Bonus Daily Schadenfreude

Guess you can say I'm making up for only having one DS over the weekend. But this is too good to pass up. Even the headline is nice:

Hidden life again claims a pastor

In a tearful videotaped message Sunday to his congregation, the senior pastor of a thriving evangelical megachurch in south metro Denver confessed to sexual relations with other men and announced he had voluntarily resigned his pulpit.

A month ago, the Rev. Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel in Douglas County preached to his 2,100-member congregation about integrity and grace in the aftermath of the Ted Haggard drugs-and-gay-sex scandal.

Now, the 54-year-old Barnes joins Haggard as a fallen evangelical minister who preached that homosexuality was a sin but grappled with a hidden life.

"I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy," Barnes said in the 32-minute video, which church leaders permitted The Denver Post to view. "... I can't tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away."

Reading the entire article, Barnes seems a little more sympathetic a character than Haggard. For one thing, he seemed to forgo actively preaching hate: " 'I can't think of a single sermon where he ever had a political agenda,' said Dave Palmer, an associate pastor."

At this point, I would like to remind you, fair reader, that I am not celebrating the downfall of a man of the cloth. Rather, I am repulsed by the rank hypocrisy of many on the Right who say one thing and do another. Even if Rev. Barnes was not as vocal as Rev. Haggard, his message still was one of hate and oppression of a class of individuals which, as it turns out in each case, includes the messenger. Moreover, instead of accepting who he was with grace and maturity, Rev. Barnes apparently - and tragically - spent nearly fifty years trying to overcome something that was a part of his very identity.

Call it a reluctant schadenfreude, but nevertheless, Bill Frist has company on the stage today. Congratulations, Rev. Barnes ... this Blast Off! Daily Schadenfreude is for you!

(cap tip to Eschaton commenter Lil Red Ridin In Tha Hood)