Finally

This will be my last Haggard post, I think. See, here's the deal: for the liberal, post-Evangelical, confused agnostically-leaning dude (like myself), guys like Haggard pose a big problem. Because they say they've heard and seen and know, when we are saying you can't know or see or hear. But they say it with such conviction and power, that sometimes, people like me go, Well, maybe people like Haggard are right. It feels so right. Then something like this happens and you can see, clearly, that all that hearing and seeing and knowing was really just an act. And what is real is a man who doesn't really know, who is an awful lot like me (minus, of course, the meth and the male whore).

This isn't about Iraq (obviously). Don't go vote Democratic because Haggard is an asshole. It isn't about whether the Bible is right or not. It's about people who shout and who tell other people what to do. It's about a man condemning homosexuality while being secretly gay. I would have all the respect in the world for him if he had admitted to being gay before all of this, and still said he felt it was wrong. Great, no problem. But the sins the pious seem quick to admit are never the real ones. If you live with it enough, you begin to see that.

Sullivan gets it right again:

Please: Don't exculpate him. But don't demonize him either. He is human; and our calling as Christians is to understand, help and love. That's hard, so hard. The Christian calling is to love one another. Not to pass laws or elect parties. Do we understand how hard it is to simply love one another? Isn't that enough for Christians? Isn't that enough to fill our lives, without politicizing the world?