Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker | Faith Not Fact | 1

American Scandal

Wondery

True Crime, Exhibit C, Society & Culture, History, Documentary, History Daily, American History Tellers, Lindsay Graham

4.6 • 18.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2024

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After marrying and dropping out of bible college in the early 1960s, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker launch a traveling evangelical show with puppets, which catches the attention of televangelist Pat Robertson. Robertson offers them their first TV show on his new Christian Broadcasting Network. By the 1970s, the Bakkers strike out on their own, launching their own ministry and television network, Praise the Lord. But as the Bakkers use their followers’ donations to fund their lavish lifestyle, it raises alarm bells for PTL staff.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wundry Plus subscribers can binge new seasons of American scandal early and ad free right now.
0:05.7	Join Wundry Plus in the Wundery app or on Apple Podcasts. Wonder. It's August 22nd 1989 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
0:28.0	Jim Baker is sitting in the backseat of a black sedan staring silently out the window as he heads to the city's federal courthouse.
0:35.8	He pushes up his glasses and dabs at his damp face.
0:39.2	He still can't believe this is happening.
0:41.6	For more than a decade, he and his wife Tammy Fay were like the
0:44.4	king and queen of Christian media. They built an empire that oversaw 2,500 employees,
0:50.4	a theme park, and a satellite TV network that beamed into 14 million homes in the US
0:56.0	and 40 countries abroad.
0:58.4	But now people are calling him a criminal, all because he couldn't provide as many hotel rooms at his Christian resort as promised.
1:05.0	To Baker, the whole thing feels ridiculous, but the consequences could not be more serious.
1:10.0	If convicted, he could get 120 years in federal prison.
1:15.0	Baker tries to picture a narrow cold cell, rust-flect prison bar, some beefy tattooed leering cellmate.
1:22.8	He shutters.
1:24.0	Baker then leans forward in his seat.
1:27.3	George, can we talk for a minute?
1:29.3	Baker's lead attorney, George Davis, turns from the passenger seat and squint at him through a
1:33.7	pair of thick bifoules. Yeah sure Jim there's no chance that I'll actually get a
1:37.9	life sentence for this right? Well I wouldn't say there's no chance but it doesn't
1:41.8	make any sense I've done nothing wrong. All I did
1:44.2	was make promises that haven't come true yet. That's what dreamers do. I mean, then God takes those dreams
1:50.3	and turns them into reality. Well, Jim, that might be so, but it's not God we have to convince,
	...

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