Ted Haggard, the recently resigned and disgraced pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, reportedly faces polygraphic interrogation by a triumvirate of inquisitors. In “Dobson, 2 ministers to offer counsel,” Carol McGraw of the Colorado Springs Gazette reports:
The three men chosen to oversee the Rev. Ted Haggard’s spiritual restoration are well-known in conservative Christian circles and are old pros at such work.
James Dobson, the Rev. Jack Hayford and the Rev. Tommy Barnett have been tapped by New Life’s overseer board to “perform a thorough analysis of Haggard’s mental, spiritual, emotional and physical life.”
That includes a polygraph test and extensive investigation, according to the Rev. Larry Stockstill, chairman of the overseer board.
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Last Friday, 3 November 2006, Mike Jones, a male prostitute who went public with allegations that Ted Haggard had been a client over a three-year period, failed a polygraph “test” administered by John J. Kresnik for radio station KHOW’s Peter Boyles show. Nonetheless, Jones stood by his statements, and in a press release the following day, New Life’s overseers announced, “Our investigation and Pastor Haggard’s public statements have proven without a doubt that he has committed sexually immoral conduct.”
As they pursue their inquisition for Haggard’s “spiritual restoration,” New Life’s overseers would be wise to eschew reliance on pseudoscientific lie detectors, which are inherently biased against the truthful, yet easily manipulated through the use of simple countermeasures.