Bakker Son Finds Peace With Family as Cameras Keep Watch

c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) After a year of being closely shadowed by a camera crew, this month Jay Bakker, the tatooed and pierced son of televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, finally is getting his private life back. The rest of us, however, have a chance to watch his year in review on […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) After a year of being closely shadowed by a camera crew, this month Jay Bakker, the tatooed and pierced son of televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, finally is getting his private life back.

The rest of us, however, have a chance to watch his year in review on the Sundance Channel in “One Punk Under God,” a six-part documentary that began airing in December and ends on Jan. 17.


“One Punk Under God” takes a close look at Bakker’s life and his ministry, Revolution Church, almost 20 years after the implosion of his parents’ Praise The Lord (PTL) ministry and television network. Although born to parents who helped create the definition of televangelist, the younger Bakker, 31, took some convincing before agreeing to participate in the documentary.

Bakker, with his arms and torso covered in tattoos, a hipster beard and multiple piercings, said his motivation was giving more people a chance to hear his message. “Not many people see, for lack of a better term,” he said in a phone interview, “more liberal Christians.”

Randy Barbato, executive producer of “One Punk Under God,” said the younger Bakker has embraced his mother’s vision of nonjudgmental, inclusive Christianity. He first met Jay Bakker when making the documentary, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” six years ago and knew he wanted to delve deeper.

“This is a series about quiet moments,” Barbato said. “It was meant to follow Jay’s church, and it turned into a series that tracks him becoming a man.”

Initially, Bakker tried to hide from the crew. Over time, he became more comfortable, enough for the cameras to capture what turned out to be an unexpectedly eventful year, including a long-awaited reconciliation with his estranged father, emotional conversations with his mother as she battles cancer, his decision to become a gay-affirming minister and his move from Atlanta to Brooklyn so his wife, Amanda, can go to medical school.

Although close to his mother, Bakker’s relationship with his father was rocky. The elder Bakker now lives in Branson, Mo., and is remarried with five adopted children. Jay Bakker said their estrangement was a gradual process of losing touch and lacking common ground.

When they did talk about religion, his father focused on the Book of Revelation and the end times, while the son wanted to discuss the meaning of grace and restoration. Their awkwardness eventually caused conversation to cease. That distance ended, however, when his mother’s cancer returned this year. Now remarried as Tammy Faye Bakker Messner, Jay’s mother has battled lung and colon cancer for several years and recently started hospice care. Jay Bakker reached out to his father, eventually visiting him and appearing on “The New Jim Bakker Show.”


“This was a really healing time. We really respect each other as men, as individuals,” Jay Bakker said, adding that when he had a hard day recently, the first person he called was his dad. (Jay Bakker also has a sister, Tammy Sue.)

When Jay Bakker decided to support gay marriage, his father expressed concern about his future as a preacher. “He was worried that the church was going to destroy me,” Jay Bakker said. “Finally I had to say, I don’t want the same things. … I minister to different people.”

While his mother has long been an icon in the gay community as one of the first to reach out to those with HIV, Jay Bakker said his childhood was defined by traditional evangelical beliefs. At times he even felt like God hated him for sinning; smoking a cigarette once earned him a seven-day suspension from school. Eventually, conversations with a close friend led him to embrace a more expansive view of grace, salvation and God’s love.

Jay Bakker said the last thing he wants to be is a “TV preacher.” But just as his parents pioneered television, Jay Bakker has embraced online technology for his Revolution ministry. His Web site, http://www.revolutionchurch.com, started as a “side thing,” but now Revolution gets most of its funding from online donations and sales of his sermons on CD. Sermons also can be downloaded for free.

Revolution, which meets in bars in Brooklyn, Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., reaches more people online than in person. The Web site gets 250,000 hits a month. Since the documentary started airing, attendance at his Brooklyn gathering has jumped to 50 people, compared to the usual 15 to 30 attendees.

Bakker said Revolution is “just a church for people who are looking for Christ. It’s a place to come and be loved, and we’re not going to judge you. We’re not about promotion, we’re about attraction.”


Since his decision to support gay marriage, Bakker said his speaking engagements have dwindled significantly, and people have told him he’s going to hell.

“That’s when your convictions really get tested,” he said, noting that he has no interest getting into the business of Christians “devouring” one another. He’s seen enough of that.

“I’m standing strong because God spoke to my heart about this.”

KRE/JL END CRABTREE

Editors: To obtain photos of Jay Bakker, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

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