“[Former New Life Church pastor Ted] Haggard said that as a Christian, he believed his faith could make him a new man. He was seeking a miracle, said Haggard, who described himself as ‘not gay’ but a ‘heterosexual with issues’ who was deeply in love with his wife.”
Obviously I do not wish to speculate whether Haggard is really gay or “heterosexual with issues.” What he himself has admitted, however, is that, as a married man, he hired a drug-dealing male prostitute (for something or other) and engaged in inappropriate sexual acts with a church volunteer. Clearly the guy has issues.
The practical lesson is that hoping for a miracle to reform one’s character is not a good idea. Reforming one’s character takes a lot of hard work, self-reflection, and moral pondering (and I’ve had some practice). Psychological issues require deep introspection, and possibly the help of real psychology (as opposed to, for example, the quackery of Bible-based psychology).
Hoping for a miracle to make you a better person is just an excuse to avoid doing the hard work yourself.
And publicly CLAIMING such a miracle has happened in a way that permits “bidness as usual”… that should provoke quiet skepticism. If not ridicule.