Dawn of the Dumb

bakker.jpgJim Bakker is back.

Remember Jim? Jim of “Jim and Tammy Faye”? The Heritage USA televangelist who diverted millions in donations from hapless Christian faithful to his own wallet? For which he was convicted and spent five years in prison?

He’s risen again to swindle a whole new generation of victims with the same old god-game scam. And here’s the corker: His victims from before have returned, convinced that the whole thing was a mean-spirited plot against poor misguided Brother Jim. 

Doesn’t stop him from scamming them for donations, though.

Jim Bakker waits 41 minutes into his one-hour show to make his plea.

He begins by noting they have been off the air for six weeks.

“We have really gotten behind financially,” he says, fingering a crease in his khakis. “So we really need a miracle. The cost of moving, just to get the stuff you need — and we needed to get a few more microphones, we didn’t even have enough time to get the bugs worked out of things. It just takes a lot of money.”

He is talking directly to the camera now. He says he has a music CD for “a love gift of $30” and a DVD about marriage for a $55 donation. He decides to offer a recording of his sermon about prison, just $20.

Uh, yeah. “Bakker still owes the IRS more than $6.1 million, accumulated income taxes and penalties after his PTL ministry was stripped of its tax-exempt status, according to court records. He completed his federal parole in 1997, so there are no restrictions on his activities. The financial details of his church, including how much he earns, are not public record. His staff declined to provide that information.”

He soldiers on with a statement from his website:

… the devil fears believers because He knows the power and authority they possess. That’s why he uses the entertainment industry, educational institutions, and other human agencies to try to belittle the Church and make it look irrelevant, inconsequential, and trivial. The enemy does everything he can to give the impression that we are minor-league players — a worthless waste of time. He knows the power God has placed at our disposal, so he attempts to discredit us in the eyes of the world. Therefore, if we perceive that the Church today is the butt of jokes and viewed in a derogatory fashion, we just need to realize that this perception is nothing new.

That’s right. It’s the Devil attacking those poor Christians. This all happened because the Devil had it in for Jim. And the more people point and laugh, the better devout Christians should feel. Oh, and the more they should give.