HBO Doc Unveils Down-and-Out Haggard

"Wincingly candid" documentary set to air Jan. 29 on HBO
By Rebecca Smith Hurd,  Newser User
Posted Jan 11, 2009 5:47 PM CST

A new HBO documentary on Ted Haggard catches the disgraced minister at his most candid and vulnerable, Newsweek reports. Emmy-winning director Alexandra Pelosi shot the film impromptu, capturing Haggard the failed insurance salesman as he struggles with gay feelings and looks out the window at his old church. But hasn't gone back, he says: “The Church has said go to hell."

“I understand why when a criminal is caught they sometimes admit to things they didn’t do," says Haggard, who remains married 2 years after his gay sex scandal shocked the evangelical world. "I wanted to overrepent." The New Life church later surprises Haggard by inviting him back as a congregant, but he declines to avoid causing a stir. Still, "I am what I am," he says in the film, set to air Jan. 29. "I was born an evangelical." (More Ted Haggard stories.)

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