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Title: Son of a TV preacher man: Jay Bakker in "One Punk Under God"
Source:
Kansas City Star
URL Source: http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2006/12/son_of_a_tv_pre.html
Published: Dec 08, 2006
Author: Aaron Barnhart
Post Date: 2007-03-20 21:50:54 by Dakmar
Keywords: None
Views: 355
Comments: 9
For Jay Bakker, the son of televangelists Jim and Tammy Bakker, loving God meant always having to say you were sorry. “I had this idea of an angry God, that everything I did was bad and wrong,” he says now about his childhood, which until the age of 13 was spent living, literally, in a theme park, Heritage USA, built by the millions of dollars the Bakkers raised through their Praise the Lord ministry. Despite his seemingly idyllic upbringing, Bakker says, “I thought I was losing my salvation.” Those feelings of guilt only intensified in 1987, when a sex and accounting-fraud scandal brought the PTL empire crashing down. Eventually his parents would divorce, Jim Bakker would go to prison and Jay would spend his teen years adrift in a haze of drugs and alcohol. Now rehabilitated and married, Jay Bakker, who turns 31 later this month, is a minister of the gospel himself. He's even on TV -- though only for a few weeks. “One Punk Under God,” a documentary about his life, airs for six weeks beginning 8 p.m. CT Wednesday on Sundance Channel (digital cable). With his bald pate, sideburns, pierced lower lip and arms filled with tattoos, Bakker resembles the comedian David Cross if Cross had joined a biker gang. Yet on screen and in person, he is a paragon of Christian humility, soft-spoken and quick to talk about the tender mercies of God. When we spoke in California this summer, Bakker and his wife Amanda were preparing to move to New York City to start a new planting of Revolution, a sort of anti-church he first became involved with in 1994, when he was recovering from substance abuse but still feeling alienated from God. “One Punk Under God” chronicles his final months in Atlanta, when Revolution was based at a club called Masquerade and undergoing a crisis mostly instigated by Bakker. Risking the support of his church's biggest funders, he declared Revolution to be gay-affirming and began teaching that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality. (Here are photos and an account of his visit to the Open Door Community Church, which figures in an episode of "One Punk.") Though Bakker attributes his liberal outlook to his parents, who welcomed Christians to PTL without regard of creed or sexual orientation, it's clear that his primary influence was Mom, aka Tammy Faye Messner, with whom he remains close. The production company behind “One Punk” has made two documentary films about Tammy Faye Messner, including “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” and Bakker says he agreed to do a TV show because of their sympathetic treatment of her. By contrast, his decision to thumb his nose at Revolution's financial supporters reflects the strained relationship with his father, who is once again involved in TV ministry. Before he agreed to be filmed for a documentary, Bakker had not spoken to his father for two years. Released from prison in 1993, Jim Bakker remarried and relocated to Branson, Mo. He does a daily TV show with his wife, Lori Bakker, on a set that looks like it was borrowed from “Live with Regis and Kelly.” In the fourth episode of “One Punk,” Jay goes to Branson to visit Jim, and they have a heart-to-heart talk ... on “The Jim Bakker Show.”
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#1. To: Dakmar (#0)
I think the red-haired woman is his wife.
Galatians 3:29 And if ye [be] Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
people branding themselves, what's that all about?
If you look carefully at my lips, you'll realize that I'm actually saying something else. I'm not actually telling you about the several ways I'm gradually murdering Joan. - Tom Frost
I agree with you. I could never understand the draw in tattooing or piercing either. Even if I was ever on drugs I still wouldn't do it. I guess this guy Jay Bakker is a good example of a rebel from his early family- life. but look - he went back to the same thing he was born to. except he says he's different. I don't blame him for being anti-church. any sane person has to be anti-church if you've been in them up close and seen the flaws. but he's still a believer, he's just an anti-church believer.
Galatians 3:29 And if ye [be] Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
He seems alright to me, basically. Probably a lot more screwed up than most of us. I can't imagine having Tammy Faye as my mother, that is terrifying me just thinking about it.
If you look carefully at my lips, you'll realize that I'm actually saying something else. I'm not actually telling you about the several ways I'm gradually murdering Joan. - Tom Frost
a makeup show?
how'd the protest go?
it went well! there were about 60-80 people there, which is good for birmingham. it was at a busy intersection downtown, and the feedback from passing cars was great. everyone was beeping their horns and flashing peace signs. I didn't see a single one finger peace sign! all the local tv stations were there too, and I saw it on the news later last night. all in all it seemed like a success. one brief incident - there was a soldier in uniform there. we weren't sure what his position was. there were several speakers, and when the first one started, the soldier yelled "we're in iraq so the iraqi people can express their opinions like you're all doing here".....a woman near him said "what good is free speech to dead people?" and I thought oh no - the last thing we wanted was a big fight at a peace rally. but that was about it. several people near the soldier told me he was making remarks throughout the first couple of speeches but eventually left. there were many 'support the troops - bring them home' signs so I hope he realized we weren't there to diss troops. my favorite sign: 'would we have invaded iraq if their main export was broccoli?' thanks for asking :)
excellent. kudos to you for doing something. :)
His rehabilitation consists of the discovery that there are a lot of sheep out there waiting to be fleeced, and talking beats working for making money.
It is not a Justice System. It is just a system.
#2. To: Red Jones (#1)
#3. To: Dakmar (#2)
#4. To: Red Jones (#3)
#5. To: Dakmar (#0)
“The Eyes of Tammy Faye,”
#6. To: kiki (#5)
#7. To: christine (#6)
how'd the protest go?
#8. To: kiki (#7)
#9. To: Dakmar (#0)
Now rehabilitated and married, Jay Bakker, who turns 31 later this month, is a minister of the gospel himself. He's even on TV -- though only for a few weeks. “One Punk Under God,” a documentary about his life, airs for six weeks beginning 8 p.m. CT Wednesday on Sundance Channel (digital cable).
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