What Ted Haggard Tells Us About The Emergent

Ted Haggard aint Emergent, right? Yeah, that's right. So?

Evangelicalism has something deadly in common with the Emergent Obfuscation. What sort of gospel did Ted Haggard preach? Was it what was once delivered to the saints? He claimed that he was intent on emphasizing the positive, not negatives like sin and judgment. For a really quick verification of that listen to his answer when he is asked in this interview if he thinks sodomy is wrong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMAInacGOEo. The interviewer couldn't get a straight yes or no answer if she paid him. Notice he speaks of traditional values, not biblical values. Also, notice how natural lying seems to be for him.

This is not the gospel. It's apostacy and it is so pervasive in Evangelicalism that it has become accepted by most of us.

This is the common thread between Schleiermacher, Barth, Tillich, modern Evangelicalism, and the Emergent. All, in their respective times and cultures, tried to remake the gospel (a new kind of Christian I guess you could say) to fit with their time and culture. We call it contextualization. John called that loving the world. And hating God.

The end result is that sin is not properly hated. Grace is not fully appreciated. And judgment comes.

One difference, though--Haggard tried to hide his sin. The Emergent applauds sin.

In Christ,
Phil Perkins.