Who is Ted Haggard?

Before the recent well-publicized events I knew little about Ted Haggard but his name. I suspect that is true of most evangelicals. At GetReligion [via RightWingBob] there is some information about the role he has played in the Evangelical community:

"Over the past few days, I have been watching the coverage of the Rev. Ted Haggard fiasco carefully to see how many journalists understand one of the most important facts in this story.

What is that fact? Haggard is not a leader of the old Religious Right. For many people, he was the charismatic face of a more moderate brand of evangelicalism that backs the traditional Christian doctrines on the hot issues linked to sex and marriage, but also carries that “Culture of Life” emphasis over into discussions of poverty, the environment, the spread of AIDS, economic justice in the Third World and other issues.

Yet, at the same time, he was one of the new “moderate” evangelicals who had not lost the trust of the old-guard evangelical alpha males symbolized by Dr. James Dobson and Charles Colson. Haggard was a bridge personality, in other words. This made him an important figure for the White House, since he was an evangelical — but not among the old faces that everyone is used to seeing on the cable TV shows (think Pat Robertson) that President Bush has avoided like the plague." [The entire posting]

Haggard resigns.

"In a letter read from the pulpit of Colorado Springs's New Life Church, former pastor Ted Haggard admitted that allegations against him are tru

"The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality," he said. "I am a deceiver and a liar. There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring about it for my entire life. ... The accusations that have been leveled against me are not all true but enough of them are true. ... The things that I did opened the door to additional allegations."

HolyCoast comments:

"That whole thing is really sad. Now we'll find out if New Life Church was built on the message or on the man."