L. Ron Hubbard said: “You don’t get rich writing science fiction, If you want to get rich, you start a religion”. And then he founded Scientology and proved it. But if you lack the imagination to start a new religion, you can just take an existing one and pervert it. Jim Bakker, one of God’s leading grifters is all too aware of this.
Let’s refresh our memory of this awful little man’s career. He and his exuberantly eye-lashed wife, Tammy Faye, started on their road to riches in the 1960s under the aegis of Pat Robertson and his Christian Broadcast Network begging the superstitious for cash.
No doubt they made a comfortable living, but it was after they started their own ‘Praise The Lord’ (PTL) network that the big bucks started flowing. In the spirit of the 1970s, they were ecumenical and diverse in their outreach. They would put their hands in anyone’s pocket. So successful was this shameless pair that revenues soon hit $1 million a week.
But Jim aspired to more and created ‘Heritage USA’, a sprawling church/tv studio/water park. He offered $1,000 ‘lifetime memberships’ entitling the member to one three-night stay per year at a luxury hotel. But he didn’t build enough hotel rooms. In 1989, he was convicted of fraud and served a five-year sentence.
And let's not forget the rape.
In 1980 Bakker had sex with 21-year-old, church secretary, Jessica Hahn in a hotel room — on this they both agree. However, Hahn claimed he drugged and raped her. Bakker denied it. But then gave Hahn $279,000 of PTL funds to buy her silence. So I let you be the judge of the nature of their intimacy.
But rather than fade decently from ignominy to obscurity this pestilent presence is back on TV hawking God and emergency food — everything from a $10 bucket of ‘Spiff-E-Whip Dessert Topping’ to a $3,700 ‘Time of Trouble Tasty Pantry Deluxe Plus’. And he thinks nothing of dragging his grandson on set to close the sale.
What’s his pitch?
“If they kill our president or they destroy him or whatever, if we elect the other side, this is it. I think maybe Trump is here to give us time to get ready because all hell is going to break loose.”
“We’re not going to have the Antichrist show up to get the sign of the Mark of the Beast on our forehead or hand, it won’t happen without hunger.”
“Hunger is going to be the main thing. Most people don’t get it, they don’t want to get it, but that is why I am so obsessed with you all being prepared.”
And then new wife Lori piles on by warning that Christians who don’t think they would ever accept the Mark of the Beast will inevitably do so when they see that their children or grandchildren are starving, which prompted Bakker to bring out his newborn grandson, whom he cradled as he wept, saying,
“I hear them crying, I’ve heard them crying for years and God says, ‘What will you do if these babies are starving?'”
But you can count on him to vote against child hunger programs.
(Credit: Right Wing Watch)