Ted Haggard Goes to Mexico

I don't want this to be a Ted Haggard blog, but I go where my readers take me. So I'm happy to say that Ted Haggard has followed through in his efforts to mend rift between Evangelicals and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez over Pat Robertson's remarks.

According to this report from the Rocky Mountain News, Haggard flew today to Mexico City to meet with a friend of Chavez and to attempt to set up a meeting with President Chavez.

Several interesting angles on this. The AP report focuses on apologizing and the potential threat to missionaries. The BBC points to the possible embarrassment a meeting with Chavez would create for the Bush Administration. Haggard's home town Colorado Springs Gazette, in an article that is very sympathetic to Robertson, reports that Haggard hopes the conversation will go beyond an apology to the concerns of Venezuela's Evangelical community.

There is still no reference to the Robertson/Chavez affair on the National Association of Evangelicals website, but this report from a local television station quotes a Haggard spokesperson saying, "The purpose of the meeting in Mexico City is to talk about Evangelicals in the United States and Venezuela....as well as recent economic and political positions of the Chavez administration". (Here's a video link to the broadcast report, but the ellipsis is also in visual part of the report but not in the reporter's reading).

I couldn't find any other reference to this last statement from Haggard's spokesperson, and I would really like to see the full context. The final half of that quote leaves me very concerned.

Nevertheless, I am glad that Mr. Haggard is doing this much.