Recently, there has been news (among other things, in this diary and this diary about Ted Haggard's reentry into the "Christ for Cash" market.
I've done some digging myself on some of this, and have uncovered aspects which haven't been highlighted so far on DailyKos, so I'll note these for researchers and the general public.
Among other things, Ted Haggard seems to be officially an Assemblies preacher (or working towards same), the charity to which he is soliciting funds for has not existed since 2007 (and has not been functional since 2005), and he could well be making some major booboos in soliciting funds meant for a 501(c)3.
Ted Haggard writes a letter
The story regarding Ted Haggard's return to the preaching circuit started with a post from Colorado Confidential detailing that he is now living in Phoenix and begging for cash:
Tak,
Gayle and I, along with Alex (16) and Elliott (14) have decided to move into the Phoenix Dream Center on October 1st. The Phoenix Dream Center is a half-way house for the homeless, those coming out of prison, recovering alcoholics, drug addicts, prostitutes, and other broken people. I identify.
The building is sponsored by Phoenix First Assembly, our new church home, but the workers are volunteers. The Dream Center also houses a church called "The Church on the Street." I met the pastor and he asked me if I would be willing to counsel some of the men and to teach the group from time to time. The woman directing the ministry to women invited Gayle to teach and minister to the women.
Gayle and I spoke to the boys about it, and after a series of discussions with several leaders and our pastor, Tommy Barnett, we decided to serve the dream center in whatever capacity asked, whether it's cleaning the building, hosting a visiting group, attending a meeting, or facilitating a study. In order to increase our availability to serve, we have decided to move and live in the Dream Center.
As a result, the Phoenix Dream Center team is creating an apartment for our family by combining a small, one-bedroom apartment with an adjacent room so our boys will have their own rooms. Even though Alex and Elliott's drive to school is quite a distance every day, we think it is worth it to be given the privilege of service. Now, however, we need to raise our own support.
In preparation for the future, Gayle and I are both enrolled at the University of Phoenix at their main downtown campus. Gayle is in the undergraduate program studying psychology. I am pursuing my master of science in counseling degree, which means we are both full time students. Alex and Elliott are both attending a local Christian school. Elliott is playing 8th grade football this fall. Everyone is busy!
It looks as though it will take two years for us to have adequate earning power again, so we are looking for people who will help us monthly for two years. During that time we will continue as full time students, and then, when I graduate, we won't need outside support any longer.
But for the next two years, we will need support. Between now and the end of the year, we have to find the people who want to help us transition into our future. So I am starting today to let friends like you know that we are raising money for support as we move into the Phoenix Dream Center.
Would you be willing to help us find people who can give a one time gift or make a commitment to help support us monthly for two years? If so, that would be a blessing.
If people want to support us directly, they can mail checks to Ted and Gayle Haggard, 9699 N. Hayden, Suite 108, PMB 180, Scottsdale, AZ 95259 (sic). This is a private mail box address that we have been using since we moved to the Phoenix area. If any supporters need a tax deduction for their gift, they can mail it to Families With a Mission at P.O. Box 63125, Colorado Springs, CO 80962. The supporters would need to write their check to "Families With A Mission" and put a separate note on it that it is for the Haggard family, then Families With a Mission will mail us 90% of the funds for support and use 10% for administrative costs.
Thank you so much. We feel our move into the Dream Center is the next step God would have us take. Any help we can get with this will be greatly appreciated and, I believe, rewarded in heaven.
Please feel free to forward this to anyone you think might have an interest. Any assistance we receive will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
God bless,
Ted Haggard
"Preparing"
P.S. Our handicapped son, Jonathan (20) has been taken care of financially by Victory Church (Mike Ware), Church of the Highlands (Chris Hodges) and New Life Church in Colorado Springs since November of 2006. It's our prayer that these churches will continue helping Jonathan while we're in this stage of our lives. We are so grateful for their assistance. Their faithfulness to Jonathan and consequently our family has given us room to heal. We are all very thankful for their prayers, love, and kindness.
Hmmm. Interesting. Interesting indeed.
Ted as future Assemblies pastor?
Well, first off, New Life Church has always been a very difficult dominionist church to sort out (re its relationships with other churches)--the church claims to be nondenominational, but maintains quite a number of connections with the Assemblies of God (including a Royal Rangers post--Royal Rangers is the Assemblies' "parallel economy" alternative to Boy Scouting) to the extent it is difficult to tell if it is an "Assemblies daughter" or a "stealth Assemblies" church that is attempting to hide its denominational links (this isn't uncommon with big Assemblies megachurches).
