CONFRONTING A SCANDAL

The Rev. Ted Haggard admitted today he bought methamphetamine from a male prostitute but maintained he never had sex with the man and never used the drug.

“I bought it for myself but never used it. I was tempted but I never used it,” he said, smiling constantly from the driver’s seat of his pickup truck as he answered questions from reporters outside his home.

His wife sat silently next to him; three of his children were in the backseat.

He was on his way to an appointment and couldn’t talk long, he said on the morning after the long day during which he resigned his leadership post at the National Association of Evangelicals and placed himself on administrative leave from the 14,000-member New Life Church.

Haggard, dressed in a blue plaid shirt, let his truck idle as he addressed reporters through the passenger’s side window.

A panel of outside church leaders wanted to talk to him about the scandal, he said.

“Both (religious) positions are based on trust and right now my trust is questionable,” he said.

First question from the media: had he ever used meth?

“No,” Haggard replied, adding that he did indeed buy it from Jones and it indeed was his voice on the message Jones has produced as proof of his contact with Haggard.

“Yeah, I did call him. I did call him,” Haggard said. “I called him to buy some meth, but I threw it away.”

Has he ever used it, a reporter asked.

“No, I have not. And I did not ever use it with him,” he said.

He said he threw it away because “it was wrong. I was tempted, I bought it, but I never used it.”

Next question: how did Haggard know Jones would sell it to him?

“He told me about it. I went there for a massage so — we’re late for an appointment and so, but thank you for your work,” Haggard said.

“How did you find him to get a massage from him?” the reporter asked.

“A referral,” Haggard said. “From the hotel I was staying at.”

The scandal began Wednesday night when Mike Jones, a Denver male escort, alleged on a talk radio show that he had a three-year relationship with Haggard during which the eminent pastor paid him for sex.

Jones, 49, denied selling meth to Haggard. “Never,” he told MSNBC. Haggard “met someone else that I had hooked him up with to buy it.”

Jones also scoffed at the idea that a hotel would have sent Haggard to him.

“No concierge in Denver would have referred me,” he said. He said he had advertised himself as an escort only in gay publications or on gay Web sites.

Jones told The Gazette his acquaintance with Haggard — whom he knew as “Art” — lasted about three years, with Haggard calling him every month or so and paying him for sex. Haggard’s middle name is Arthur.

Jones said he learned Haggard’s real name about six months ago while watching a History Channel program on which Haggard was interviewed. Jones began researching Haggard and discovered his church’s positions on same-sex marriage.

“I got to tell you, I started getting pissed,” he said. Jones said he never let on to Haggard that he knew who he was.

Jones said he was motivated in part because this year’s election includes two significant gay rights issues on Colorado’s ballot. Amendment 43 would define marriage as between a man and a woman, and Referendum I would give same-sex couples certain legal rights. Haggard has been an outspoken supporter of Amendment 43.

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