How NOT to give counsel: The ongoing Ted Haggard saga

Dan Gilgoff has a two part interview with Ted Haggard.

Counseling is significant in that it presents counsel to the vulnerable. Often those who receive counsel do not think clearly, and there is a tremendous responsibility on the counselor to accurately represent God's standards and encourage Biblical repentance and godly thinking. From the response that Ted Haggard gave, it seems like his counselor greatly failed him:

When I started in counseling, I thought I was a spiritual disaster and a complete idiot for what I'd done. And the counselor started out by saying "You're spiritually OK." He asked, "Have you repented?" Yes. "Have you memorized scripture?" Yes. "Have you been through inner healing?" Yes. He said, "According to the Bible, you are in fine relationship with the Lord Jesus." And I said I think I am. I love Him. I've never rebelled against him willingly. This has been a wrestling in my life, never an acceptance thing.

And then he said, "You are rationale—have you read books on the subject?" Yes. And he said "Ted, if you could pray about this and be OK, you would have done it. If you could think about this and rationalize your own life, you would have done it. This is not spiritual nor reasonable. It is physiological." And he started to teach me how the brain works. And in that process, over two years, I've grown in eliminating the incongruities in my life. I've learned physiologically how the brain works and how that related to sexuality.