The Reverend Ted Haggard moved Wednesday from his longtime home in Colorado Springs, Colo., to Phoenix, where the disgraced minister will join the same church that helped fallen televangelist Jim Bakker. Haggard, 50, resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals last year, after a former male prostitute alleged a three-year cash-for-sex relationship.The man also said he saw Haggard use methamphetamine. Haggard confessed to undisclosed ''sexual immorality'' and said he bought meth but never used it.
As part of his severance package from New Life Church, a 14,000-member congregation he started in his basement, Haggard agreed to leave Colorado Springs, a city he helped make an evangelical center.
''When he moved out of town today, there was a kind of relief on the part of the church that life can get back to normal,'' said the Reverend H.B. London, one of three ministers overseeing what has been called Haggard's ''restoration.'' ''For the Haggards, it is the beginning of a huge new chapter. It's a brand-new start for them, the beginning of a new beginning.''
Before his fall, Haggard was an emerging voice in evangelical politics. He took part in White House conference calls and fought to broaden the movement's agenda to include environmental issues.
[Yeah, three weeks in rehab and he is completely heterosexual.]
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