Religious welfare

[Guest skrubber]

Fallen Pastor Seeks Financial Support

By Associated Press

 

4 hours ago

 

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Rev. Ted Haggard, who left the megachurch he founded after admitting to "sexual immorality," has asked supporters for financial assistance while he and his wife pursue their studies.

 

The former New Life Church pastor plans to seek a master's degree in counseling at the University of Phoenix while his wife studies psychology, he said in an e-mail sent this week to KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs.

 

The couple and two of their sons planned to move Oct. 1 to the Phoenix Dream Center, a faith-based halfway house in Phoenix, where Haggard and his wife would provide counseling, the e-mail said.

 

"It looks as though it will take two years for us to have adequate earning power again, so we are looking for people who will help us monthly for two years," the e-mail said. "During that time we will continue as full-time students, and then, when I graduate, we won't need outside support any longer."

 

Haggard left the 10,000-member New Life Church late last year and resigned as head of the National Association of Evangelicals after a former male escort accused Haggard of paying him for sex.

 

Mike Ware, an overseer for New Life Church, told The Gazette of Colorado Springs on Friday that it was premature of Haggard to release the statement without first consulting the overseers.

 

A New Life spokesman did not immediately return a phone message left late Friday by The Associated Press.

 

Haggard received a salary of $115,000 for the 10 months he worked in 2006 and an $85,000 anniversary bonus before the scandal broke, The Gazette reported. Haggard's severance package included a year's salary of $138,000, and he collects royalties on his book titles, the newspaper reported.

 

El Paso County records show Haggard's home, which has been up for sale, has a market value of $715,051.

[Guest zipperzone]

I also read this on 365 Gay and could only shake my head in disbelief. Boy they sure have balls!

 

The sad part is that there is no doubt in my mind that the contributions will pour in and not only will they be supported, there will probably be enough money for toys such as a new Lexus and tropical vacations (and maybe even an extra buck or two for the occasional blowjob)

 

I wonder - would they have to pay tax on these donations?

[+ glutes]

I also posted this yesterday under the original thread on Faggard posted in War Politics Religion forum.

This AP article had a little more depth...

[Guest ncm2169]

And then there's the registered sex offender who's in charge of the "charity."

 

From AmericaBlog

 

Haggard, Families With a Mission, and the sex offender

by Pam Spaulding · 8/25/2007 06:59:00 AM ET

 

What on earth is that headline about? You'll recall that Ted Haggard, the former male escort client and meth purchaser, has started a new life in Arizona. The former head of New Life Church -- and graduate of a miraculous Dobson-approved three-week de-gaying program -- is also asking followers for a handout in a boldly insane letter (his $138K New Life severance will be cut off after the end of the year). In it he says:

 

Any help we can get with this will be greatly appreciated and, I believe, rewarded in heaven.

 

Haggard asks that checks be sent to an outfit called "Families With a Mission" in Colorado Springs with a separate note indicating the funds are for the Haggard family...

 

then Families With a Mission will mail us 90% of the funds for support and use 10% for administrative costs,

 

There's one problem. Actually several. Dan Savage at Slog passes on this mind-blowing news:

 

As posted earlier, local attorney and Slog reader Dave Coffman located documents on file with the Colorado Secretary of State that showed Families With a Mission "voluntarily dissolved" on February 23, 2007.

 

Hm. Weird -- who knew you could get a tax deduction from dissolved charity?

 

And it gets weirder: There's only one name on file with the Colorado Secretary of State in connection with Families With a Mission: Paul Huberty.

 

Huberty is the "registered agent" of Families With a Mission and the registered agent's mailing address -- POB 63125, Colorado Springs, CO 80962-3125 -- is the same address Haggard included in his letter to his supporters. Another address on file with the Colorado Secretary of State for Families With a Mission is 855 Pebble Creek Ct., Monument, CO 80132. That's the charity's "principal office mailing address."

 

Sigh. As with these fundie stories, you know we have not yet reached the moral values bottom of matters. Slog reader Dave Coffman did some investigating in public records and found out that Paul G. Huberty was convicted of "sodomy and indecent acts" with "a 17-year-old female who accompanied appellant and his family to Germany as his legal ward" (PDF here) while he was in the military and stationed there. When he moved to Hawaii, he had to register as a sex offender.

 

When Huberty left Hawaii, the forwarding address he left is -- you guessed it -- the address for the now-dissolved charity Families With a Mission.

 

Surf over to Slog -- there's plenty more.

[+ glutes]

Religious welfare, no more for Tweek'n Ted

 

Dobson's Dream Center put this out:

 

..."It was never the intention of the Dream Center that Mr. Haggard would provide any counsel or other ministry...Mr. Haggard will not be moving in or working with the Dream Center. He will not be doing any ministry. He will be seeking secular employment to support himself."

 

Dan Savage from Slog, whose reader Dave Coffman discovered Ted's request for cash was to flow through a dissolved non-profit run by a convicted sex offender, said:

 

Oh, man. What a great day. I fucking live for the day when every asshole out there bilking gullible Christians out of their hard-earned dough -- from the Nazi pope on down -- is told the same damn thing: Get a fucking job, you parasite.

[Guest zipperzone]

RE: Religious welfare, no more for Tweek'n Ted

 

>Oh, man. What a great day. I fucking live for the day when

>every asshole out there bilking gullible Christians out of

>their hard-earned dough -- from the Nazi pope on down -- is

>told the same damn thing: Get a fucking job, you parasite.

 

Well said and worth repeating - I especially like the bit about the Nazi pope:7