COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — New Life Church will recover from new allegations in the two-year-old sex scandal that brought down founder Ted Haggard, its pastor said Sunday.
Brady Boyd encouraged his Colorado Springs congregation and reminded it of its "holy tenacity" two days after revelations that a male church volunteer reported having a sexual relationship with Haggard.
It's the second such claim against Haggard. In late 2006, a male prostitute in Denver said he had a three-year cash-for-sex relationship with the former New Life pastor.
"I'm sorry that this wound has been reopened for many of you," Boyd told the congregation Sunday. "One day we may have a little scar tissue, but the wounds will not define us."
Haggard had confessed to undisclosed "sexual immorality" after the earlier allegations, left New Life and resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals. He has declined to comment on the new claim.
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On Friday, Boyd said church officials had learned of the second set of claims against Haggard in late 2006, shortly after the prostitute made his allegations.
Boyd said an "overwhelming pool of evidence" pointed to an "inappropriate, consensual sexual relationship" between Haggard and the male volunteer for an extended period of time.
Boyd said the man was in his early 20s at the time and that he was certain the man was of legal age when the relationship began.
Boyd said that under a legal settlement the church reached with the man in 2007, neither side was to discuss the matter publicly. He said he went public only after learning the man had talked to a local TV station.
