Morality Tale: A Pastor's Fall From Grace

Last spring, Jones was watching television when he saw a familiar face speaking in a History Channel documentary on the Antichrist. "Oh, my God," he thought, "that's Art." The next day at the gym he saw Haggard on television again. An Internet search showed Haggard to be an international figure.

The relationship continued, Jones says, but he was becoming increasingly troubled. The minister was among the most prominent supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Colorado, on the ballot this fall. "I don't understand it," Haggard told The New Republic in 1996, when asked what he thought of gay-pride parades. "It would be like having Murderer's Pride Day."

As Haggard grew more prominent in evangelical circles, though, he seemed less quick to press the gay issue. Under his leadership, the NAE urged Christians to de-emphasize cultural issues and focus more on human rights and the environment. He even applauded the Supreme Court's 2003 decision striking down state sodomy laws.

Jones says his relationship with Haggard ended this past August. Not long after, Jones approached a Denver television station with his story. (The station did not air Jones's claims until he went public on a radio show last week.) Meanwhile, Haggard was showing signs of strain. In an Oct. 12 conference call with NAE's executive committee, NEWSWEEK has learned, he offered to resign as president, citing overwork. Offering more support, the group persuaded him to stay. "Maybe he had a premonition," says an NAE official, anonymously discussing personnel matters.

After the sex-and-meth allegations, NAE officials quickly downplayed Haggard's Washington ties. ("I'm sure the president has met him on more than one occasion," said a senior Bush aide, who asked for anonymity discussing a politically sen-sitive scandal. "But this isn't a name the president would instinctively know.") Some found the timing of the incident--five days before the midterm elections--suspicious. Still, Jones says he came forward on his own.

Haggard's parishioners say they'll pray for him. Earlier this year Haggard appeared on the faith Web site Beliefnet and said it is "easy" to have a happy family. "It is not hard if you lose your life for the one you're marrying and your children," he said. But after three decades battling Satan on earth, Haggard may have fallen victim to the demons within himself.

With Karen Breslau, Richard Wolffe and Susan Moran

© 2006