Ex-Con Televangelist Jim Bakker Returns to TV With a New Real Estate Scheme

[babylonsister]

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/77301/#more

Ex-Con Televangelist Jim Bakker Returns to TV With a New Real Estate Scheme

Posted by Steven Reynolds, The All Spin Zone at 7:32 AM on February 18, 2008.

The clock is ticking on when his new ministry will explode into scandal, though it's even money whether his followers will finally ditch him for good.


The faith depicted in this next story seems strong to me, sweet in its forgiveness, and ever so gullible and malleable. There is a beauty and goodness in those first two qualities, but that latter quality shows us why Christian conservatives bow down and kiss the rings of the Radical Religious Right Wing Christian Clerics in this country. The report is about Jim Bakker, disgraced televangelist from the late eighties, who is making a comeback in Branson, MO. He's had a TV show (the Jim Bakker Show) for a while on some pretty local outlets, and now he's built himself a megachurch called Morningside, a name his followers often slip up on, calling it "Heritage."

The real story here is not about the comeback of Jim Bakker, whose empire collapsed in shame, indictments, convictions and a successful class action suit in the late eighties. It is certainly not about tear-stained eye shadow -- that's in the past, and God rest Tammy Faye Meisner. This story is about the followers of Jim Bakker, the women who have forgiven him or think he was railroaded during that time nearly two decades ago when his empire named Heritage USA came crashing down. This is about the sweetness of the faith of those women, and also about the power of those women to convince their husbands to go along, after the couples lost so many thousands a couple decades ago. Yes, they "con"vince their husbands. I'm guessing this is yet another con job in the making. Check it out. From STLToday.com:

snip//

"These are the times of the bible?" Oh, give me a break! And then I think. This is ripe for another scandal to strike the radical right wing Christian end of the political spectrum. Sure, Jimmy Bakker does not have the national following like he did when his first scandals broke. And there's no evidence at this time that there's any salacious girlfriend kink going on this time, either. But those "love gifts" certainly echo Jim Bakker's scandal of two decades ago. And the fundraising apparatus, with the "Builder's Circle" and other levels of giving seem as slick as, well, as slick as Dubya's fundraising machine, now going to work for John McCain. What's the difference really between the faith-based politics of gullibility and the faith-based con of a big real estate investment scheme, after all. Both are exploitive of a bankrupt dream sold to sweet-hearted ladies who twist the arms of their henpecked husbands.

Oh, this is going to come to no good, at least for the Republicans. No, I'm not saying there is Republican involvement here, but it is undeniable that the Republican brand is firmly connected with televangelism and the kind of megachurch Bakker is resurrecting there in Branson, MO.

Bottom line is that I'm not going to be feeling sorry for any of these people when Jim Bakker gets caught digging into the till again. I'll not feel sorry for even the most sweet-hearted of little ladies who have forgiven him, either.

[Deja Q]

1. He's a little late. The real thieves already came in, plundered real estate, and left.

Must be getting slow with age. A normal human trait.

[KharmaTrain]

2. The Religious Broadcasting Moneypit...

It's an alternative media that usually slips under the radar...thousands who watch and listen to religious stations that use public airwaves and operate as "non-profits" yet turn into private money mills. And it doesn't matter if you've broken laws or been defrocked and publicly humilitated, as long as you have the access to the airwaves, you can "redeem" yourself and rebuild that lost fortune.

Chuckles Grassley has been wanting to investigate the "mega-dollar-a-hollar" preachers and have been facing a lot of resistance. There's goons like Benny Hinn who is also in Africa this week...

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/02/18/benny-hinn-in-uganda/

David Kuo is in Uganda, and he’s found that Evangelist Benny Hinn is there and actually asking poor Africans to finance his lavish lifestyle:

My only thought is that if Mr. Hinn takes so much a single Ugandan schilling from the desperately poor and sick people longing, begging, for a miracle it will make him a spiritual predator, a spiritual terrorist.

It sure helps when you have a "faith-based" FCC and your church busses and campaign contributions all go to repugnicans.

There needs to be a real investigation into the loose bookkeeping of religious broadcasting...from payola on christian music stations (it's rampant) to violating their non-profit status through accepting advertising and making political endorsements and if they truely operate in the interests of ALL people.