LURID allegations of sex trysts and drug use with a gay prostitute have forced one of America’s leading Christian conservatives to resign as head of a 30 million-strong evangelical movement.
The Rev Ted Haggard, 50, a married father of five, stepped down as president of the National Association of Evangelicals after a self-described male escort went on the radio to accuse him of paying for gay sex.
With his chiselled features and wide smile, Mr Haggard was a poster boy for the evangelical movement and social conservative causes.
The blue jeans-wearing “Pastor Ted”, who keeps an electronic Bible in his Palm Pilot, is one of a new breed of evangelical Christians with close White House ties who have played a key political role in electing