Ted Haggard Biography

Ted Haggard was a leading American evangelical preacher when he became entangled in a sex scandal in 2006. Haggard graduated from Oral Roberts University in 1978, and in 1985 he and his wife Gayle founded the New Life Church in their basement in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The church flourished; by 2006 the New Life Church had 14,000 members, Haggard had become president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), and Harpers magazine had reported that “No pastor in America holds more sway over the political direction of evangelicalism than does Pastor Ted.” In November of 2006, however, a Denver man named Michael Jones claimed that Haggard had paid him for sex monthly for three years and had taken methamphetamine during those encounters. After first denying Jones’s claims, Haggard admitted that they were largely true, stating on camera that he had purchased illegal drugs but didn’t use them; he resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was removed as pastor of New Life Church. As part of his severance agreement, he agreed to leave Colorado Springs; he and his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona in April of 2007. Haggard resurfaced in 2011 with a cable television reality series, Scandalous.