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I Had to Say Something: The Art of Ted Haggard's Fall

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This is the story of the sexual relationship between Michael Forest Jones, a Denver man who worked as an escort, and the Reverend Ted Haggard, founder and pastor of the New Life Church of Colorado Springs.
As a rule, Mike never delved into the personal lives of his clients. He entertained celebrities, clergyman, politicians, pro-football players, and just regular guys. In 2003, a man named "Art" called Mike to set up an appointment. For almost three years, Art came to see him at least once a month. It was simply a business relationship for Mike, yet he sensed that for Art, it was more. Like many clients who were closeted, Art revealed his vulnerabilities as he struggled to deny his true desire for sexual contact and affection with a man.
One day, while working out at his gym, Mike recognized "Art" preaching hate on a religious cable channel. He soon discovered that Art was actually the Reverend Ted Haggard, who, as President of the National Association of Evangelicals, influenced the daily lives of millions of believers, condemning homosexuality and advocating virulently against gay rights and same-sex unions.
On November 1, 2006, Mike made public his relationship with Ted Haggard. Within days, Haggard resigned from all his positions of power, admitting to a "sexual immorality" that shook the evangelical world, right before Election Day 2006. Once Haggard was outed, Mike's clients stopped calling. He had effectively put himself out of business and put himself at risk of being trivialized and dismissed, as sex workers often are. It was Mike’s courage and strength of conscience that ultimately led him to come forward about the hypocrisy of Haggard’s life.
Here is the disarming story of how one man’s deceit inspired another man to become a spokesperson for telling the truth and for not being ashamed of who you are.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

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Mike Jones

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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
1,343 reviews88 followers
July 5, 2022
I have never had such a change of heart on a book as I have on this one--I originally gave it five stars in 2009 but 13 years later have matured in my understanding of the media and how the LGBTQ community propagandize through one-sided storytelling that portrays the immoral or unethical gay perpetrator as the victim.

It's a blow-by-blow (pun intended) description of the author's sexual relationship with evangelical preacher Ted Haggard. It unveils the hypocrisy within Christianity as Jones says that 10% of his customers were church leaders, even detailing his servicing of Catholic priests. He also had pro athletes, Hollywood stars, and major politicians--funny that Jones doesn't expose any of them. That's just the start of his own hypocrisy.

Mike Jones was a money-hungry prostitute who was a total hypocrite for exposing one of his customers (who he promised he would never do) and outing a famous person without their permission (which is usually unethical even within the gay community). The co-author (a noted gay writer and research) appears to be spinning a fantasy tale of how Jones is an innocent victim in all of this, a simple provider of health services to the needy who is also dealing with the tragedy of his mother's cancer death.

The full well-rounded truth is missing from this book. Was Haggard a hypocrite? Yes. Was author Mike Jones a bigger hypocrite? Absolutely.

All we know is that Haggard had once-a-month paid sex with Jones and did meth. Compare that to the book's author, who admits to having sex with hundreds of anonymous men, charging $200 for each meeting (which is illegal), breaking a number of other laws, putting in danger the lives of everyone he met as he had sex multiple times a day with different men he could have been spreading germs to, and admitting that he did all sorts of hard drugs. All of it was done with NO ONE ELSE knowing about his secret life--no one in his family or any of his friends--so he was living just as closeted a life as he calls out Haggard for. If anything Mike Jones is the textbook example of hypocritical victimizer, not one who should be praised as being a brave groundbreaker in the gay community.

Of the two, Haggard is the simplistic (even dumb) sinner saved by grace, Jones is the complex seductive criminal who promotes wrong to others in order to profit from it. Ponder this: if Jones wouldn't have placed ads to get people to pay him $200 an hour for sexual services, would Haggard have ever committed the acts for which he's called a hypocrite? Possibly not. Jones even was the one who put the minister in contact with the drug dealer and Jones was there helping the first time Haggard did meth. So if not for the author going out of his way to entice true victims to hook them on addictions in order to profit off of them, it may be that Haggard and others may have never gone down that road.

Add to that the book is used as a political tool to push a gay agenda, straight out of a liberal Democratic playbook that is now so common but was fairly new back when this was published. Jones just plain admits that he publicly exposed his having sex with Haggard without talking to the minister first because he wanted to defeat a Colorado anti-gay marriage bill. And Jones took Haggards money knowing he was going to expose him. So much for objectivity and integrity.

It should be noted that Ted Haggard says Jones claims are "95% lies" based on an Amazon review made under his name. By the way, the number that keeps getting used in the book was that Haggard was "the leader of 30 million." Untrue. He headed an evangelical organization made up of churches, whose attenders may have been in the millions but there weren't 30 million individuals that signed up to be under Ted Haggard's leadership. He was a second-string evangelical media personality who was nowhere near as famous as Jones tries to make it sound

The last part of the book also raises some of the flaws in the thinking of the author, condemning all Republicans and evangelical Christians for being intolerant. Of course this book is evidence of Jones being intolerant of those he politically disagrees with, so ultimately the conclusion is that the author is the bigger hypocrite.

