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Pursuit Of The Good Life: Advancing on your spiritual journey

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Jesus told the disciples to fellowship with the tax collectors and prostitutes, he didn't say to solicit them for drugs and sex. Perhaps Pastor Ted just needs a new pair of reading spectacles or perhaps his exegesis is severely flawed. Just imagine fourteen thousand people in a room hearing that the man they revered and followed for years is a hypocrite! I bet you can purchase a fair amount of methamphetamines on a New Life Church salary; six figures minimum, no doubt. The explanation of how Pastor Ted fell of the righteous path can be unearthed in his misapprehension of ancient Hebrew edifices. In applying the work to his own life he unwittingly misconstrued the object of his lesson on symbolism. Hey, it's a tabernacle pastor, it's not a crack house, and most assuredly is no bordello! A pair of bifocal lenses could have saved him a precipitous humiliation in front of thirty million evangelical Americans. The twisted irony is that this scandal may very well spike his book sales.

As you can see from the other reviews, Mr. Haggard's behavior has given people ample room to ridicule his books directly, and I'm not saying he doesn't deserve every bit of it. However, I'm sure many unbelievers will use his behavior as fuel for ridiculing Christians in general. As Luke 17:1-2 says: "Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offenses will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones."

As for Mr. Haggard's theology - and I had to hunt through a bunch of recent comic blogs to find a genuine interview/article pre-controversy - he seems to think the bigger the better, and that incorporating capitalist philosophy and hip-hop into his church's activities are perfectly fine. It is no wonder that there would eventually be a bad outcome. This is like the parable of the mustard seed where "... a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof." (Matthew 13:31-32). Now many people interpret this as a great thing of God - such a great plant coming from such a tiny seed. In fact, the proper life of the mustard seed in this parable has been completely distorted into something contrary to the life of a mustard plant. Such is the case with most of these megachurches. God is interested in the believers pursuing Christ, not the good life.