While we’re on the subject of religion, let’s take a little mosey on over to Devil’s Lake, N.D. Appropriately enough, Devil’s Lake is home to the Pentecostal youth camp at which disgraced pastor Ted Haggard preached in the movie, Jesus Camp.
Or, at least, it was. It seems that with the fall-out since Haggard’s admittance of “sexual immorality” and subsequent “spiritual recounseling” retreat, the camp’s gained a bit of negative notoriety. Thus, they’ve decided to shut their welcoming, heavenly doors. The Seattle Times reports:
The summer camp featured in the documentary “Jesus Camp,” which includes scenes with disgraced preacher Ted Haggard, will shut down for at least several years because of negative reaction sparked by the film, according to the camp’s director.
“Right now we’re just not a safe ministry,” Becky Fischer, the fiery Pentecostal pastor featured in “Jesus Camp,” said Tuesday.
We’re sorry, but we didn’t really think that the camp was safe in the first place. Neither, it seems, do a few other people, who’ve accused Fischer and her friends of brain-washing the children.
In case you haven’t seen the movie, Jesus Camp, there’s a scene in which Haggard rejects any homosexual debate because “It’s written in the Bible”. After which, according to the Times:
How about we take this to the next level?
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Haggard looks into the camera and says kiddingly: “I think I know what you did last night,” drawing laughs from the crowd. “If you send me a thousand dollars, I won’t tell your wife.”
You know, because he needs the money to buy meth and massages from a gay hooker. Seriously, those are both expensive habits. (Also, does meth come up anywhere in the Bible?)
Can we just say that we love all of this: sure, we feel a little bad that Haggard’s friend James Dobson‘s given up on saving his soul, but there’s so much fucking irony here, it’s beginning to look like the Lower East Side.
Peter LeCornu
The essence of every financially successful evangelical leader — and Haggard would have to be near the top in $ — is being a shameless huckster. They have to be able to fake all emotions, lie all the time with total sincerity. And lie to the very end. Just look at Haggard, he never got beyond the laughable massage and only purchasing drugs story. This particular Jesus camp will close but Haggard’s bank account will keep growing. There’s always a follower or two — like the thousands of Rock Hudson fans who NEVER believed he was gay or had AIDS — who will remember Haggard in their wills, as he would want them to.