COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Rev. Ted Haggard resigned as president of the influential National Association of Evangelicals on Thursday after being accused of paying for sex with a man.

Haggard - who has been a leading opponent of the drive for same-sex marriage - also stepped aside as head of his 14,000-member New Life Church while a church panel investigates, saying he could "not continue to minister under the cloud created by the accusations."

The investigation came after a 49-year-old man told a Denver radio station that Haggard paid him to have sex nearly every month for three years.

Haggard, a married father of five, denied the allegations in an interview with KUSA-TV late Wednesday: "Never had a gay relationship with anybody, and I'm steady with my wife, I'm faithful to my wife."