Unlike Augustine, however, Haggard sees
pride and lust as personal attributes. "I alone am responsible," he asserts
in his letter. "I created this entire situation," he reiterates. And yet a
third time he says, "It was created 100 percent by me."
Augustine has a more sophisticated understanding of the origins of sinful
desire. In his Confessions, he reveals how sin arises from within a social
nexus. In the famous account in Book 2, he describes stealing a bunch of
pears with a gang of his friends. He did this not because he was hungry,
but because it was transgressive. He and his friends constructed a foul
desire and then he acted on it.
A similar dynamic can be observed among many conservative evangelicals with
regard to homosexuality. By targeting gay sex as "sin," the religious right
has mobilized "values voters." But by scapegoating homosexuality, they draw
attention to it as "temptation." As Haggard puts it: "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." It is as if the religious right's culture war has played
out in Ted Haggard's soul. As an individual willing to carry the blame as
a "sinner," he acted out the scapegoating that has in part organized power
for the movement he led.
In its mild form, this scapegoating of homosexuals has been expressed in
"Defense of Marriage" laws, one of which passed in the recent elections in
Colorado. Haggard was a vocal supporter of these laws. Such tension between
his public person and his private behavior must have been excruciating. A
more extreme form of this logic has led to movements like that of the Rev.
Fred Phelps's "God Hates Fags" campaign. Passion for "purity" against
homosexual desire has been used to rally evangelical righteousness, and to
round up voters.
Consequently, those who feel homosexual desire and who are also persuaded by
the logic of a Phelps will likely bear a degree of self-hatred that leads to
isolation and repression. Haggard would appear to be in such a position.
"For extended periods of time," Haggard writes, "I would enjoy victory and
rejoice in freedom. Then, from time to time, the dirt that I thought was
gone would resurface, and I would find myself thinking thoughts and
experiencing desires that were contrary to everything I believe and teach."
But what Haggard does not seem to recognize, as Augustine did, is how his
desires were in part the result of what he believed and taught. Augustine
demonstrates that a dirty desire is desirable precisely because it is dirty.
Similarly, Haggard, I believe, was actually possessed by the social
constructions of the very movement he led. He suggests as much when he
reveals that "when I stopped communicating about my problems, the darkness
increased and finally dominated me." But a problem can only dominate one in
this way when it is constructed as a problem. If, say, gay sex were
considered good within a committed, loving, and publicly recognized
relationship, it would not pose a moral threat.
According to Augustine, an individual either participates in God, who is
gracious and life-fulfilling love, or one falls into lust, which is prideful
assertion of one's desires to dominate. The religious right has had plenty
of experience with domination lately. It is more than a little disturbing,
then, that Haggard, in his letter, imagines that he will be "healed" when
his "sins" are "dealt with harshly," and when, with the "oversight" of
leading anti-gay pastors Dr. James Dobson, Jack Hayford, and Tommy Barnett,
he is "disciplined." (Dobson has since withdrawn from the counseling team.)
It is unlikely that those in this group will actually confess their
collective responsibility for Haggard's sins. To do so, they would have to
acknowledge the systemic violence they have accepted and promoted by
scapegoating homosexuals. Policies produce practices, and when a taboo is
constructed, it invariably becomes a temptation.
Prior to his fall, Haggard had been an admirably clear voice for broadening
evangelical activism to include support for environmental causes and
attention to poverty as a religious issue. One might now hope that
evangelicals and others continue to learn through his example -- by
recognizing with Augustine how desire is rooted in a social nexus.
References:
The full text of Ted Haggard's letter is available at the Colorado Springs
Gazette: http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1326184&secid=1.
Jon Pahl is Professor of the History of Christianity in North America at the
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, and a Fellow in the Center
for the Study of Religion at Princeton University.
----------
The current Religion and Culture Web Forum features "Justification and
Truth, Relativism and Pragmatism" by Daniel A. Arnold. To read this
article, please visit:
http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/webforum/index.shtml.
----------
Sightings comes from the <http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/>Martin Marty
Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Attribution
Columns may be quoted or republished in full, with attribution to the author
of the column, Sightings, and the Martin Marty Center at the University of
Chicago Divinity School.
--
Shalom! Rowland Croucher
'It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know
for sure that just ain't so' (Mark Twain)
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/ - 18,400 articles/ 4000 humour
Shalom! Rowland Croucher
'It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know
for sure that just ain't so' (Mark Twain)
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/ - 18,400 articles/ 4000 humour