Title: Why I Stayed: The Choices I Made in My Darkest Hour
Author: Gayle Haggard with Angela Hunt
Released: January 26, 2010
Publisher: Tyndale House
Pages: 368
Overall: ☆ ☆ ☆
On November 2, 2006, Gayle Haggard’s life changed forever when her husband, Ted, was accused of using illegal drugs and having a three-year homosexual affair with a gay prostitute. Ted Haggard was the senior pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church and the highly regarded president of the National Association of Evangelicals. More importantly, he was Gayle’s loving husband of twenty-eight years, a devoted father to their five children, her closest friend, and a man she knew fully. At least, she thought she knew him fully.
But when Ted told Gayle that parts of the allegations were true, her world was shattered. Suddenly, everything in her life was at stake–her beliefs, her marriage, her family and friends, and her ministry. What has happened since then is nothing short of astonishing.
I was curious when I picked up a copy of Why I Stayed at the library. Three hundred sixty-eight pages seems like an awfully long answer to a fairly simple question, however bazar the circumstances surrounding it. As it turns out the title is slightly deceptive. Gayle only spends about 25% of the pages in this book explaining her reasons for staying with her famously adulterous husband and devotes the remaining 75% to regaling the events following Ted Haggard’s confession of misdeeds with an emphasis on the church’s unbiblical response to the crisis and virtual excommunication of her family from the church they founded and called home for many years.
I find Gayle’s courage and composure in the wake of what must have been torturous events for her inspiring and praiseworthy. Some have criticized her negative focus on the church’s response to her husband’s crisis, but whether or not her point of view is truly objective or accurate (the third party reader cannot be sure either way), I found this to be the most interesting aspect of the book. While Mrs. Haggard’s conduct and attitude (as recorded by her) were both astonishing and encouraging, I thought the whole drama to be only mildly engaging.
Gayle seems to put a great deal of energy into presenting Ted as a likable person with flaws like everyone else and succeeds to some extent. Her main point–that everyone is sinful and no sin has the power to render us unforgivable before God–is effectively made and illustrated by her own choices.
The story was written and organized very well, as I would expect from any book co-authored by a professional writer. The cover is also laid out nicely.
Read it? Rate it yourself!
Other things you can do:
Visit Gayle Haggard’s website.
Purchase a copy of Why I Stayed.
Source: I checked out a copy of this book at the library.
