By Mark Barna
The Gazette
January 25, 2009
http://www.gazette.com/articles/haggard_46877___article.html/new_life.html
New Life Church used insurance money, not tithes or donations, to pay for a legal settlement to the man alleging a sexual relationship with Ted Haggard, the Rev. Brady Boyd told congregants Sunday.
The settlement, Boyd said, was kept quiet to honor the confidentiality rules observed by clergy.
"While scandal and tragedy have been part of our past, it will not define our future," Boyd told about 5,000 in attendance.
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| New Life Church senior pastor Brady Boyd prayed Sunday with congregants. Photo by Jerilee Bennett |
Boyd's sermon on forgiveness, a theme chosen weeks ago, added special meaning given the circumstances. "This past week might have stirred up wounds," Boyd said, "but that doesn't mean you haven't forgiven."
New Life has been reeling since Thursday, when it was notified that a former church volunteer was going public about his sexual relationship with Haggard while Haggard was pastor and would reveal that the church paid him money. Friday, Boyd sent out an e-mail to inform thousands of members that a legal settlement had been reached with the man, who was in his early 20s at the time of the reported relationship.
Reaction Sunday from congregants about the latest trouble was mixed.
Randy Welsch was New Life's lead elder in 2006, when Haggard's sexual relationship with a gay prostitute was discovered. A New Life member from 1993 till November 2008, he attended Boyd's Sunday service out of curiosity.
Welsch called into question the degree to which New Life has forgiven Haggard, who resigned in November 2006.
"The church has not had a chance to forgive Ted because everybody has hushed up about him," Welsch said. "There is so much focus on preserving the corporation rather than building the body of Christ."
Welsch also said the church showed little empathy after exiling Haggard out of the state as part of his severance agreement. "All that talk about restoring Haggard was nonsense," Welsch said. "They wanted to be done with him."
But Welsch said the founder of New Life is not an innocent party. "He is painting himself as a victim," he said.
Welsch said he asked Haggard on Saturday about the new sexual allegations against him, and Haggard replied that there was no physical contact between him and the volunteer.
Haggard, the subject of an HBO documentary "The Trials of Ted Haggard," which will premiere Thursday, declined to comment.
Bruce Murray, a 72-year-old church member, said he was unhappy that the former volunteer was paid a settlement and that he felt sympathy for Haggard.
"I still think Ted Haggard can do a lot of good in the ministry," Murray said. "I have a lot of remorse over what has happened."
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