The end could have also had a stronger conclusion but he does go to Haggard's former church where the author is shocked by the positive reception he receives. He had a hard time finding the intolerant bigots in church. Meanwhile he missed the big intolerant bigots in his house at his gay parties.

Jones actually wrote the following after seeing Haggard's resignation letter that asked church members to "forgive the accuser": "Why did I need forgiveness? Were people supposed to forgive me for being gay? For being an escort? For being honest?" Those in the LGBT community often claim they are being mistreated because of their sexual choices, when in truth others are usually just holding up a mirror to show them that they are shallow, judgmental, inconsistent...here's that word again...hypocrites.

Let me repeat so Jones can get this through his head--he needs to be forgiven for lying to his clients, family, and friends, for committing illegal sex acts, for being part of an illegal drug deal, for making a lot of money off of having sex with naive inexperienced clients who often couldn't afford it (which in some cases may be sex abuse), for unethically exposing a client who was told it would never be made public, and for the hate speech he uses against Christians and Republicans. His sins and wrongs are many, yet he ends the book claiming innocence, revealing he has no moral compass. He even at one point claims to be a "Christian" but there is no evidence of it.

Why didn't he spend more time writing about the real Christians he encountered? Why did he misuse the memory of his late mother and elderly father in order to try to paint a picture of himself as the perfect son (while hiding his entire real life from them!). Why is there so little self-reflection regarding his own faults and failures instead of trying to turn himself into a hero without admitting to the damage he caused? In the end he comes across as a media-hungry hatemonger.

Now that I'm older and have personally seen how the gay community commits its own bigotry, abuse, and lying, people like Jones and co-author Gallegos need to be called out for doing more damage than good. It's time for them to deal with their own disturbing faults, how they never stop judging others, and fail to provide full representation or tolerance toward those that they disagree with. At least Haggard did good by trying to honestly save souls; the same can't be said for a man-whore who merely makes money off of breaking the law, outs someone without their consent, and puts in a book all the things he claimed he would never reveal publicly.

Mike Jones, I had to say something--you are a total hypocrite.
Profile Image for Bryan.
31 reviews2 followers
May 13, 2010
I picked this book up in the midst of the George Reekers scandal - curious about the "Christian leader hires male prostitute" trend we seem to be seeing. This book is exactly what you would expect from someone capitolizing on the 15 minutes of fame he gained by blowing the whistle on an influential religious and political leader.

It's terrible.

Reading this book is like reading a pre-teen's diary. It's inconsistent and self-serving. Overly dramatic. Whiny.

I don't doubt the truth in what Jones says (or at least in most of what Jones says), but this "truth" is overshadowed by the inconsistent way he presents himself - both hero and victim. You can't brag about the loyalty you afford your "clients" and then call the media to expose them when the time is ripe. You can't claim to be a safe place for religious leaders, politicians, and military leaders to explore their sexuality and then call them hypocrites when they use your services.

Also, the details Jones presents about his meetings with Haggard are way too vivid (not "explicit"... vivid). Nobody remembers this much detail about conversations, facial expressions, body language, and emotions several years after the fact. During his meetings with Jones, Ted/Art was just another client - not extraordinary at all. There is no way Mike Jones remembers so much many revealing details from his encounters with this (at the time) un-extraordinary client, who was only one of many.

Telling the story with this much detail makes it sound like it's trying too hard to be true - like an employee telling his boss too much about his phlegm when he calls in sick on a sunny summer day.

"I Had to Say Something" disguises itself as rallying call in the fight for marriage equality and equal rights for the LGBT community. Underneath, however, this book is really just a middle-aged man crying out, "look at me."
Profile Image for Michael Adam Adam.
Author 9 books2 followers
July 30, 2025
Book Review: I Had to Say Something: The Art of Ted Haggard's Fall by Mike Jones
★★★★★
Reviewed by Michael Adam Reale

This is an excellent and courageous book that exposes the deep hypocrisy within Evangelicalism—especially the kind perpetuated by Fundamentalist Christianity. Through a series of honest and powerful reflections, Mike Jones lays bare the spiritual abuse, repression, and double standards that so many queer people have endured in the name of faith.

I was fortunate to get to know Mike personally through email correspondence, and I can say from experience: he’s a genuinely kind, thoughtful, and brave man. His story matters, and it speaks to countless others who’ve been spiritually wounded by churches that preach love while practicing exclusion and shame.

I recommend this book to anyone who has suffered spiritual abuse at the hands of evangelical or fundamentalist Christianity—and to those who need a mirror held up to a system that often refuses to see its own contradictions.
Profile Image for JOSEPH OLIVER.
110 reviews25 followers
May 10, 2014
I had only vaguely heard of this ‘scandal’ shortly after it became public but I didn’t follow it at the time. I like religious scandals at the best of times as it brings out the hypocrisy of the ‘pastors’ and the gullibility of the sheeple who want to believe regardless of the facts. I had the opportunity to read this and wasn’t expecting too much from it. In my filtered version of this scandal all I had were ‘pastor’ ‘ rent boy’ ‘hotel rooms’ ‘sleaze’. None of it was really true at all.

