Ex-evangelist Haggard apologizes in Texas

IRVING, Texas, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Disgraced Colorado evangelical minister Ted Haggard told hundreds of people at a church in Irving, Texas, he is sorry for a 2006 scandal.

The Dallas Morning News said while Haggard offered an apology Sunday at Calvary Church of Irving, the former National Association of Evangelicals president did discuss particulars regarding his alleged solicitation of a male prostitute three years ago.

"I want to apologize to all of you. ... I violated you," Haggard said Sunday. "I didn't do everything that I've been accused of doing. But I'm guilty of enough."

The founder of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., maintains he only received a massage from the male prostitute, but has admitted to using methamphetamines.

Haggard and his wife, Gayle, have been traveling to churches nationwide in the wake of the 2006 scandal to offer apologies and explanations, the Morning News reported.

Haggard, 53, insists he is a heterosexual male who was only attracted to men because he was sexually assaulted as a second-grader.

"One of the most horrific mistakes I made was not a spiritual problem; it was a physiological problem," Haggard said Sunday. "I needed treatment."