Two years after Ted Haggard vanished into the gap that separates righteous, evangelical America from righteous, liberal America, a deeply sympathetic portrait of Ted Haggard is to be shown in a 42-minute HBO documentary “The Trials of Ted Haggard.”

As some people may already know, Ted Haggard, who was against gay marriage and spoke out against homosexuality, was once the most powerful minister in the evangelical Christian movement. He lost his position and his reputation after his relationship with a male prostitute was exposed in 2006.

His spectacular fall as leader of Colorado’s New Life Church became a subject to Alexandra Pelosi’s last HBO documentary, to air Thursday night at 8 p.m. 

Pelosi, who became friends with the likable Haggard when he was the focus of her 2005 documentary, “Friends of God,” is back with a brisk follow-up devoted specifically to Haggard’s time in “exile,” viewing the pastor, if not his former flock, with obvious affection and sympathy.

Instead of trying to dismiss Haggard as another pulpit-pounding hypocrite, Pelosi zeroes in on a more poignant and relatable theme: a man forced to start over at middle age. Her documentary offers glimpses into the ex-pastor’s new life since leaving the church he helped build, although it fails to offer a comprehensive overview of Haggard’s nearly two years of exile since losing his pastorate.

We learn about the struggle that followed after he and his family left the church, and agreed to also leave Colorado, as part of an agreement with the church. They moved to Arizona, where they began to pick up pieces of a ruined life while the gay escort, Mike Jones, is milking his fame for what it’s worth.

And despite all his troubles, Haggard didn’t lose his faith. The short movie ends with a theatrical flourish as Haggard wanders into the Arizona desert, where he reads from the 69th Psalm: “I looked for sympathy, but there was none. I looked for people to comfort me, but I found no one. ...”

Now, after two years of intensive psychotherapy, Haggard said he no longer struggles with his own sexuality and calls himself a heterosexual, “with issues.” On occasion he still imagines being with men, but he says these thoughts are “not compelling.”