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AP "I've never had a gay relationship with anyone," Haggard, a father of five said in an interview with Denver television station KUSA on Wednesday night. US minister resigns over gay row Agencies The president of the 30 million-member US National Association of Evangelicals resigned on Thursday after being accused of paying for sex with a man over the past three years. Ted Haggard also temporarily stepped down as senior pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs saying he could "not continue to minister under the cloud created by the accusations." "I've never had a gay relationship with anyone," Haggard, a father of five said in an interview with Denver television station KUSA on Wednesday night. Mike Jones, 49, who said he was a male escort, told KUSA on Wednesday he had had a three-year sexual "business relationship" with Haggard. Jones, who said he is gay, said he was upset when he discovered Haggard had publicly opposed same-sex marriage. "It made me angry that here's someone preaching about gay marriage and going behind the scenes having gay sex," Jones told the Associated Press agency. Haggard, who is often credited with rallying conservative Christians behind President George W Bush for his 2004 re-election, talks to Bush or his advisors every Monday, Harper's Magazine reported last year. Haggard supports a proposed amendment to the Colorado constitution that defines marriage as between one man and one woman. Colorado voters will decide on that issue next week when they vote in the congressional elections.
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