Can the News Get Any Weirder?

You know, you really can't make up things any more weird than the stories in the news. We have a married female astronaut putting on a diaper, driving from Houston to Florida to allegedly kill a rival for the affections of another astronaut. I have heard of compulsive gamblers wearing diapers so they don't have to get up from their “lucky” slot machine, and as crazy as that sounds, this one is even more odd. Obviously, this is a person who has no business at the controls of a space shuttle. She must have been very good at giving all the right answers on her personality profiles at NASA, or she has just recently gone off the deep end.

Then we have the sad tale of Ted Haggard, the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the founding pastor of the huge New Life Church in Colorado Springs, and confidant of President Bush. Haggard, as has been widely reported, was exposed for carrying on a homosexual affair with a male prostitute, buying drugs from him, and in general, living a double life. I can only imagine the cognitive dissonance Haggard must have been living with, but what made it even more bizarre is that he was a vocal opponent of equal rights for gays.

Now, after three weeks of a restoration ministry, Haggard has declared the process has convinced him he is “completely heterosexual”. Somehow, if he were completely heterosexual, I doubt he would have carried on a gay affair for several years. While I don't believe being gay is something someone chooses, preaching one thing and doing another is absolutely wrong. I also find it incredible that someone would make a crusade of denying equal rights to homosexuals, all the while maintaining a gay relationship.

Obviously, the former pastor has been wrestling with his own set of issues, but I hope that his exposure as a hypocrite will serve to teach people that those to whom we look for guidance are often not at all qualified to give advice. Sometimes, such gurus are far less qualified counsel than if we just develop and use our own critical thinking skills.