"You can watch whatever you want the rest of the day, but not until I watch Jim and Tammy Faye." That was the sentence of the day during sick days and summer vacation days. It was stated to me every morning by my evangelical mother who loved watching the PTL television show. Of course, it did not appeal to me as a young child. It was somewhat perplexing, actually. Tammy Faye Bakker wore more makeup than any celebrity I had ever seen. And she was always crying. Always. I was not sure why. And many times, my mother would cry along with her, too. And I had no idea why, either. It was a big production with Tammy Faye crying, Jim with his used car salesman shtick always asking for money, threating they would go off the air if they did not. It was my mother's wish to go to Heritage USA, their theme park. It was purported to be at the time the country's third largest resort attraction behind the Disney destinations. Truthfully, it was not mine. We were drug to church every time the door was open, much more than any child I knew. I did not like getting up on a Sunday to go to Sunday school, would rather be home on Sunday nights and really did not care to go on a Wednesday night, either. Religion really is not interesting to a lot of children. The trip to Heritage USA never did come to fruition, but several Christian families that we knew paid thousands of dollars to them in exchange for a scheduled trip to the Christian themed park.
It was the spring of 1987 when the explosive allegations against Jim Bakker came to light. I do remember that it rocked the world of evangelical Christianity. While the Bakkers appealed to Christians, they were routinely panned by comedians and sitcoms. Those in the media, especially the Charlotte Observer, were already suspicious of their finances and had already reported on the questionable statements of financial solvency put forth by the ministry. The Bakkers became a laughingstock. Jim relinquished control of the fledging ministry to charlatan Jerry Falwell Sr. They appeared on Nightline in an interview in which Jim hideously defended himself, saying that people were out to get him. One look at Tammy Faye during that interview would show a woman in tremendous pain, almost to the point of not being able to barely speak. Her eyes, though covered in the usual eye makeup and mascara, were dead. She often looked down, she never faced Jim. She sat and stared, barely there. It was a case of a man dragging his wife out to make himself look better, to present a united front. But you could clearly tell that Tammy Faye was there physically but a million miles away emotionally. Jim was sentenced to prison for defrauding his followers out of millions of dollars, and those families would never see their money ever again. I do not remember much about the Bakkers after that. I had forgotten about them. I do remember Tammy Faye popping up on some television talk shows, and she had one briefly, but that was about it. And she did divorce Jim and marry another man, Roe Messner, who also was sentenced to prison for financial fraud.
In 2005 or 2006, I was flipping through the channels when I came across a show called "One Punk Under God" on the Sundance channel. The subject was Jay Bakker, Jim and Tammy Faye's son. At the time, he pastored a church in New York City which was rather unconventional. People smoked cigarettes and as Jay preached, he would interrupt himself to light up someone's cigarette. He was tattooed and had plenty of earrings. Jay was far from his Jamey Charles days on the show. But I remember thinking how cool this was. Jay clearly understood that everybody had spiritual needs, and that some people did not fit into a conventional church setting. A year or two later, Tammy Faye would enter the public eye again when she announced her incurable cancer diagnosis. She passed away in 2007. There were several documentaries made about Tammy Faye before her passing, including "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" in 2000. The documentary saw some playing time after her passing, and I saw it for the first time. I did not realize that Tammy's life after PTL was so closely aligned with the LGBT community. I sought to find out more about that, and I found that Tammy had a mutual love and relationship with the LGBT community. Some of that had to do with her days at PTL, where she cried on television and admonished Christians for not embracing and caring for those with AIDS. It showed that she cared about what happened to those who were suffering in the early days of AIDS. Tammy would go on to say that when the church turned its back on her, the LGBT community embraced her. I became an advocate and ally for the LGBT community when one of my best friends came out of the closet around this time in 2000. And once I did, I met a world of people who just wanted to be accepted as they were. Tammy Faye understood that and gave them the love and accepted which was sorely missing in churches espousing the teachings of Jesus. She did what many others refused to do in evangelical churches. I say refused because there were horrible people like Jerry Falwell who did nothing but rail against the LGBT community in a hateful way.
