"Where are they now?" Jim & Tammy Faye

[trof]

Remember this lovely and loving Christian couple?

"For Jay Bakker, a preacher with perhaps the most notorious surname in modern Christianity, family is never very far away—even here at Pete's Candy Store, a subway car-sized rock club in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which has served as home base for his Revolution ministry since relocating from Atlanta in August. On a recent Sunday afternoon, Jay's father, disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker, could be seen sitting at the foot of Pete's stage along with his second wife and a dozen or so dreadlocked and tattooed Revolution churchgoers.

"Me and my dad have had a strange relationship these last ten years," says Jay, by way of introducing his father's guest sermon. "When he got out of prison, I was a raging alcoholic. That didn't quite work out." The two only recently began speaking again after a two-year silence, and with Tammy Faye—Jay's mother and Jim's ex-wife—in the hospital with stage-four cancer, they're making an effort to reconcile.

Like every other personal event in the Bakker family story, this one has an audience. Two cameramen crouch on either side of the stage. One is trained on Jim as he takes his seat on a rickety stool and arranges his notes on the junior-high-issue music stand that serves as Revolution's pulpit. The other drinks in Jay's every fidget and strained smile as he watches his father's familiar performance. "I've never preached in a bar before, so that's liberating," says Jim Bakker, flashing his made-for-TV smile at the skeptical crowd. "I'm really more nervous here than being on television."
http://www.radaronline.com/features/2006/12/bakker.php

And now you know 'the rest of the story'.

[blueknight]

1. a really fucked up bunch of people!

more "family values" type neo-cons

[noonwitch]

2. I have sympathy for Tammy Faye

I don't think she's a bad person, I just think she's not very smart about some things, or at least she wasn't during the heyday of PTL.

Neither Jim nor Tammy ever preached hate against any group of people, and made a point not to preach hate against gays. Jim may have been running some financial scams, but they were never the mean, hateful kind of preachers that many televangelists are. Which is probably exactly why Jerry Falwell had to take them down.

[trof]

3. "MAY have been running some financial scams"?

That's what they went to prison for.
No doubt about it.
They suckered a lot of poor people for their hard earned dollars while living the life of a billionaire's dream.

[The Stranger]

6. She benefitted from those scams yet never served any time.

That they didn't demonize marginalized peoples while bilking them or declare war every single night on television (while preaching "Christian Love") is hardly reason to excuse the crimes committed.

[Ian David]

8. Tammy Faye seemed very sweet when she was on "The Surreal Life."

It's sad to know that Tammy Faye is suffering so much.

[Alamom]

4. I'm not sure where Jim is......Tammy Is dying if she hasn't already

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammy_Faye_Bakker



Tammy Faye Bakker (Messner)



On March 19, 2004, just 12 days after her 62nd birthday, Tammy Faye Messner, a survivor of colon cancer, announced on Larry King Live (broadcast on CNN) that she had inoperable lung cancer and would soon begin chemotherapy. Later, on November 30, 2004, also on Larry King Live, she announced that she was cancer free. She described details of her chemotherapy and continued to appear regularly on that show. It was on the program that she announced, on July 20, 2005, that cancer had returned to her lungs. In 2005, she appeared in an infomercial for controversial medicinal advice author Kevin Trudeau. On March 13, 2006, just 6 days after her 64th birthday, she appeared again on a Larry King Live broadcast on CNN and stated that she is suffering from Stage 4 Lung Cancer and is continuing treatment for it. She also mentioned difficulty swallowing food, having panic attacks and having lost quite a bit of weight. As of March 2006, she weighs roughly 94 lbs. A "Talk of the Town" item in the October 2, 2006 issue of The New Yorker stated that she was dying in hospice care.



I saw her once on Larry King....it was pitiful as with any person who is dying of cancer.



Edit to add link

[Double T]

5. perfect examples of wealth, power and privilege leading to corruption

[Arkansas Granny]

7. Don't know about Tammy, but here's where Jim is hanging out lately.

One of our local TV stations carries his new program on weekday mornings.

http://www.jimbakkershow.com/