Trusting Again

Trusting Again

Faith is our direct link to universal wisdom, reminding us that we know more than we have heard or read or studied that we have only to listen, look, and trust the love and our own wisdom of the Universal path working through us all.

-----Dennis Schleicher

This is for my best friend Kathleen Sherek...... I love YOU....

Ted Haggard's Wife to Oprah: I Knew About Gay Desires

Ted Haggard's Wife to Oprah: I Knew About Gay Desires
Gayle Haggard thought her husband Ted could control his sexual urges, but she was wrong. And the ramifications would put her family in the national spotlight.

Gayle, the wife of former Colorado New Life Church Pastor Ted Haggard, will tell Oprah Winfrey today that she knew about her husband’s same-sex struggles for years and had hoped he had a handle on things. But then, in 2006, their world came crashing down when a male prostitute came forward about a relationship with Haggard. "The first words out of my mouth were, ‘Who are you?’" she said, according to a publicity release issued Tuesday by Harpo Productions.

Adding to the Haggards’ lack of marital bliss is the news this week that Haggard also masturbated in front of a then-22-year-old church volunteer in 2005. The volunteer, Grant Haas, told KRDO in Colorado Springs that Haggard also sent him illicit text messages including "all kind of weird things, texting me about all the different sexual positions, practices he was engaging in and it was just really weird." The church and the man reached a settlement in 2007. Haas says he spoke out now to protest a new HBO documentary on Haggard. Haas says that film, directed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, Alexandra, seems to paint Haggard as a victim, a label Haas simply couldn’t accept.

Why, you may wonder, would Haggard agree to such a project? "He talked to us because he had nothing to lose," Pelosi said. "He was down and out." But apparently Haggard isn’t too thrilled about the movie. He told the LA Times that he trusted his friend, Pelosi, not to invade his family’s privacy and he wasn’t comfortable with her using videotaped footage for the film. But Pelosi said she wanted to tell his side of the story, since the media did "a disservice" to him.
The documentary, "The Trials of Ted Haggard," premiers Thursday at 8 PM ET.

Books that we recommend;
by Dennis Schleicher
Forbidden Love with a Married Man: E-mail Diaries

by Angelo Pezzote
Straight Acting: Gay Men, Masculinity and Finding True Love

Oprah in Washington, D.C. Inauguration 2009

Oprah Winfrey in Washington, D.C. 2009

The Oprah Show and Oprah.com are heading to Washington, D.C., to celebrate the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama! Check back Monday, January 19, for an inside look at this historic event. Behind-the-scenes videos, blogs and more!

Why do you think Oprah endorsed Barack Obama?

The Heart and Mind of Michelle Obama

The Heart and Mind of Michelle Obama by Holly Yeager

Of all the stories I've heard about Michelle Obama, the most telling might be one about her mother, 70-year-old Marian Robinson, a tall woman with impeccable posture, a vivid smile, and excruciatingly high personal standards. On the far side of her 50th birthday, Robinson took up running. She was good, she had speed—she even competed in the national Senior Olympics—but after a fall a few years ago left her unable to hit her stride, she dropped the sport without hesitation. "If I can't do it fast, I'm not doing it," she says. "You don't run just to be running—you run to win."The mother is evident in the daughter every time Michelle Obama, 43—Ivy League graduate and possible First Lady—works out at the gym, where she is, according to her close friend Cheryl Rucker-Whitaker, "one of the women who leave you in the dust. She's a gladiator. She jumps rope 200 times without messing up. We talk in the beginning, but once the workout gets going, she is all business."And there is this: In high school, Michelle once had a typing teacher who started the class by handing out a chart showing students what grades they could expect based on how many words per minute they typed. According to the formula, Michelle earned an A, but when the time came for grades, the teacher said she didn't give A's. Michelle was outraged: How dare she set forth the rules and then not abide by them? "She badgered and badgered that teacher," Marian says. "I finally called her and told her, 'Michelle is not going to let this go.'" Michelle 1, typing teacher 0.No election in this country's history has featured a slate of First Spouse contenders who bring as much to the table as the partners of the current Democratic front-runners. Bill Clinton lends star power and unprecedented authority to Hillary's campaign. Elizabeth Edwards's candor and outspokenness have injected a thrilling urgency into John's presidential bid. But only Michelle Obama brings the competitive zeal of an Olympic athlete and the exacting nature of a student who would hold her teacher's feet to the fire—and prevail. For Barack Obama—the former state senator and first-term U.S. senator from Illinois, a virtual unknown until three years ago—the endorsement of this demanding, driven woman is priceless.

Oprah Winfrey, panelists take on the 'gift of being gay'

Oprah Winfrey, panelists take on the 'gift of being gay'
By Mark Bieganskion January 8, 2009
Day three of Oprah Winfrey's "Best Life" series took on a revelation even Oprah Winfrey says she's never heard.Responding to a viewer who Skyped into the show to talk about being gay, one of Winfrey's panelists, The Rev. Ed Bacon, declared being gay is a "gift from God."Bacon is the rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., a well-known liberal and progressive church."Well you are the first minister I've ever heard say being gay is a gift from God, I can tell you that," Winfrey said."We're not talking religion, we're talking spirituality," said Michael Bernard Beckwith, founder and spiritual director of Agape International Spiritual Center in Los Angeles. . "People don't just happen to be gay. When people are born, they have that type of orientation, so he is gay by diving right."
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