ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The founding pastor of a second Colorado church has resigned over gay sex allegations, just weeks after the evangelical community was shaken by the scandal surrounding megachurch leader Ted Haggard.

Haggard, a gay-marriage opponent, admitted to unspecified "sexual immorality" when he resigned last month as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs. A male prostitute had said he had had sex with Haggard for three years.

On Sunday, Paul Barnes, founding pastor of the 2,100-member Grace Chapel in this Denver suburb, told his evangelical congregation in a videotaped message he had had sexual relations with other men and was stepping down.

Dave Palmer, associate pastor of Grace Chapel, told The Denver Post that Barnes confessed to him after the church received a call last week.

The church board of elders accepted Barnes' resignation on Thursday.

On the videotape, which The Post was allowed to view, Barnes told church members: "I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy. ... I can't tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away."

Barnes, 54, led Grace Chapel for 28 years. He and his wife have two adult children.

Palmer said in a written statement that "While we cannot condone what he has done, we continue to support and love Paul."

-I guess god must not have heard your prayers, Paul.

Pete-
A book that helped me really understand the kind of struggle that Paul Barnes has had since his childhood is "Stranger at the Gate: Being Gay and Christian in America" by Mel White (1993)

He too was a prominent conservative Christian who was a ghost writer for Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Billy Graham and many others. He too had been married for 25 years and had two children. He came from a very conservative religious upbringing and struggled with his sexuality until he finally accepted himself for who he was.

I hope that Paul Barnes knows that God has not abandoned him and actually maybe preparing him for an even higher calling like Mel White.

I believe God does hear Paul’s prayers and at this time Paul must be in a lot of pain and hurt. You can only be dishonest with yourself for so long. Yet I believe God is very present even in these moments.

you'd think that pastors "confused" with their sexuality would back away from taking anti-gay stands. it escapes me why they'd put themselves into a position of being discovered as a first class hypocrite along with being exposed should things go awry.

Because they know the standard, but like us all are imperfect.

At least they have a standard. Who's to say what they would do if they didn't.

Herb

Sometimes the louder you are against something the harder you are trying to cover it up in your own life.

What may seem hypocritical can actually be a call for help. Not always. Who knows in this case.

Freud developed the concept of "reaction formation" to explain this behavior:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_formation

Not for us to judge.

I cannot agree strongly enough with this.

"Sometimes the louder you are against something the harder you are trying to cover it up in your own life."

I'm wondering if this explains what seems to be the overplaying of the gay card in this forum by someone?

EXTREME RIGHTIES love to play the gay card.... Wonder if that means something too???