Skip to main content

One Punk Under God

One Punk Under God: The Prodigal Son of Jim & Tammy Faye is My New Obsession by Paula Neal Mooney

I used to think the word "televangelist" was synonymous with liar and cheat. This was in no small part because I came of age in the 1980s, when folks like Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker ruled the airways with their Praise the Lord (PTL) Ministries. (Thank God for TV preachers like Bishop T.D. Jakes and Joyce Meyer -- who are the epitome of honest, God-fearing teachers.)

Anyway, Jim and Tammy Faye became the laughingstock of the world when Jim's affair with Jessica Hahn was exposed, along with Jim's conviction of illegally diverted millions of dollars of donations for his own private use.

Jim went to prison, was released and restored and remarried. And Tammy remarried as well. Now their son, Jay Bakker, who went on drugs and rejected the Church due to the hypocrisy Jay witnessed firsthand, is back and saving souls for the Lord in his own Revolution Church.

Jay Bakker is the main subject of a new six-part documentary that is my new obsession: One Punk Under God: The Prodigal Son of Jim & Tammy Faye on the Sundance Channel. Reluctant to film the documentary at first, it ended up capturing one of the most pivotal years of Jay's life.

Mainly, I love how Jay Bakker relates to the punk crowd who'd long given up on God but have returned to the Church in large part for Jay's sort-of anti-establishment stance. I've only caught a couple of episodes, but now I'm hooked, and must go back and TiVo the rest when I can. I was amazed by how old Jim looks now, and sobbed last night as Tammy Faye -- who is dying of cancer -- went over her failures with Jay in a cafe.

Here are the episode details:

No. 1, originally aired Dec. 13: Jay recalls his childhood as he revisits the ghostly ruins of Heritage USA, this father's ambitious Christian theme park.

No. 2, aired Dec. 20: Jay visits his gravely ill mother and considers whether his church should welcome gay and transgender parishioners.

No. 3, aired Wednesday: In this episode, Jay's gay-affirming stance begins to affect his church's financial health; later he travels to Missouri to see his estranged father.

No. 4, coming Jan. 3: Jay confronts the difficult prospect of not only leaving the city he loves, but also the church he founded seven years ago.

No. 5, coming Jan. 10: Jay prepares to move to New York. He delivers an emotional farewell sermon in Atlanta before handing over the reins.

No. 6, coming Jan. 17: The concluding episode finds Jay preparing for his first sermon in Brooklyn while he also deals with the news from North Carolina that Tammy Faye's health has gotten worse.

- SUNDANCE CHANNEL

Paula Mooney's Musings

Bookmark http://www.paulamooney.blogspot.com/ or
Add me to Technorati FavoritesPlease, please, please Add me to your Technorati favorites...or...
Click this My AOL button and add me to your My AOL page to scan my new headlines each morning...

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments

Hmmm..I'll have to see if I can find this to watch it!

And never fear...I'm 300 miles from the City! A big boom...no matter how large, won't reach me!
kystorms said…
I too came of age ( as you say) with these preachers on the TV, and can recall being torn by the knowledge deep inside that some were fake, and the deep desire for them NOT to be.
And like you, I am deeply thankful to God for preachers such as Pastor Dollar, Joyce Meyer, and so many others. I would not get through my day if I could not view them each and every morning. I will have to see if I can catch this documentary, as I want to see everyone one who ran by then returned to God. Thank you for posting this info :-)
Scott Nance said…
I actually saw an episode. It was interesting. In the episode I saw, Jay Bakker was working to extend his church to gays, which I thought was pretty revolutionary coming from where he comes from.

I'm not usually a fan of reality TV, but this one was pretty interesting.

Popular posts from this blog

Paula's List of Blogger Salaries...Are you on the list?

Update: For those who continue to enjoy this post, check out my website about 50 real online people making more than $50k per year , and my page where I update my online salary . UPDATE: Before you read any further or especially link to this old list, please check out "Paula's New List of Blogger Salaries (and Webmasters, Affiliate Marketers, Content Scrapers, Domainers and any other title you can think of) June 2007" by clicking here! ~ Thanks, PAULA NEAL MOONEY by Paula Neal Mooney One of my favorite features in Parade magazine is the issue where they grab a random sampling of people and report their incomes -- from the millionaires to the working poor. Since I'm fascinated with how much money bloggers and webmasters are making nowadays, I've created a similar list -- a random sampling of people making money on the net. Who's on Paula's List of Blogger and Webmaster Salaries? I spent hours and hours scouring the internet for the last-reporte

Paula's New List of Blogger Salaries (and Webmasters, Affiliate Marketers, Content Scrapers, Domainers and any other title you can think of) June 2007

FIND OUT HOW MUCH BLOGGERS REALLY MAKE ONLINE -- CHECK OUT THIS NEW WEBSITE ABOUT MONEY-MAKING ONLINE CALLED 50 OVER $50K... by Paula Neal Mooney The time has come. The time is now. Paula N. Mooney will you please publish that list now?! (Yes, I fancy Dr. Seuss' iambic pentameter.) My WebMaster blest me with a viral post called "Paula's List of Blogger Salaries," and the response was so wonderful, here lies an update. It's bigger and better than ever before with more pics, and double the amount of bloggers, webmasters, domainers, affiliate marketers (or a smidgen of some or all of those titles) and their reported incomes. How Much Do You Make? Money is funny. The abundance of it, the lack of it, the subject of cash in general gets attention. While some invoke their choice not to post their online income nor discuss it at all, I've always been of the Suze Orman mindset ever since I read her first book. Suze encourages people to talk ab

Digg.com's Autobury Secret Blacklist...Are you still being banned by automatic burying?

UPDATE: PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK TO DIGG THIS STORY AND TELL DIGG TO PLAY FAIR... by Paula Neal Mooney Many of us know the power of Digg.com, dreamed up by Kevin Rose, who touted it as a "user driven" site that says it allows the general public to determine the stories they want to see make it to the front page by voting for interesting articles they find across the web. The more votes the public gives an article, the better chance it should have to make it to the front page. Theoretically... The power of Digg's front page Digg.com -- according to Alexa -- is now more popular than The New York Times. Getting one of your articles or blog posts to the front page of Digg.com will get your website seen by plenty of eyes. John Chow experienced a one-day traffic record of 55,856 page views when one of his posts hit the front page of Digg. Digg Bans Domains...then Supposedly Unbans Them One day, Digg banned me -- I'm still not clear why. I found out they banned a whole bun