The fact that at least two of the pastors involved with Haggard's "Dream Team" of "de-gayers" are in the Assemblies family of churches (an International Foursquare preacher and a pastor linked with Bethany A/G in Louisiana) doesn't exactly de-muddy the waters, nor does Haggard's main preaching credentials (from Oral Roberts University--ol' Moral Oral was an Assemblies man himself), nor does his original plan to move to Missouri (the Assemblies' world headquarters are located in Springfield, MO, and it was rumoured he was going to their seminary).
The letter doesn't help in sorting out New Life's "dominionist geneaology" at all either, save to point out that Ted Haggard is pretty much officially gunning towards Assemblies credentials and--likely--re-establishing himself within that denomination; at the very least, he is now quite officially attending an Assemblies church at any rate.
For those unaware, the "Phoenix First Assembly" mentioned is Phoenix First Assembly of God. Pretty much anyone familiar with the Assemblies knows why this is a Big Deal; for those who aren't so familiar with the Assemblies, Phoenix A/G is the largest Assemblies church in the US (though not in the whole denomination) with nearly 10,000 regular members. (The group I escaped from is merely #7 on that list and itself regularly claimed to have over 7000 members, so odds are Phoenix A/G claims to be bigger in its internal promotion; Assemblies megachurches can on occasion be infamous for inflating membership.)
The "Dream Centers" in question are a chain of Assemblies-run "parallel economy" alternatives to legit detox and mental health centers (specifically run by the Western Region headquarters for the Assemblies); in addition to "faith-based detox" they also offer such services as "degaying" and the like. (One particular "Dream Center", Dream Center Los Angeles, has brged the original headquarters of International Foursquare (ironically, the first of many, many "daughter denominations" splitting from the Assemblies; it in fact appears the Assemblies is quite actively partnering with its "daughter" thanks to the pastor of Phoenix First Assembly) and has been linked to possible profiteering from Hurricane Katrina victims and forced prosyletisation and maltreatment.)
See, folks? I told you all that talk on the "parallel economy" does in fact link to dominionism :3 And seeing as Phoenix First Assembly is not only highly influential (its pastor is seen as #29 on a list of top 50 influential parties in dominionism today) but is also rather embracing of "name it and claim it" and "Joel's Army" stuff, Haggard should feel right at home.
I wish I were making things up re the coercive tactics, by the way. Unfortunately, Rick Ross Institute has identified a cluster of people who have ended up with psychotic breaks requiring hospitalisation due to the use of deliverance ministry "exorcisms" and abusive "cell church" groups at Phoenix First Assembly in particular:
I've worked with many, many people who have come out of deliverance ministries emotionally and psychologically scarred. I have worked with people who have, as a direct result of deliverance ministry, been placed in a psychiatric hospital and medicated by psychotropic drugs. And, of course, when we're talking deliverance ministry we're talking about people like Kenneth Hagin in the Pentecostal movement - and many of the Assemblies of God churches distribute this literature. A deliverance ministry basically tells their members that any type of negative feelings they may have - negative things that are occurring in their day-to-day lives - can be ascribed to demons or the devil, or that they are demon-possessed, and that they need to be "delivered." They go to someone in the group who's a self-styled exorcist who then joins together with others and they cast demons out of that individual. This can traumatize a person and cause almost irreparable psychological and emotional damage.
I worked with one young man who was hospitalized as a direct result of a deliverance ministry that was a small prayer group within an Assemblies of God church. And I worked with a 30 year-old housewife who also was victimized by a deliverance ministry. She also was involved in an Assemblies of God church and was hospitalized.
Now, these prayer groups were small cell groups that were within that church. The church knew they existed, but they were not necessarily functioning within that pastor's ministry, but they were under the umbrella of a particular Assemblies of God church in the United States - Pastor Tommy Barnett's Phoenix First Assembly, a huge church. This was a prayer group under the auspices of Phoenix First Assembly.
(Emphasis mine. In fact, practices within "deliverance ministry" groups in the Assemblies bear a substantial similarity to Scientology and its emphasis of "clearing" various "engrams" and "body thetans"; more info here.)