Tammy Faye and I had other things in common as well. We were both sensitive and caring young women who also had a creative imagination. Hers came out in puppets; mine came out in stories. But we both had creative minds and sought to bless others with our creativity. We both wanted to, and always do, want to make the lives of others better. We feel it is our calling to care about those who are hurting. We understand suffering. Both Tammy Faye and I have been severely burned by people in the church. That led us both to feel like we were both more appreciated by those outside of the church and recognized the needs of those who we knew outside of evangelical Christianity. And we were both naive yet trusting young women of the same age when we met toxic men in a Pentecostal setting (that is a whole other subject that I probably do not have the energy to address right now but it is true indeed.) There were some things that were different about us. For example, she probably cried much more in one week of shows that I would in a year. I am nowhere near as outwardly emotional. And I do not have the same evangelical beliefs anymore as she did until her passing. Was she perfect? None of us are. I know a lot of people objected to their wealthy lifestyle, and it is fair criticism. It was my understanding that Jim was the one behind the excessive gathering of donations from likely vulnerable people. However, she did live very well off of the donations. She purportedly asked for a large salary for herself and Jim even as PTL was folding. Apparently, they never received it as the ministry ultimately failed and Jim was imprisoned.
Throughout Tammy's life and beyond, she was able to touch the lives of people. In a time where women were absolutely frowned upon in ministry, she was a kind and understanding face to women. There are still not many prevalent women in the world of televangelism some 40 years later. She humanized the other side of fire breathing, hell threatening television preachers. Tammy connected with not only women but men, too. She sang and always wanted to encourage people. On her last appearance on the PTL show, she chose to sing "The Sun Will Rise Again." Even though her heart was breaking, she still wanted to encourage people. Her path led away from the traditional church to the people who were condemned by it. In that, she mirrored the Jesus that her husband and many of their professional colleagues sold to the masses. In fact, she seemed to be the ONLY one who did so. Jim wanted to make sure that you knew God loved you but also needed your money more. Falwell was just downright hateful; Robertson was also a money-grubbing nut job. Note that Falwell died but raised a pervert; Robertson claimed the ability to alter the courses of hurricanes through his direct connection to God and just recently retired; and Jim Bakker peddles conspiracy theories and found himself in trouble with the law for selling a false COVID-19 cure. Kenneth Copeland has wealth in excess of $800 million dollars, refuses to pay any taxes on his money and will not travel on public transportation because they are infected with demons. But not Tammy Faye. She lived a modest life until her passing. Tammy Faye made some television appearances and had a short-lived talk show, but she continued her work of making the world a better place. None of those aforementioned televangelists did anything to draw people to Jesus. Tammy reached out to those who were shunned by people, showed compassion to those who were suffering. In that fact, she was exactly like Jesus.
I think that it is important to note that the legacy Tammy left is still being felt 14 years after her passing. Jessica Chastain portrayed her compassionately in the movie The Eyes of Tammy Faye. She said that it was her pleasure to do so because of what a great person Tammy Faye was. She noted her outreach to others. I felt the movie was very well done. My only criticism is that some was fictitious; notably, that Tammy Faye had an affair with her music producer. It was reported that Tammy Faye was attracted to him, but that the feeling was not mutual. It was said Tammy was infatuated with him in real life but nothing ever happened. In the movie, Jim blamed this affair for his discretions with Jessica Hahn. Whatever Tammy's feelings were it was Jim who made the decision to have an affair with another woman. Tammy felt alone at many times during her marriage. This story was also corroborated by Jay, who said that he never had any time with his father. According to Jay, the time he spent talking with his father in prison was the most uninterrupted time he had with him. Jim was so focused on running his ministry that he really did seem to let his family go. We will likely continue to hear the stories of the Bakker family, especially Tammy Faye. Why? Because Tammy Faye lived an exemplary life. She lived a life in the way many imagined Jesus to live. Tammy also raised a son who also does not fit in with the conventional church life and yet manages to touch the lives of people that other church people never would.
I am glad that I took the time to understand the crying woman that I really never understood as a young child. She was a kindred spirit that I never knew personally, yet somehow, I do. On behalf of those who were touched by Tammy Faye, I say thank you to the woman who shared so much love with the world. We need more people like her.
Here is a great video by YouTube personality Jen, on her channel Fundie Fridays. Jen is an atheist who absolutely loves Tammy Faye, as evidenced in this video.
THE TAMMY FAYE EPISODE - YouTube
Have a happy holiday season!
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