There is no more popularly satisfying tale than the fall of the self-righteous. Politicians, pundits and preachers, how we gasp in horrified delight as their secrets are revealed, their drug addictions and gambling issues, their sordid secret sexual lives.
So it is not surprising that "The Trials of Ted Haggard," which premieres tonight on HBO, has been publicized within an inch of its life. Made by Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, it features a formerly wildly popular evangelical preacher undone by a sexual relationship with a male prostitute.(Haggard also admitted to drug use, but that's nothing compared with being caught with a gay hooker.)
In fact, Haggard's tireless promotion of the film prompted another man to disclose a past "inappropriate relationship" with then-Pastor Ted. The subsequent news cycle, not to mention the former minister's appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," threatens to make Pelosi's film seem beside the point.
Which would be a shame.
"The Trials of Ted Haggard" is a strange, disturbing, imperfect but in the end heartbreaking little film that may wind up being the most powerful indictment of homophobia since "Brokeback Mountain." It's not so much a documentary as it is a series of encounters with a man struggling to hold on to two mutually destructive identities: an evangelical who is not exclusively heterosexual. That he cannot let go of the latter and will not let go of the former makes him a tragic embodiment of the still-raging war between sexuality and religion.
Almost accidentally, "The Trials of Ted Haggard" offers a revealing sideways look at the nature of deception, forgiveness, judgment and redemption. On both sides of the camera.
With his lanky frame and wide, horsy smile, Haggard is the portrait of an American preacher man. Pelosi met him when he was, as the film says, "at the top of his game." She was making a film about evangelicals, and Haggard, the leader of the influential New Life mega-church in Colorado, acted as something of a tour guide.
Shortly after she finished "Friends of God," the Haggard scandal broke; Pelosi was, she has said, shocked (which, given her relationship with Washington, where such things occur with alarming regularity, seems a bit odd).
