Scandal raises questions about 'superstar' pastors
Pastor Dale Morgan
Scandal raises questions about 'superstar' pastors*
'A kind of cult of personality that confuses the faith with a particular
individual'
By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer Friday, November 17, 2006
Pastor Ted's influence was felt everywhere in New Life Church: in the
videos shown at worship; in the New Life bookstore, which stocked books
he recommended. And in the story of the church itself. He started New
Life in his basement, building it into a 14,000-member nationally known
megachurch. As the Rev. Ted Haggard's fortunes rose, so did the church's.
So when Haggard fell spectacularly from grace in a scandal involving
drugs and allegations of gay sex, many wondered if New Life, so tied to
his public persona, would crash with him.
The answer has significance far beyond the Haggard tragedy. As
evangelical megachurches have sprung up around the country, concerns
have grown over whether superstar pastors help or hurt faith communities.
"When you get to these top 25 or 50 of the largest or most influential
churches, these pastors are clearly celebrities. They were the founders,
they created much of the growth and they are, in some sense, a god in
and of themselves," said Scott Thumma, a professor at Hartford Seminary
in Connecticut, who specializes in studying megachurches. "It's just
like a business where the name of the founder is, in fact, a trademark."
America has always had big-name preachers -- from Billy Sunday, the pro
baseball player turned evangelist, to Billy Graham. But the two were not
closely tied to a single church. Among today's best-known pastors, Rick
Warren has Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., Joel Osteen has
Lakewood Church in Houston, and Bishop T.D. Jakes has The Potter's House
in Dallas.
Graham and Sunday also worked in a vastly different media environment.
Modern-day celebrity pastors have Web sites, where they promote their
books, along with the DVDs, TV shows and films they produce, while
preaching internationally. With such high profiles, word of any
wrongdoing will spread quickly, intensifying the damage to them and
their congregations.
Haggard felt the impact firsthand last week. On Nov. 2, Mike Jones of
Denver came forward saying he had drug-fueled homosexual trysts
regularly with Haggard over the last few years.
The claims spread through the Internet, where they were placed
side-by-side with video and past news articles in which Haggard had
condemned gay marriage and had presented his family life, with wife
Gayle and their five children, as a model.
Haggard, 50, immediately resigned as president of the National
Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella group for about 45,000
conservative churches, and within days was fired by New Life in Colorado
Springs, Colo. In a letter read Sunday at New Life services, he did not
address the specifics of Jones' claims, but confessed he was guilty of
"sexual immorality."
New Life's reaction was swift -- yet most megachurches don't have such
effective oversight. Many have boards stacked with relatives, friends,
personal lawyers and hangers-on who wouldn't dare contradict the pastor,
said Bill Martin, a Rice University expert on evangelicals.
Nearly all megachurches are independent from a denomination -- an asset
for their flexibility, but a liability when it comes to checks on power.
By contrast, mainline Protestant denominations vet clergy credentials
and have elaborate systems of church tribunals, similar to civil courts,
that discipline errant ministers.
Some megachurch pastors are aware of the risk. They allow independent
audits of their finances and have elaborate rules meant to minimize any
chance of sex scandal.
With Haggard gone and the crisis easing, New Life members face a
different challenge: They must decide whether they wish to belong to a
church without the charismatic leader.
Nancy Ammerman, a Boston University sociologist who researches
congregational life, said the megachurch might be saved by its extensive
programs that create social groups within the church. New Life uses the
small group model, where churchgoers meet regularly with just a few
others, sometimes based on common interests outside of worship.
But Randall Balmer, a Barnard College historian of American religion,
said megachurches are so wrapped up with their pastor, that New Life
inevitably has hard times ahead. Without any creed or denominational
identity for the church to cling to, attendance will eventually drop by
half or more, he predicted.
"You have a kind of cult of personality that confuses the faith with a
particular individual," said Balmer, author of "Thy Kingdom Come: How
the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America." "I just
think it's very difficult to recover from this sort of thing."