Ted says that while his actions may have been hypocritical when he was a pastor, he did not engage in hateful speech from the pulpit against homosexuals. "Now, I do believe the Bible is the word of God. I believe God's ideal for us is to live in heterosexual monogamous marriages. I just believe that," he says. "I think it's an ideal, just like I wish there wasn't divorce. So an ideal is that there not be divorce, but there is divorce. An ideal is that heterosexual monogamous marriages would be there, but that's an ideal."
Ted says he and Gayle, as church leaders, made their private lives more public than many others in their position. "We were very open, very transparent, about everything—except this one area of my heart," he says.
Why did he keep such an important part of his life hidden from his church? "I thought it would go away," Ted says. "Unfortunately, that's the state in a lot of leadership roles. And when you're in a leadership role, whether it's political or a religious leadership role, that exists. And I'm not saying that as an excuse."
