Ye venerate me; but what if your veneration should some day collapse?

(Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche)

The day before Ted Haggard confessed to “lifelong sexual immorality,” Lance Coles, a longtime friend of Haggard and the administrative pastor for New Life Church, told the Denver Post, “I know who he is at his core.”

Apparently he didn’t.

Even as Haggard was continuing to deny the worst of the charges in public, he had already confessed to church board members that he was guilty.

But Haggard, known as Pastor Ted to his congregation and as Art to the 49-year-old bodybuilder-turned-prostitute who outed him, is just one man, right?

No, he’s the man, as in the president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), as well as one of the White House’s go-to men on evangelical issues who participated in weekly conference calls with Karl Rove and was consulted on the administration’s Supreme Court nominees.

In a letter to his congregation that was read Sunday, Haggard wrote, “… there is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life.”

Unfortunately, that statement is what defines gays in most evangelicals’ eyes. To most, we’re all miserable, self-hating people who lead dark, repulsive lives. And if we would just pray hard enough God would make us straight. Prayer didn’t seem to help Pastor Ted.

Or are we expected to assume the devil’s desire that Pastor Ted pay prostitutes for sex and drugs was stronger than God’s desire for him to lead and honest life?

A crestfallen Haggard supporter provided what will undoubtedly become the official evangelical talking points:

“It could give Christians a bad name. But I think we all do make mistakes, and I feel awful for his family, and I don’t want to believe it’s true.”

If “it” means hypocrisy, then yeah.

Mistake? A mistake is pouring bleach into a washer full of dark colors. Haggard’s downfall was the result of living a lie for fifty years. That’s not a mistake. It’s a major character flaw. As for not wanting to believe “it’s” true, the keyword is “wanting.”

Gay people, after all, are boogey men who want to get married so they can destroy Western culture. Isn’t that what Art – uh Pastor Ted – used to preach?

Damage control was immediate. The NAE scrubbed its entire Web site of everything except the main page. Why? They don’t want critics to find photos or statements that venerate their disgraced leader.

Russell Allsup, who railed on this page against the evil influence of pornography, might argue that the only logical result of viewing gay pornography is paying a gay prostitute for sex and meth.

Everyone is entitled to his opinion, but not facts.

Ted Haggard did not hire a gay hooker because he viewed too much gay pornography. He hired a gay prostitute because he was living a lie, and a prostitute was a discreet outlet for his sexuality – or so he thought.

Unfortunately for millions of gay Christians, fear of eternal damnation or fear of being shunned keeps men like Haggard and Foley from living honest lives.

Arianna Huffington, one-time darling of the political Right and ex-wife of Republican Congressman Michael Huffington, put it this way: “Mark Foley and Ted Haggard are textbook examples of how the relentless denial of reality perverts judgment and rots the soul. Same with the Bushies.”

Huffington knows of what she speaks. In 1998, her then ex-husband came out of the closet.

Last week, I wrote about Charlie Crist, the Republican candidate for governor of Florida. Most Republicans polled have said the rumors don’t surprise them, and many stated that Crist’s sexuality wouldn’t be a factor in their decision-making.

And it shouldn’t. The reality, however, is that evangelicals won’t vote for an openly gay man. Closeted ones are a different matter. Mark Foley, the disgraced Florida Republican who groomed underage boys online for sex, was just one.

Toward the end of his term, Foley, whose sexuality was an open secret in Washington, complained that Bush was refusing to appear with him at political events in Florida.

Ironically, this time it’s the candidate rumored to be gay who is refusing to be seen with Bush. Yesterday, Bush flew to Florida to campaign for Crist, and Crist was nowhere to be found.

If recent events are any indication, Crist’s sexuality will come out. Just as Mark Foley’s and Haggard’s did.

The only question is whether the revelation will be tied to a career-ending scandal like those that brought down Foley and Haggard.

The fact that Haggard confessed to struggling with his homosexuality his entire life, yet was able to fool 30 million evangelicals, should give pause to the so-called values-voters.

Perhaps evangelical author David Kuo’s advice to his fellow evangelicals to fast from politics isn’t a bad idea. Let’s face it. They don’t have the best track record choosing leaders.

Anyone else still contemplating voting for Republicans should consider the following admonition from an editorial-aptly titled “GOP Must GO”-in the current edition of The American Conservative:

“[A] decisive ‘No’ vote on the Bush presidency is important for the health of the nation.”

From their lips to God’s ears.

George Henson is a Spanish professor at SMU. He can be reached at [email protected].