Did Larry King really ask this question of Ted Haggard?

 

Thanks for the link.  I actually think this is a fascinating transcript

Did you happen to watch the short documentary, Ted Haggard in Exile, on HBO?  I think it broadcast for the 1st time last night.

I did.  It was really interesting, not at all what I expected.  I was sort of confused about how to read the situation, you know, what are we not hearing here?   But this CNN helps fill in some things.

And I've got to tell you, I've found respect for this guy.  

He's an incredibly flawed and tragic man, but my gut feeling is that it seems like he's trying to be brutally honest about all this stuff, and to face it and deal with it rationally.  What I find myself oddly respecting is that he appears to have tossed off a bunch of that evangelical hypocrisy, yet kept and even grown his faith in his religion.  Even though I think the latter is sort of misguided, it works for him, and that's all that really matters.  

He also seems to be doing a pretty amazing job of suppressing his bitterness over how this entire thing played out, particularly the way his Colorado church chucked him off.  

No excuses.

You just have to respect the way he's going about trying to rehabilitate himself.  

At first I couldn't understand why he's doing this whole self-inspection in such a public, confessionary way. You know, "What gives, here?" Why not just go slink off into the darkness, repair yourself there, and never be heard again.  But it seems to me he has no other real choice.  He either recovers his self-respect, or he puts a gun in his mouth. And because the public is so intricately intertwined with his loss of self-respect, he's got to do it this way.  

He's doing this a lot better than other evangelical ministers who've had similar scandals.