This isn't the only bit of potential abuse Phoenix First Assembly involves itself in--among other things, they're also linked to the use of their name for goldbug profiteering, the church is connected to George W. Bush via Doug Wead (ultimately to the Godzich clan; John Godzich was Arizona GOP finance chairman, and Leo Godzich is an assistant pastor at Phoenix First Assembly--Wead is an Assemblies pastor who was Dubya's major coach in regards to speaking "dominionist-ese"), its pastor (Tommy Barnett) has the ultimate "dominionist seal of approval"--he is a card-carrying member of the secretive Council for National Policy (the invitation-only yearly powwowing of neoconservatives and dominionists).
Like we said...I think ol' Ted will feel quite at home.
Partnering with kiddy-diddlers?
Haggard becoming an Assemblies man (at a church known to have its own "pastoral training camp") is suspicious enough, but then there's the beg to give to a charity run by a multiple-count child rapist.
Yes, you read that right. Ted Haggard is getting a guy to launder money for him that has multiple counts of raping kids--stuff that would make Ted Haggard's infamous exploits concerning "meth and man-ass" seem downright tame in comparison.
Seattle's Stranger magazine details the exploits of the person behind "Families With A Mission":
There’s only one name on file with the Colorado Secretary of State in connection with Families With a Mission: Paul Huberty.
Huberty is the "registered agent" of Families With a Mission and the registered agent’s mailing address—POB 63125, Colorado Springs, CO 80962-3125—is the same address Haggard included in his letter to his supporters. Another address on file with the Colorado Secretary of State for Families With a Mission is 855 Pebble Creek Ct., Monument, CO 80132. That’s the charity’s "principal office mailing address." According to the Assessor’s office in El Paso County, Colorado, 855 Pebble Creek Ct. is a private residence owned by Paul Huberty. (The only other address listed for Families With a Mission is a home that Huberty used to own.)
And here’s what Coffman learned when he started searching through public records: A man named Paul G. Huberty was convicted of having sex with his 17 year-old ward while he was in the military and stationed in Germany. Paul G. Huberty eventually moved to Hawaii, where he was on that state’s sex offender registry—you can download a PDF here. Hawaii’s sex offender registry mentions a conviction for a sex offense in 2004. Court records in Hawaii show that Paul G. Huberty was found guilty of attempted sexual assault in January of 2004 (download ‘em here, here, and here), and sentenced a year in jail with all but six months suspended. Huberty was also put on probation for five years, ordered to take polygraphs, not allowed to possess pornography, "not allowed on the property of Kona Christian Academy" and other schools, not allowed to posses firearms, forbidden from foster parenting or being the guardian of a minor, and ordered to pay restitution to a crime victims fund.
When Paul G. Huberty’s moved out of the state of Hawaii he was required to register his new address, which he did: 855 Pebble Creek Ct., Monument, CO 80132, the "principal mailing address" for the charity Families With a Mission, which also happens to be a home owned by Paul Huberty, the registered charity’s agent.
I did my own research, and--lo and behold--Paul Huberty is listed as a registered sex offender in Hawaii (but he's only updated with his Colorado addy and not done periodic checkins--bad boy) but is not registered in Colorado. (Which is quite illegal; he not only is required to required to register as a sex offender from out of state but may even qualify under Colorado law as a Sexually Violent Predator--which requires additional special notification, registration with the local police, and re-registry every 90 days for life.)
His rather impressive list of convictions are something to note, too. The rapsheet begins with Mr. Paul Huberty sodomising his own 17-year-old ward and fondling his naughty bits at a public pool whilst on base in Germany back in 1996:
On August 12-22, 1996, Lieutenant Colonel Paul G. Huberty was convicted by officer members of consensual sodomy, fondling his genitals in a public area, indecent acts, and adultery, in violation of Articles 125, 133, and 134, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC §§ 925, 933, and 934. On February 11, 1997, the convening authority approved the sentence of dismissal, confinement for 6 months, and a reprimand, and the court below affirmed.
. . .
Appellant is a 39-year-old Lieutenant Colonel with over 18 years of active service. He is married and has three children. The offenses occurred while he was assigned to Geilenkirchen NATO Air Base in Germany. Appellant’s conviction for dishonorably fondling his genitals arose out of an incident at a public swimming pool in the Netherlands involving two Dutch women. The sodomy, indecent acts, and adultery occurred with AH, a 17-year-old female who accompanied appellant and his family to Germany as his legal ward.
