- THE SECRET SOCIETY AND ITS 2300 YEAR OLD MANUSCRIPT MOVIE
- THE SECRET SOCIETY AND ITS 2300 YEAR OLD MANUSCRIPT TV
One thing led to another, and by the mid-1980s my parents owned one of only four satellite TV networks in the world, along with a sprawling theme park and the largest TV ministry the world had ever witnessed. They debuted with a kids' show featuring handmade puppets: Susie Moppet (a Porky Pig bubble-bath cap refashioned with braids, voiced by my mom) and Allie the Alligator (a leopard-print sock with teeth, voiced by Dad) would sing Christian songs and explain God's Word. In 1964, my parents made their first appearance on the Christian Broadcasting Network, the station of future Christian television mogul Pat Robertson. For good or ill, it all started with my mom and dad.Īnd it all started humbly enough. They paved the way for the best-selling mega-church stars of today. They were the first people to bring down-home, family-friendly Christian worship into America's living rooms through television. on the interstate, before Michael Jackson dangled babies over balconies, before Britney went all bald and strange, there was the Jim and Tammy Faye "mascara meltdown." But prior to being pariahs my parents were pop-culture pioneers. My family set the standard for televised crack-ups. But I do think it's important that you understand what I've lived through to learn grace. It's not that I take pleasure in retreading this territory (believe me, I don't). On December 18, 1975, Hurricane Jay made landfall.įor those readers who don't know my family story, or have assigned those memories to the junk pile of 1980s trivia, let me lay a little groundwork here. He was on the air preaching when the producers flashed the words "It's a boy! It's a boy!" across the bottom of the screen like a severe-weather warning. They knew of my birth even before my dad did.
All through grade school, my yearbook picture (no matter how humiliating) was mailed to six hundred thousand PTL faithful around the world. The network's supporters were my extended family.
Twice a week I would don a child-sized suit, tame my cowlick, and brandish my jack-o'-lantern grin for an audience of millions on my parents' Praise the Lord (PTL) television ministry. What those other kids might not have realized was that being the son of the picture-perfect Christian family was a role for me too. Somewhere in Hollywood a bunch of chubby white kids lined up, hoping to get their big break playing the part of little Jamie Charles Bakker, son of disgraced televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye.
THE SECRET SOCIETY AND ITS 2300 YEAR OLD MANUSCRIPT MOVIE
In my case, it was a second-rate made-for-TV movie called Fall from Grace, starring Kevin Spacey as my dad and Bernadette Peters - face painted like the side of a barn - as my mom. You know you've reached a new level of fame in American culture (or infamy) when there's a casting call to play you in a movie. We are punished by our sins, not for them. One of those stances includes fighting for gay rights. "It's just that moment where you're able to say, 'I am accepted by a power greater than myself.'"īakker's unorthodox beliefs lead him to controversial social stances that have branded him as a heretic in many Christian circles. "Grace is unconditional acceptance," he says. In Fall To Grace: A Revolution of God, Self and Society, Bakker makes it clear it's grace, not religion, that he believes in. "It's a constant reminder to me to be careful." "Religion can be a very dangerous thing," Bakker tells NPR's Guy Raz. That hasn't been easy, he says in his new book, especially since he decided to follow in the family business and become a pastor himself.īakker co-founded Revolution Church in 1994 and now runs the New York City branch, which meets every Sunday afternoon at a Brooklyn bar.Ī church that meets in a bar is pretty atypical, but then again, so is Bakker, who counts Marlon Brando as one of his fashion icons and is covered in tattoos - including one tattoo that reads, "Religion Destroys." The reputation of his parents - disgraced evangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker - usually precedes his own. Fall to Grace: A Revolution of God, Self & Society
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