Spring Break
New Life cover-up prolongs pain for congregants
Sean Reed
Issue date: 1/26/09 Section: Opinion
And it all goes wrong again.
Just as the dust had finally seemed to settle following the sex scandal that rocked New Life Church, recent events have brought the Colorado Springs megachurch back to the forefront of the national news. And, surprisingly, it has nothing to do with disgraced pastor Ted Haggard's tell-all special on HBO.
On Friday, the Associated Press reported that another potential bedfellow of Haggard's has decided to come forward, much to the dismay of the current leadership of the church he helped build.
This new allegation comes in the form of an unnamed former New Life volunteer who plans to make his story public sometime later today.
What is known at this point is that that person in question was in his early 20s at the time and had an ongoing consensual relationship with the pastor that ended sometime before Haggard's higher profile outing by male prostitute Mike Jones.
The church, of course, is making it well known that it is upset with this turn of events and is very concerned that it will reopen the old wounds left over from the first scandal, which is why it put so much effort into keeping it quiet.
And they almost pulled it off.
This new revelation is, of course, no new news to New Life. Just weeks following the break of the initial scandal, the volunteer came forward to the church about his alleged relationship with the former pastor, according to the Associated Press.
Following a legal settlement, the church agreed to pay for counseling and, interestingly enough, the man's college tuition, provided he not come forward about his allegations.
Brady Boyd, current senior pastor at New Life, asserts that this was not "hush money" but rather "compassionate compensation" for a man put through an ordeal.
Well, he can go ahead and call it whatever he likes. The reality is that they paid this volunteer off to keep his mouth shut to avoid further damage to the church, and in the process, they may have damaged the church more than they even realize.
Just as the dust had finally seemed to settle following the sex scandal that rocked New Life Church, recent events have brought the Colorado Springs megachurch back to the forefront of the national news. And, surprisingly, it has nothing to do with disgraced pastor Ted Haggard's tell-all special on HBO.
On Friday, the Associated Press reported that another potential bedfellow of Haggard's has decided to come forward, much to the dismay of the current leadership of the church he helped build.
This new allegation comes in the form of an unnamed former New Life volunteer who plans to make his story public sometime later today.
What is known at this point is that that person in question was in his early 20s at the time and had an ongoing consensual relationship with the pastor that ended sometime before Haggard's higher profile outing by male prostitute Mike Jones.
The church, of course, is making it well known that it is upset with this turn of events and is very concerned that it will reopen the old wounds left over from the first scandal, which is why it put so much effort into keeping it quiet.
And they almost pulled it off.
This new revelation is, of course, no new news to New Life. Just weeks following the break of the initial scandal, the volunteer came forward to the church about his alleged relationship with the former pastor, according to the Associated Press.
Following a legal settlement, the church agreed to pay for counseling and, interestingly enough, the man's college tuition, provided he not come forward about his allegations.
Brady Boyd, current senior pastor at New Life, asserts that this was not "hush money" but rather "compassionate compensation" for a man put through an ordeal.
Well, he can go ahead and call it whatever he likes. The reality is that they paid this volunteer off to keep his mouth shut to avoid further damage to the church, and in the process, they may have damaged the church more than they even realize.
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