What’s the saying, a leopard doesn’t change his spots. Neither does a snake oil salesman.
I detest spending even a minute writing about this guy. He’s a public figure and a creation of his own warped morality. He’s also a convicted felon. It is sad that anyone believes his crappola and worse than they financially support him.
Bakker was a conman selling lifetime memberships at Heritage USA. Convicted on 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy, he was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison, but obviously did not serve that entire sentence. Bakker and wife Tammy Faye started out with a puppet show on a Minnesota television station. Enter Pat Robertson who moved them up the religion business ladder. Eventually, Bakker formed PTL or Praise the Lord, and decided to build a religious-themed amusement park. Part of this complex involved a resort and Bakker started selling these memberships to raise millions of dollars. Bakker would start attracting all kinds of attention, but not the sort he wanted. Who can forget the photo of Bakker led away in handcuffs, crying like a baby.
Bakker has reinvented himself, although he seems to be the same old Jim Bakker. Yes, he has even brought back the PTL network; Bakker worships at the alter of greed.
For fun, I sometimes switch over to his cable show, like I do with Mike “the huckster” Huckabee who also has a cable show, to see what kind of lunacy is dressed up as religion. Last night, he was in rare form. He sits at desk with his wife and several other “experts” like a pseudo news program. The segment I endured had Bakker pitching his new book, with his daughter Tammy Sue getting ready to sing a song. Bakker said the book was containing a CD of songs performed by his daughter. He kept her from signing as he told a story about a devoted worshipper who convinced him to listen to a recording, it become one of his favorite songs. What he was leading up to was how this person said that she loved him and never stopped believing in him. This was his opportunity to lay the blame for his past troubles on the media and those who were trying to bring him down. These people had it in for him, and he was the first example of “cancel culture” because they wanted to cancel him. I don’t know if Tammy Sue ever got to sing her song because her daddy was on a roll – about himself. Poor Jimmy.
What Bakker did not address during his pity party was the millions of dollars he was convicted of using for personal and other purposes, money that was supposed to build the hotel that people were buying memberships to stay at. He lived lavishly, on other people’s money apparently.
The other small detail that he overlooked was his sexual misconduct with a church secretary names Jessica Hahn. The reason that this detail is important is that hush money was paid to Ms. Hahn from money belonging to the vast church/PTL holdings. Jerry Falwell, the spokesman for morality, was involved, but denied any flimflam. Talk about sin, there was enough of it to make several films and TV movies, and still enough leftover for other televangelists. You might recall, Ms. Hahn went to Hollywood, acted a little, got breast implants and appeared in Playboy. Living the dream, sort of.
Anyway, the another segment of Bakker’s show that I found rather interesting was his news “roundup” which was essentially graphics lifted from FoxNews, with Bakker’s own commentator blaming Joe Biden, Democrats and other heathens for the country’s problems. Gasoline shortage, inflation, the worker shortage and probably diaper rash.
Here are some of his shows from November 2020, notice the reoccurring political theme. Nothing like a little fundamentalism with your ballot.
Bakker’s show has gotten the attention of the Federal Drum Administration and the Missouri Attorney General for selling of products that are advertised to prevent people from getting the COVID-19 virus. Bakker’s show originates from Branson, Missouri. Bakker is never bashful about hawking products or convincing his followers to part with their money.
Jim Bakker has no shame. This is PTL version 2. No wonder that involvement with organized religion is down, with a cheerleader like Jim Bakker.
Ticket 2 Ride 