Evangelicals envy Catholics and Republicans

Apparently, they want a gay sex cover-up scandal of their own:

Sheldon disclosed that he and “a lot” of others knew about Haggard’s homosexuality “for awhile ... but we weren’t sure just how to deal with it.”

Months before a male prostitute publicly revealed Haggard’s secret relationship with him, and the reverend’s drug use as well, “Ted and I had a discussion,” explained Sheldon, who said Haggard gave him a telltale signal then: “He said homosexuality is genetic. I said, no it isn’t. But I just knew he was covering up. They need to say that.”

(Emphasis added.) No surprise that Sullivan is on this (HT goes to him). I hasten to add that the scandals are not equivalent: Haggard's only real crime is uber-hypocricy and destructive lack of self knowledge. Doing meth is probably a bad idea, and hiring a gay prostitute is not exactly a socially acceptable thing for an evangelical leader to do. But I don't think either should be crimes (though they certainly are under current law). Using the Internet to solicit sex from underage people whom you have a responsibility to protect is a crime, and should be. Widespread sexual abuse of kids and an entire institutional hierarchy covering up for those who did it is a travesty of a different order altogether. The Evengelicals have a ways to go if they really want to equal the Republicans and the Catholics in the gay scandal area.

Here's an idea: How about gay people just get to be gay? (And straight people get to be straight--heteros shouldn't forget that many puritans want to control our sexuality, too.) Enough with this destructive closet hypocricy crap.