Posted by Ir (Helen) on: 11.10.2006 /
Jon Stewart mercilessly makes fun of Ted Haggard in this clip (you have been warned).
Of course Ted Haggard’s Christian friends would never do anything like make fun of him this way. What are we seeing from them? “I don’t have time to counsel him” - James Dobson. “Don’t blame us - we didn’t know about it!” - the NAE. I have to say, their supportiveness isn’t exactly blowing me away.
Comment by: David H
1Stewart is painfully sarcastic and funny, but makes many solid points, including his conclusion. “There is glory all around you, reverend, just not in a hole.”
Comment by: Ir (Helen)
2Yes, I thought he made many good points too, David.
Comment by: Jim Henderson
3the link is dead
Comment by: Eliza
4Video removed by user, it says at YouTube (and every site that mentions the video seems to have linked to YouTube - I can’t find another “copy” of it).
This late night political jokes site turned up as I was searching for the video; I don’t know if they’re from that same clip (they are from 11/6):
“Reverend Ted Haggard, president of the 30 million member National Association of Evangelicals, resigned his post this weekend after admitting to a three-year relationship with a gay hooker. Oh, and he also used and purchased crystal meth. Because if you’re the head of a gay-hating organization and you’re having a gay affair, why not go nuts?” –Jon Stewart
“Haggard was exposed by a male escort named Mike Jones, who said he was troubled by the hypocrisy of Haggard’s public support for a Colorado initiative to ban same-sex marriage. And you know you’re in trouble when you’ve ceded the moral high ground to a drug-dealing prostitute.” –Jon Stewart
Comment by: Ir (Helen)
5I updated the link: it works now.
Comment by: Eliza
6Helen - thanks!
Jon Stewart does know how to skewer by pointing out hypocrisy, doesn’t he? The clips of Haggard from Jesus Camp were over-the-top irony. Wonder how this clip comes across to gays, both closeted and “out”? Is there too much stereotyping?
Comment by: Ir (Helen)
7Yes, he sure can point out hypocrisy well! That’s an interesting question about how gay people would feel about that clip.
Comment by: Brian
8He does make a great point - “Don’t give the moral highground to a drug dealing male prosistute.”
It’s sad to see that the prositute’s conscience got to him before the ministers.
Comment by: Eliza
9Brian - Interesting, I think we have a bit different “take” on Stewart’s comments.
The minister’s conscience was probably getting to him quite a bit, I’d guess, but in a way he kept very private (as long as he could).
It’s interesting that you comment on “the prostitute’s conscience” - his conscience was telling him that what Haggard was saying publicly and doing privately was hypocritical, not that what he and Haggard were doing was wrong. For Mike Jones, it sounds like it was a routine business deal - sex for money, up front. Some people argue that prostitution (and small-scale drug production and use) are victimless crimes, aren’t immoral, and should be legal. I’m guessing that Mike Jones, the prostitute, didn’t/doesn’t have a guilty conscience about his role in the relationship they had.