Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard gave a documentary filmmaker a behind-the-scenes look at his life in exile after a 2006 sex scandal and will help promote the film — two years after accepting an agreement with his former church that barred him from talking publicly about his fall.
“The Trials of Ted Haggard,” directed by Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is set to air next month on HBO. Haggard has agreed to take part in publicity for the project, HBO said.
Haggard’s latest return to the public eye comes after he re-emerged last month at a rural Illinois church, where he delivered guest sermons and said he was sexually abused as a second-grader.
Haggard, 52, resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was fired as senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., in November 2006 after a former male prostitute went public with allegations that Haggard paid him for sex and used methamphetamine.
Haggard, a married father of five, said he bought the drugs but never used them. He confessed to undisclosed “sexual immorality” and has said, “I really did sin.”
A Web site for a Toronto-based entertainment company that promotes HBO and other television projects describes it as “a behind-scenes-look at the rise and fall of Pastor Ted Haggard.”
Haggard was not excommunicated, but rather dismissed as pastor by a church oversight board. Under a severance deal with New Life Church, Haggard agreed to leave Colorado Springs and not talk about the scandal publicly, church officials said at the time. He received a year’s salary, or about $130,000.
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