The senior pastor of a suburban Denver evangelical church resigned Sunday after admitting to having had sexual relations with men. The move apparently came after the pastor was confronted by another minister in his church who had been alerted by an anonymous caller, The Denver Post reported.
The resignation of the pastor, the Rev. Paul Barnes, from the pulpit of the 2,100-member Grace Chapel megachurch in Englewood came by way of a tearful, 32-minute videotaped address to his congregation.
His departure occurred a month after the Rev. Ted Haggard quit as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs when a former male prostitute disclosed that Mr. Haggard had had a sexual relationship with him.
Dave Palmer, the associate pastor of Grace Chapel, told The Post that the church received a call last week from a person who had overheard someone speak of “blowing the whistle” on other evangelical ministers in clandestine homosexual relationships, among them Mr. Barnes. Mr. Palmer then spoke with Mr. Barnes.
A spokeswoman for Grace Chapel said that church leaders had declined to comment further. A statement issued by the church on Sunday said that Mr. Barnes, who founded Grace Chapel 28 years ago, had confessed to infidelity; it did not mention homosexuality.
Mr. Barnes said in his address that he had struggled with his attraction to men since he was 5, The Post said. The only time Mr. Barnes said he had talked to his father about sex, his father told him what he would do if a gay man, for which he used a derogatory term, walked up to him.
I guess that is what the church leaders in Grace Chapel are probably asking, now that Barnes resignation has come just on the heels of Ted Haggard's admission to both having gay sex and abusing drugs. I'm just amazed at the hypocrisy here among the evangelical church leaders--I won't say yet if Haggard and Barnes are among the, but not would not be surprised--who were probably screaming that them gay sinners were going to hell, while at the same time having gay sex on the side.
I don't know what else to say but, WTF?
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