The facts of Jimmy and Tammy have been stated in this thread pretty accurately.
I don’t have much to add, though I can give some insight into the two main characters because Jimmy Bakker is my first cousin. (Though to be fair, my older brother is closer to Jimmy and Tammy than I. He was the same age as Jimmy and lived with them for awhile in California in the early days of their ministry).
As Triskadecamus pointed out, Tammy has quite a sense of humor. Once you got past her outlandish makeup, she was friendly and funny. Someone who you wouldn’t mind sitting down and having a good conversation.
Jimmy on the other hand was a little too full of himself. Blood is thicker than water they say, but I have to tell you that he had an ego that could fill a barn. He was not someone to sit and chat with you.
I’ve read his books. I’ve listened to the family stories. The conclusion that I’ve come to is that he just got out of control. He did not have any premeditated desire to bilk people out of their money. He wasn’t deliberately dishonest. He was just blind to what was going on due to his enormous ego. It was beyond his capability to consider that there was inadvertent wrongdoing going on.
I’m not trying to absolve him of any guilt. He misled people and he paid the price.
The last I heard he was ministering to the homeless, but since I am one of his few detractors in our family I might be a bit out of date with my information.
It was humorous in the mid-80s to go to a store and write a check. The clerk would check my name and jokingly ask “are you related to that Jimmy Bakker?” I’d keep a straight face and say “as a matter of fact I am”. The clerk would stammer an apology, but I always rescued them from their embarrassment. I’d smile and say “no big deal… I didn’t pick my relatives”.
Thank you, Algernon, for sharing that. I know it isn’t always easy to live with infamous relatives. You confirmed what I suspected, that Jim didn’t start out with bad intentions, but let it get away from his control. I also got the impression that he felt that what ever happened was God’s doing, not his, which might have kept him from reining things in when they started getting out of control.
I found the following online. I cannot vouch for its accuracy, but it seems like this person knew what he was talking about.
I think that is a very good insight. Jimmy firmly believe that he was nothing but an instrument of God. That anything that happened was a direct consequence of God’s will, and not directly attributable to anything he was doing. Though, given his ego and belief that he was “chosen” for this work, it seems there is more than a little self-delusion going on. At any rate, I concur that this was another factor that blinded him. He just never questioned what was happening because in his mind it was all blessed and pre-ordained.