None of the clichés held up. The escort [his preferred word] was in his late 40s, comfortable with other legitimate sources of income. He was healthy, drug and alcohol free and quite successful at what he was doing – even if only part time. It paid so well and he was so good at giving what the other men wanted that he didn’t need to do it full time. In return the men got an award winning body builder to give them almost any indulgence they wanted – no questions asked. All fantasies catered for and most of them fairly mundane but as most of his clients were married men with a wholesome family image to keep up, their fantasies didn’t range too far from the hugs and fetish variety.

The key words that come across are secrecy, confidentiality, low key and no questions asked. Mike Jones preferred that as it gave him a barrier between his clients and himself. He wanted it one way. Oftentimes the men wanted to know about the steamier side of gay lifestyles as they couldn’t indulge in it themselves so he was able to tell a few stores to feed that fantasy but he never asked them about their lives unless they wanted to divulge anything – which in the case of Haggard – they really didn’t want to do. After three years with the man all Mike Jones knew was a first name (Art) and that he was a married pastor. No further information was given and none requested.

It is clear in the book that Mike has no axes to grind. He was angry when he found out who the man was – not that he was a religious minister as he had plenty of those as clients – but that he was using his platform to keep gay people down and was actively working against equality for gays and lesbians. That was what prompted him to act. The latter third of the book is devoted to the background to the need to expose Haggard. He really didn’t want to but his mother had just died from cancer and he had begun to re-evaluate his life and values. Shall we say that he realised how short life really is and it is too short to have hypocrites cause such pain and suffering to other men and women just trying to get along as a minority. We get the inside of how the media works with stories like this. There was a marked reluctance by the media surprisingly enough to run the story as they feared a backlash from his followers and legal action if the story didn’t stand up. In the end after waiting more than a month with nothing happening he threw caution to the wind and spoke to a local radio station. The rest is history. His purpose was not personal. He liked Art a lot and things could have worked out differently if Haggard had confronted his own internalised homophobia and dealt with it and refrained from rousing the masses against giving equal rights to gay men and women. He certainly made no money from it and was worse off because all his clients – none of whom were even mentioned in this memoir but we are told some were household names (in the US) – stopped coming and his other jobs weren’t too keen on seeing him either. His modelling contract for art classes was cancelled for no reason.

He discusses his personal life in some detail. Nothing untoward of course because he was reared in a loving home with a fairly mundane background like the rest of us. No abusive parents, abuse or traumas. When he was a young man he found that other men were attracted to his bodybuilder’s physique and were prepared to pay for it without any fuss. Kid in a candy shop I believe is the phrase. So we get a lot of background about the man. The ghost writer did a good job and the book flows well.
Profile Image for Bookfanatic.
280 reviews36 followers
November 18, 2013
Interesting account of famed Christian leader Ted Haggard's hypocrisy and fall from grace. Mike Jones, a gay male escort, gives his side of the story. For about two and a half years, Ted (calling himself "Art from Kansas") sought the sexual services of Mike Jones. The book isn't very graphic in my opinion. There are references to sex toys and sex acts that Ted liked, but not anything very descriptive. This was a quick read. I finished it in two days.
Profile Image for Kenneth.
491 reviews2 followers
April 7, 2016
Mike Jones was the escort from Denver who exposed the hypocritical life of the Reverend Ted Haggard. This memoir is a very detailed account of the interaction the two men had, in great length. It goes far beyond any TV News Report, or Newspaper article. I enjoyed the read very much for the insight it gave. It was also very interesting seeing the life of an escort/masseur from the inside. It is a very engrossing read, but reminded me a bit of reading a celebrity rag in some ways.
14 reviews2 followers
July 6, 2007
I sat in the Barnes & Noble cafe in Chelsea for four hours the other day and read this cover-to-cover. Mike Jones is totally guileless and almost impossible not to like. His ghostwriter did a fantastic job. Moving interwoven story regarding the death of Mrs. Jones from cancer.
Profile Image for Paul.
62 reviews2 followers
January 4, 2009
Mike Jones is a great American and an American hero.

There's definitely facsinating stuff about Ted Haggard, clearly a tormented guy. But I was surprised to be touched (in a non-sexual way) by Mike Jones's bio, his relationship with his mother and several of his clients.

Quick read.
Profile Image for Jenny.
30 reviews4 followers
Want to read
June 12, 2007
F-YOU TIM HAGGARD!!!! HAHAHAHA i can't wait to read this.
Profile Image for Ronn Lewis.
7 reviews1 follower
August 31, 2007

I enjoyed this. Good to finally hear the full story the way he wanted it told. Not sure I would have gone about it the same way but then who knows.
Profile Image for Johanna.
76 reviews25 followers
October 11, 2007
I learned that you too can have an illicit affair with a major religious figure in the community and still enjoy the comforts of The Village Inn.
Profile Image for Mont.
8 reviews1 follower
August 1, 2008
Interesting. Felt the author was a little full of himself. He does do a good job of sharing the lifestyle of the married man who is looking for more.
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