Denver, USA - The New Life Church, a nationally known evangelical institution that fired its founding pastor, Ted Haggard, in 2006 over accusations that he had had sex with a male prostitute, made payments starting in 2007 to a young male church member who had a relationship with Mr. Haggard before the dismissal, the church’s pastor told worshipers on Sunday.
The payments — part of a confidential legal settlement in 2007 that included money for counseling and college expenses — came from insurance money, not donations from members, the senior pastor of New Life, Brady Boyd, said in his sermon at the church in Colorado Springs.
Mr. Boyd said in an interview on Monday that the payments, and what has now amounted to second body blow of scandal, were kept quiet for two years partly because of legal constraints, and partly because of ministerial confidentiality rules, since the man had sought out church authorities for counseling about the affair. Mr. Boyd declined to identify the young man, but said he is now in his 20s and was over 18 at the time of the relationship. Mr. Haggard is now 52.
Mr. Boyd said he had decided to break the silence because the young man called a few weeks ago and said he was thinking of going public himself.
“We weren’t hiding him — we were trying to do the honorable thing,” Mr. Boyd said in the interview. He described the legal agreement in 2007 as, “not so a much a settlement as it was compassionate assistance — we were trying to help the young man by being discreet.”
Mr. Haggard could not be reached for comment.
But in an e-mail statement issued by a public relations firm for an HBO documentary about Mr. Haggard, he said there had been “no physical contact” with the young man, though he said he had asked forgiveness for what he described as an “inappropriate relationship.”
In an interview with The Associated Press this month, Mr. Haggard said he was selling insurance and debt-reduction software and that his sexual identity was hard to pin down. “The stereotypical boxes don’t work for me,” he said. “My story’s got some gray areas in it. And, of course, I’m sad about that, but it’s the reality.”
The news opens not only another chapter in Mr. Haggard’s story, but also a whole new set of tangled questions about what was known of the pastor’s life. It also comes, not entirely by coincidence, just a few days before the HBO documentary, “The Trials of Ted Haggard,” is broadcast, beginning Thursday.
Mr. Boyd said the church’s disclosure was forced when the young man, who no longer attends New Life, called a few weeks ago and told church leaders he was so angered by advertising for the film, which he said seemed overly sympathetic to Mr. Haggard, that he was thinking of breaking his silence.
An on-screen acknowledgment of the new accusations will be added to the end of the film, HBO said Monday, but the film will not be re-edited.
“My film is not about whether Ted had one indiscretion or 1,000,” the film’s director, Alexandra Pelosi, said in an interview. “Clearly he has issues. This film is about what happened to a man and his family after his fall from grace.”
A spokeswoman for HBO, Lana Iny, said that Mr. Haggard did not receive payment for appearing in the documentary but that he had received an honorarium within the past month to help promote it.
Mr. Boyd said that “a handful” of other church members who had been involved with or witnessed “inappropriate behavior” by Mr. Haggard also came forward in 2007, but that church trustees and staff members were aware of no accusations before Mr. Haggard’s dismissal in November 2006. He said there had been no other legal settlements.
But in an e-mail message late last week to church members, he said the inquiry into Mr. Haggard’s legacy would continue.
“Our concern has been and continues to be for every person affected,” Mr. Boyd wrote. “We renew our invitation today for anyone who believes he or she has been hurt to please come forward.”
New Life, which had more than 12,000 members before the scandal, now has about 10,500, Mr. Boyd said. About 3,000 people left after Mr. Haggard’s firing, but about 1,500 have since joined.
One of the church’s associate pastors, Mike Steczo, who has been a member of New Life for 15 years and on its staff for 8, said he thought the congregation would survive this new trial.
“They support Pastor Brady, and they believe in him,” Mr. Steczo said. “We’re moving forward. The past wounds are not going to define our future.”
But Mr. Boyd also took pains in his sermon on Sunday to say that neither the pain nor the exploration of what went wrong under Mr. Haggard’s leadership was over.
“I wish as a pastor I could give you a simple answer,” he said. “Unfortunately, things are very complex.”