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A Time For CelebrationAm I surprised about the "comin's and goin's" of Ted Haggard? Not hardly. Haggard graduated from Oral Robert's University in Oklahoma. Roberts has been inducted into Oklahoma's Hall of Fame. If you teach at Oral Roberts, you better believe in speaking in tongues and "full belief in miracle healing;" Oral Roberts believed in miraculous, instantaneous healing. Got breast cancer? Laying his hands on the sufferer would most certainly heal.
I spent 20 years as a sponsor at Oklahoma State University's yearly Oklahoma State Special Olympics. It is a great celebration, but in all those years, I never saw any of the "Faith Healing Preachers" - not one. All Olympians went home with the same disabilities they came with. There has never been one, certifiable healing by any "charismatic" Christian in the world. It's just not there. There's beem many, seemingly "Medical Miracles," but that's not how Brother Roberts interpreted The Bible. Funny thing about Oral Roberts, if you can play basketball, they will take you with or without their brand of Christianity.
As the old joke goes, "Oral Roberts" tried to make some 33 RPM records of his music and preaching, but he was unsuccessful. The hole in the middle of the record kept healing up.
Sadly, Haggard is not alone. It proves beyond a doubt that homosexuality cannot be cured by going to Bible college, Biblical healing, or controlled by forced life style decisions. If that worked, surely Ted, above all homosexuals, should have been able to "pray his way through" the "malady," or at least could have religiously managed his horrible inner-compulsions. It didn't happen.
I have a cousin whose dad was a preacher, and he graduated from a Bible college. He dutifully married and had a family, but, alas, he gave it all up when he found his real-life mate choice, another man. I doubt that he and his partner, who was a graduate of a Bible college, believe any less in God and loss of their faith.
It is time for us to stop portraying the "homosexual lifestyle," as choice, ... a choice made that can be unmade. My cousin's father has accepted his homosexuality, and both his parents have accepted his life-mate enthusiastically, even though the parents have been excommunicated from their chosen house of worship.
We'll be attending our youngest son's marriage in South Korea. It should be a time of celebration when we find our life-partner. The couple met at Wesleyan Seminary in DC. With my back, it scares me to death even thinking about the 15 hour air ride. But it will be fun, most assuredly a time away from US politics and the Iraq War. We claim all grandkids!