Needless to say, this was the end of his military career; he moved to Hawaii, where he joined up with the Assemblies frontgroup "Youth With A Mission":
While in the Air Force Academy he married a girl who was in the youth group where he was part time youth pastor...maybe she was pregnant. He was courtmartialed in Germany and after serving 6 months in prison, he moved his family to Hawaii where he entered, get this, Youth With A Mission. He became a youth missionary and "served" in several places such as the Philipines while based in Hawaii. After he left YWAM he was arrested for the crimes he was eventually found guilty for in Hawaii. He hasn't been arrested in Colorado yet, to my knowledge, but it's only a matter of time.
Oh, yes, those crimes in Hawaii. It seems that Mr. Huberty couldn't keep his hands off of young girls whom he had supervisory authority over. Less than four years after he was busted for buggering his ward in Germany, he was found guilty of attempted sexual battery again and the courts ordered him to not only stay away from no less than three campuses but also to be subject to intensified monitoring:
FURTHER POLYGRAPHS & PLETHYSMOGRAPH TESTING; REGISTER AS A SEX OFFENDER; NO PORNOGRAPHY; SUBMIT TO SEARCH OF PERSON/PROPERTY; NOT ALLOWED ON THE PROPERTY OF KONA CHRISTIAN ACADEMY, MAKIA LANI HIGH SCHOOL & UNIVERSITY OF THE NATIONS, KONA CAMPUS; REFRAIN FROM POSSESSING FIREARM; SHALL NOT BECOME A FOSTER PARENT OR GUARDIAN OF A MINOR; SHALL SUBSCRIBE TO COVENANT EYES
(Covenant Eyes is an Internet use monitoring program occasionally used as a condition of sex offender release to ensure they are not surfing for child porn online.)
In 2003, it appears that Paul Huberty moved to Colorado--and also moved the incorporation of "Families With A Mission" to Colorado Springs as well--and it turns out he may have brought a mess of people along for the ride to support him in what turns out to be a scheme that stinks heavily of scam.
"Families With A Mission": Faith-based scamboogery?
One of the particularly interesting bits regarding Ted Haggard's suggestion to have folks donate to "Families With A Mission" is that the group does not exist, and may in truth not have ever really existed outside of Paul Huberty's circle of friends.
Paul Huberty is listed as the main contact agent for "Families With A Mission"--or, more properly, was listed when it existed as a legal entity in Colorado. Literally the entire membership board in Colorado is identical to the Hawaiian incorporation papers; the only contact outside of the local area in both cases is a a potentially IRD or FGBMFI-linked Episcopalian pastor who promotes cell-church groups.
The weird linkages don't just stop at the incorporation papers (which give the impression that most of the board was either based in Colorado Springs the whole time or moved there en masse). The first address given for direct contact with Paul Huberty in incorporation documents (2524 Cardigan Dr, Colorado Springs, CO 80920-5348) is in fact owned by a Leeda I. Patrick; during the time that Huberty lived in Hawaii, she was a Coldwell Banker realtor who actually won an award from the state realtor's association (and whom was known as the "bank lady" locally) and seems to have moved to Colorado Springs around the same time that Huberty did and now operates as a Coldwell Banker realtor in Colorado Springs (and ZoomInfo confirms it's the same person).
This by far is not the only bizarreness. The "business address" (855 Pebble Creek Ct., Monument, CO 80132-8452) is in fact a residential home owned by Paul and Fawn Huberty (Google Maps image here). There is (furthermore) a PO Box registered at PO Box 63125, Colorado Springs, CO 80962-3125; as (per USPS regs) US Post Offices and private mailbox services must identify owners, it should be trivial to contact the Postmaster-General for that particular post office (as it is being used for business purposes).
The really bizarre things are why Ted is asking people to give to a defunct charity in such a way that--if the charity were to actually be operational--would cause it to lose its 501(c)3 status.
"As I was sitting on a stair, I saw an org that wasn't there"...or, the strong possibility of money laundering
I had mentioned that "Families With A Mission" was defunct; according to the state of Colorado, it appears they were delinquent in filing required yearly statements and forms for permission to conduct fundraising even back in 2005, and the group officially ceased operations in February 2007 (according to their reincorporation papers, they should technically have given their remaining assets to another 501(c)3 charity, though it doesn't appear that this has in fact been done).
