EDITOR’S NOTE: From time to time we will publish letters and emails we get from readers, sometimes with a response, sometimes without comment. If you would like to share your thoughts about any of our stories or podcasts, please email us: info@ministrywatch.com
Article on Jim Bakker was ‘inappropriate’
Why did you post this article, Warren? Jim Bakker is dead and with the Lord. What Jim and Tammy did was wrong, but I think this article is inappropriate and was unnecessary. They are both gone and with the Lord.
Sincerely in Him,
Gail Neer
Warren Smith responds:
So, are you saying we shouldn’t write about historical figures? I’m not sure why we wouldn’t write about one of the most consequential Christian leaders of the 20th century, especially when his life has so many lessons for us who are still alive.
Warren
Bakker ‘didn’t do much for the glory of God’
Thanks for recounting the contours of Jim Bakker’s life.
Bakker, his wife, and Jimmy Swaggart didn’t do much for the glory of God. Nor for Pentecostalism, nor for the Assemblies of God, nor for the worthless adornment of health and wealth theology.
Your article does not heap more shame on his name, but it does trace the mammon-sucking contours of his “ministry.”
God sorts all this out. And, I am reminded: He does save sinners. O God, help us all!
Chuck Walton
Pardeeville, Wisconsin
Bakker headline was ‘quite unkind’
How about being positive and saying something like: Famed Televangelist Jim Baker has died at 86.
I don’t believe you have to put “once imprisoned for scandal” in the headline. It’s quite unkind, and uncharitable, and downright abusive to his memory.
I am not and was not a follower of Jim Bakker, but I believe he was a Christian brother.
Rev. GJ Gerard
Headline on Bakker story was ‘a little distasteful’
I follow MinistryWatch and appreciate much of what you do, but I wanted to offer some feedback on the Jim Bakker article featured today.
I found the headline, “Televangelist Jim Bakker, once imprisoned for scandal, dies at 86,” disappointing and frankly a little distasteful.
Bakker’s failures are certainly part of his story and belong in an honest account of his life. I’m not suggesting they should be ignored. But those events happened nearly 40 years ago. He served his sentence, publicly acknowledged serious failures, wrote about his repentance, and spent decades of his life on the other side of that chapter.
To make his imprisonment the defining description in the headline announcing his death felt unnecessarily sensational and, particularly from a Christian ministry, lacking in grace.
There is an important difference between holding ministry leaders accountable and defining a man by his worst failures at the time of his death.
I value the role MinistryWatch plays, which is why this stood out to me. I just don’t think it was a good look for your ministry.
Blessings
Scot Love
Evangelism Explosion International
Warren Smith responds:
Thanks for this feedback. It’s always a blessing to have passionate readers. I think, though, that you and I are going to have to “agree to disagree” on this one.
Jim Bakker’s wrongdoing directly impacted investors who trusted him. He did not make one cent of restitution to his victims. In total, he took more than $158 million from men and women who could not afford to lose what they had invested. Many of them had their lives permanently damaged.
There’s also the harm he did to the evangelical church. I am an evangelical and I’m not ashamed to claim that label. But many are, and a great deal of the reason for the tarnished reputation evangelicalism has today is a direct result of Jim Bakker.
I respect your thoughts on this, Scot. But — again — I think we are going to have to “agree to disagree.” If anything, I thought our story was too generous and left out many accounts of the harm and damage he did to thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people.
Warren
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