What exactly did Tammy Fay Baker do? I heard something about her and her husband scammed money via televangelism; could this possibly be true? Thank You
Tammy Faye and her then husband Jim Bakker were the founders of PTL “Praise the Lord” a television ministry organization.
In the mid-80’s, Jim Bakker and PTL offered life-time partnerships to fund the building “Heritage USA”, a amusement park in South Carolina. In return for their money, the investors were promised free lodging at Heritage USA for life. However, PTL was accused of deliberately refraining from building sufficient lodging space for regular guests plus Lifetime Partners. One of the most important allegations was that they oversold space, which constituted a fraud. After reporters at the Charlotte Observer, led by Charles Shepard, discovered the financial wrongdoings, Bakker was put on trial, and resigned from his position at PTL. Bakker got 45 years, serving 5, for fraud and conspiring to commit fraud. In 1992 he and Tammy Faye were divorced.
So to the OP, Jim Bakker kept the books – apparently two sets of them, and Tammy Faye wasn’t charged, or AFAIK, even suspected in being part of this scam.
However because she was married to Bakker, filing a joint tax return, the IRS says she owes a piece of the now $3 million, Bakker owes from the 80’s.
Alot of this is from Jim Bakker’s entry on wikiopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bakker
…They also lived in ridiculous excess. A decent chunk of the money donated went toward lavish living expenses, which upset the faithful. They were a visible example and something of a “whipping boy” for the belief that excess wealth meant that they were successful in bringing God and Jesus to the world. To them, the money sent (AKA “love offerings”) was a sign that people heard the Bakker’s message, which meant that the Bakkers had helped save the world from sin, etc. As I recall, Jim Bakker also had an affair (you know how hard it is to keep away from all those adoring women) with Jessica Hahn, which opened the barn doors, so to speak.
I realize my comments may seem a little sarcastic, but it’s because they seemed, and Tammy Faye still does, so shallow. They kept themselves in the center of something they claimed was all about God.
Vlad/Igor
Having lived down there during those times, I can’t add much more. Y’all got the facts pretty straight.
Bakker is apparently still ministering, last I heard out in LA. I read his memoir, and he managed to admit he pretty much screwed up (with far more credibility than Jayson Blair and Pete Rose have done). They managed to build a pretty weird Christian world down in the Carolinas. At my last newspaper, I came across a promotional book they put out, extolling their Good Works, like buying Billy Graham’s childhood home and rebuilding it on the grounds of Heritage, and their home for crippled children (which I think ended up only housing a few). They also built an office building on the grounds that was pyramid-shaped and wood-shingled. It’s about 3 stories high and looked very, very strange.
All in all, a very weird time was had by all.
Tammy Faye was quite the stereotypical shallow idiot to me until I actually read a bit more about her and her activities after the collapse of the PTL club. She does seem to be a good example of someone who worked hard to make amends for her earlier actions, and to a large extent, succeeded. It is refreshing to see that some people can change.
Duly noted. I know people can and do change, so it’s possible that she is a different person now. I haven’t seen much of her recently, so I don’t know much about her. I will watch, though, to see how she deals with her inoperable cancer.
One of the other things that bothered me about them was that they were providing something that they thought was needed, rather than what was truly needed by people that followed them.
Vlad/Igor
For awhile, in the early 90’s, Tammy Faye operated a storefront ministry in south Orlando, in a building that used to be a clearing house for the Home Shopping Network. I used to drive by it on my commute and on the way to the mall, but now that I think about it, I really don’t remember seeing a lot of people in the building all too often.
She recently announced she has inoperable lung cancer.
So what was/is the deal with all that make up? Each time I saw the woman I was amazed at how outlandishly garish he face looked, I’m talking tropical fish here. Where did that come into play regarding the ministries, or was it just something akin to the preachers expected “big hair”?
don’t know.
Just don’t look at Jan Crouch without sunglasses.
To be 100% accurate, Heritage USA was not, despite the constant use of the phrase by the media an amusement park, nor a theme park. “Resort” would be a more accurate description; the property’s main feature was a four star hotel with a five star hotel partially built but abandoned when the scandal broke. There was the television studio where the PTL television shows were broadcast, a prayer center, a Biblical garden, several restaurants, a small shopping mall (featuring a cosmetics store bearing Tammy Faye’s name) and an outdoor amphitheater where a Passion Play was presented each evening. There was also a smaller “motor lodge” style motel and an area for RVs.
The only thing theme park-like about Heritage were the trams which transported visitors around the property and a small waterpark that featured an outsized swimming pool and a handful (fewer than a half dozen) water slides. When Jerry Falwell took over management of the PTL ministry and Heritage, he famously went down the highest of the water slides while fully dressed in a suit. But trams and a waterpark do not an amusement park make.
(Yes, I am actually speaking from first hand knowledge; my mother was a “lifetime member” of Heritage, and I joined her in two of her annual visits, including one shortly after the scandal broke. Truth be told, I’ve definitely vacationed in worse places.)
As to what Jessica Hahn had to do with the collapse of PTL: During the investigation of the books, they found payments to her (or someone suggested they investigate those particular payments). It was hush money (there was an issue that she may have been raped). So spending LoLs’ SS money on keeping the lid on a preacher’s sex scandal, really blew PTL out of the water. Nevermind the gold bathroom fixtures.
As to Tammy Fay and the makeup: Many members of my family belong to an actual conservative Christian church. E.g., women do not wear makeup and TV is banned. So Tammy Fay was always the Whore of Babylon to them. I always thought that that was a better way of viewing televangelists, esp. the whole overdressed bit.
Tammy was a guest star on Drew Carry’s show.
She played the tacky chick’s mother.
The woman has a sense of humor about herself.
She just has very tacky taste in make up.
Tris
Isn’t anyone going to mention the air-conditioned doghouse?
A year or two ago, a documentary was made on Tammy. This past season, she appeared on the television show The Surreal Life.
I missed the film. But between what clips I saw of that, and the Surreal Life episodes I caught, my impression is that Tammy is Maude Flanders. She was naive, enthusiastic, and got carried away when the money started rolling in. She bought an air conditioned dog house and other luxuries because it seemed like a good idea at the time.
From everything I’ve seen of Tammy, her faith is actually genuine. IMHO Tammy wasn’t Jim’s accomplice in fleecing the flock. She was another victim he’d deceived.
That was just for the honeymoon! Those dogs of theirs deserved it, after tying the knot.
(True story. She thought the dogs were living in sin, so arranged a marriage for them)
I was the documentary about her “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”. It was actually very interesting. It was narrated by Ru Paul. Apparently Tammy has always been much more accepting of gays than most of the people who surrounded her.
One really wierd thing is that a good portion of her makeup, particularly that around her eyes is not really makeup at all, but rather “permanent makeup” (i.e. tattoos)
The British TV series Daisy, Daisy did a programme about her last October. The sub-Louis-Theroux-style mocking from Daisy Donovan and no more than mildly amusing.
The usual sub-Louis-Theroux-style mocking …
I remember reading about her during the eighties… That kind of televangelism always seemed so surreal and alien to me.
The most lasting impact I could see was a rash of T-shirts at the Oshawa Centre, with alleged makeup splattered across the front roughly in the shape of a face, and the words “I ran into Tammy Faye at the mall”…