OK, that's blunder number 1. Technically, as they are neither a registered charity nor have they filed 501(c)3 paperwork since 2005, they legally cannot solicit for funds in Colorado, and even the appearance they are soliciting for funds after ceasing operations is technically quite illegal. In fact, in several states this is termed "fraud by deception".
Even if "Families With A Mission" were still in legal operation, though, they still can't bookmark funds for Haggard. Real Live Lawyers in several different jurisdictions have noted that this falls rather considerably outside of the law when it comes to nonprofit orgs:
I have this from the mouth of the finance director of a large charity: you CANNOT earmark donations for a particular client. This request is made all the time, but it's not allowed. No charity operator can possibly be confused on this point; the restriction is not subtle.
It's also super-illegal to solicit donations with a promise of a tax deduction if your 501(c)3 status isn't up to snuff. It's not illegal to just ask for donations, with no deduction.
Also, the Haggards are not exactly hurting in the liquidity department. Even though they've moved to Phoenix, they still own quite the little mansion--a $715,000 house on over 5 acres of land. (As we've seen with the tax records of the houses owned by principal players in "Families With A Mission", the average cost of a new home in Colorado Springs is $200,000 to $250,000--not Midwest cheap, but not California crazy in pricing.)
Even without that, he still has quite enough to live comfortably according to the Colorado Springs Gazette:
New Life Church’s former pastor Ted Haggard, who has made at least $338,000 since the beginning of 2006 and owns a house in Colorado Springs valued at more than $700,000, is asking for donations to keep his family afloat.
. . .
Haggard, in an e-mail posted on KRDO Channel 13’s Web site, said he and his family will move into an apartment in the Dream Center in Phoenix in October. It’s a faith-based halfway house for former prisoners, drug and alcohol abusers, prostitutes and street kids. Haggard said two of his children will also have a room there.
Haggard and his wife, Gayle, are enrolled at the University of Phoenix, he said, where he is pursuing a master of science in counseling and she is studying psychology.
"It looks as though it will take two years for us to have adequate earning power again, so we are looking for people who will help us monthly f or t wo years," Haggard said in the e-mail. "During that time we will continue as full-time students, and then, when I graduate, we won’t need outside support any longer."
Haggard received a salary of $115,000 for the 10 months he worked in 2006 and an $85,000 anniversary bonus before the scandal broke, according to church officials. The church’s board of trustees gave him a severance package that included a year’s salary ($138,000). He also collects royalties on his many book titles.
Even Ted's minders are saying "not so fast there, bub":
One of Haggard’s overseers, Mike Ware, senior pastor at Victory Church in Westminster, said he had not spoken to Haggard since the e-mail came out a couple of days ago.
"We will review that his statement was premature, and we will talk to him about that. It is not an official release from us," Ware said. Ware wouldn’t comment on the propriety of Haggard’s plea for money but said he felt it was premature of Haggard to release the statement without first consulting the overseers.
. . .
Several staff and visitors at New Life Church on Thursday said they had not heard of Haggard’s financial appeal.
Rob Brendle, New Life spokesman, said he had read the e-mail but that the board of overseers now provides comments on anything pertaining to Haggard.
As for the third address listed--the private mailbag number--both myself and others have confirmed that this is in fact a private mailbox located at Mail Boxes and More, a "MailBoxes Etc."/"UPS Store" type deal in Scottsdale (of the sort quite often used by fly-by-night companies; one company using Mail Boxes and More's services has been the recipient of warnings from the FDA for sale of unapproved medication. PMBs of this type have in past been favoured by scam businesses (who often have listed the box numbers as "suite numbers"), but several laws (including the infamous Patriot Act and other laws ostenably passed as anti-terrorism bills) now hold PMBs to the same level of legal accountability--and the argument can be made that he's using the PMB for business purposes, so Mail Boxes and More may be legally required to identify who really owns the mailbox in question.
I do fear that Ted Haggard may have picked the wrong jurisdiction to run such a racket from, however--Phoenix is the neighbourhood of infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio (known for, among other things, feeding inmates green bologna and off-date salvage food as well as making them wear pink boxers), and the Arizona attorney-general's office also tends to frown on such activity.
Now, I would never suggest people fill out Arizona's online consumer complaint form or contact the Southern Colorado BBB or the Colorado --especially as the BBB forwards all complaints directly to the state Attorney General--or contact the Monument, CO police department to notify them about the unregistered "sexually violent predator" in their midst. Nope--not me :3