Can the Gayle Haggard Memoir Help Give Hope to Couples in Crisis?

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Today's release of Gayle Haggard's book Why I Stayed: The Choices I Made in My Darkest Hour, detailing why she stayed with megachurch pastor Ted Haggard after learning of his secret homosexual activity and drug use by way of a national scandal in 2006, is opening up a conversation that is long overdue.

So say Christians who counsel men and women facing revelations that their spouses have been grappling with same-sex attraction for the duration of their marriages.

"Her book is an opportunity to talk about a huge problem in the church," said Renee Dallas, wife of author and sex addiction counselor Joe Dallas and founder of WifeBoat, a blog and support group network to help women whose husbands battle same-sex attraction and other forms of sexual immorality.

"There are Christian women married to men who have been leading secret lives, and this is a huge problem in the church," Dallas added. "Sometimes these men are involved in homosexual sin, sometimes adultery, sometimes pornography, but in all cases there is the shock of finding out, there is the humiliation and embarrassment, there is a loss of community--all of these things these women face."

In her book, Haggard writes that she suspected her husband had trouble with immorality. Early in their marriage he told her he wanted to speak to a counselor about thoughts he was having related to same-sex attraction.

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Source: Adrienne S. Gaines, Charisma News Online

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