Word: bakkers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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SOLICITING MONEY and prayer at ungodly hours, Jim Bakker, star of PTL, "Praise the Lord" Club, preaches a country-club Christianity: "When you get married, you're starting out in your new Chris-Craft, your yacht, your boat, on the sea of life." Soon after he announced in a direct mail letter that "Tammy and I are giving every penny of our life's savings to PTL." Bakker bought a $24,000 Drifter houseboat with white shag carpeting, two wood paneled bedrooms, TV, gas grill, and refrigerator. One can almost see Bakker revving up his powerboat...
...suede and polyester. Happy people stare attentively into space as the hymn, a tune of dental office piety alloyed to the metal harmonies of Muzak, bounces off the upholstery. They come to hear Jim's message, "You can make it too," and to have God heal their ills Bakker grasps a sheaf of prayer requests, closes his Teddy bear eyes, and allows a tear to trickle down his cheek: "And tumors and cancers and growths were literally dropping off your bodies...
...high-living evangelists subject only to boards led by relatives and retainers. To allay doubts, nondenominational ministries in 1979 created the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (E.C.F.A.) to fix fund-raising standards. Many evangelists, including Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell, have won its seal of approval; others, including Jim Bakker, Rex Humbard, Oral Roberts and Pat Robertson, have not. Bayly advises contributors to demand a financial statement even if a group has the E.C.F.A. seal: "If questions are dodged, assume it is a careless operation at best, fraudulent at worst...
...Flanked by Wife Tammy, baby-faced Jim Bakker, 40, implores his 213-TV-station audience on the PTL Club,* a Charlotte, N.C., clone of the 700 Club, to write President Carter and their Congressmen protesting "bureaucratic backroom harassment." Referring to a Federal Communications Commission probe of PTL finances, Bakker segues into a half-hour documentary on the club, the narration donated by Actor Efrem Zimbalist...