One of the things that stands out is the lack of clarity with which Haggard answers questions. There seems to be a sort of fog over most of his answers.
But the most important thing that stands out is the absence of the holiness of God, the cross of Christ, the nature of sin, and the necessity of repentance.
It is very sad to hear about the sort of counseling that Haggard received.
When I started in counseling, I thought I was a spiritual disaster and a complete idiot for what I'd done. And the counselor started out by saying "You're spiritually OK." He asked, "Have you repented?" Yes. "Have you memorized scripture?" Yes. "Have you been through inner healing?" Yes. He said, "According to the Bible, you are in fine relationship with the Lord Jesus." And I said I think I am. I love Him. I've never rebelled against him willingly. This has been a wrestling in my life, never an acceptance thing.One thing seems to be consistent throughout this entire ordeal: Haggard regards himself as the consummate victim--the victim of his own brain (he never willingly rebelled) and a victim of his church.And then he said, "You are rationale—have you read books on the subject?" Yes. And he said "Ted, if you could pray about this and be OK, you would have done it. If you could think about this and rationalize your own life, you would have done it. This is not spiritual nor reasonable. It is physiological." And he started to teach me how the brain works. And in that process, over two years, I've grown in eliminating the incongruities in my life. I've learned physiologically how the brain works and how that related to sexuality.
