Jim, Tammy Faye, Larry King, and you**

When Tammy Faye Messner, Jim Bakker’s former wife, recently died, there was a re-run of a broadcast of the Larry King TV show. This was not the one she just did the week of her death, which showed how cancer had so horribly destroyed her body. This broadcast had been from a couple of years back. There on the show were Jim and Tammy along with their son and their daughter. Tammy still looked healthy at the time, but it had been taped years after they had both remarried, after Jim had been released from prison, and several years after the PTL empire had fallen in disgrace.

I watched and listened carefully as they discussed the shame, the scandals, the divorces, the new spouses, the imprisonment, the drug habits and rebellion of their son Jay, and the cancer that was then beginning to attack Tammy Faye.

Many would think, after all that had happened, that some of the people in this broken family would be on the defensive. I watched to see if anybody was cynical or bitter. I wondered if somebody would show anger, or if the Bakkers or the Messners or the children would blame someone else, or each other. Amazingly, not once throughout the program did anyone hurl an accusation, or try to place blame, or seek to justify themselves or their actions!

Larry King asked how Jim felt toward Tammy’s husband Roe Messner. Jim smiled and said that he was a wonderful man and a dear friend, and he sincerely wished for them to be happy. The children (now young adults) echoed the sentiment. Likewise, when Larry King asked Tammy Faye and the kids about Jim Bakker’s current wife, they enthusiastically expressed a genuine admiration and respect, and warm affection for her.

Now I understand that it would be pretty hard to fool a seasoned interviewer such as Mr. King, and the Bakkers didn’t try to fool anybody. They were genuinely open, honest, peaceful, and kind.The program closed with King’s sincere comments on what a wonderful family he thought they were, and how much respect he had for all of them.

Somewhere around that time it occurred to me that I could be standing on holy ground! In my imagination I thought back to the time when a young Bible-school couple must have talked together about their dream of a worldwide Christian program on TV. I imagined how they may have envisioned the Heritage Village Park, and the hotels, and who knows what else. They had great hopes to succeed in these ventures, and they did. Obviously, they never thought they would fall as they did. It probably never occurred to them that they could fail morally and spiritually. But somewhere along the way, they let the fame and the money compromise their character, and it all came tumbling down and the crash of it was heard all over the world.

I am sure that if they had known of all the things that would happen, they would never have signed on for the trip. No doubt there were times they would much rather have been unknown to the world than to become a long-running joke on the Tonight Show. I believe that the pain of their failure had for years outweighed the joy of their success. As William Cowper wrote, God really does work “in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform!” Something totally different, something Jim and Tammy never thought would happen, must have been on His mind from the very beginning!

I’m aware that there are many people who think that any Christian who fails is an embarrassment to the cause of the gospel. Some people just don’t get it that at its center, it is entirely a message of grace! It’s not about our always doing it right, but about love and acceptance and forgiveness, about restoration and redemption after we have made a total wreck of our lives.

Religion without grace can only focus on the rules we must keep and the commands we must obey. It gives us a pat on the back and makes us feel good that we have NEVER done anything “really bad” like some others have done. But the powerful reality of true grace shines brightest only when we see that we have sinned, and sinned greatly.

If you are one of the people who has “never done much wrong”, I can only recommend an honest and humble look within. If you still see yourself as a really good person, you have permission to look down on the rest of us. But if you have really sinned - if you have tumbled off the pedestal, if you have been to the wrong places, done the wrong things, lost your temper, fallen off the wagon, or wrecked your marriage, or anything that made you feel so ashamed… if you have repeatedly needed forgiveness, and even now you can’t seem to get your life together without messing up something… well, welcome to the human race, and welcome to amazing grace!

Everybody doesn’t “get it”, but Jim and Tammy do. It wasn’t in their plan… but it was in His.