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In this week's New York Times Magazine, John Leland wrote an interesting article on the son of scandalized PTL preachers Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. It seems through the family turmoil, Jay Bakker may have found the real message of love, hope and redemption that elude Neo-Puritans like Rev. Pat Robertson.
Jay Bakker is a tattooed punk rock minister of Revolution Ministries who preaches in a multi-level bar called The Masquerade, with three floors: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell. Despite the unorthodox atmosphere, Bakker seems to preach a laudable message and understands how much of mainstream fundamentalism and evangelicalism have become politicized fundraising machines that thrive by exploiting hot button social issues. According to Jay Bakker:
"We're not about issues. We don't get on bandwagons. In the church today, the only two things that matter are abortion and homosexuality. I'm not saying something's right, something's wrong. I don't have a right to judge. God's called us to love people no matter who they are or what they've done. . . . You can't change people. You can for a little while, but eventually they'll rebel or be hurt or realize what's going on. I'm not in that rat race. I'm just in the game to say, 'This is who Jesus is, he loves you for who you are' and hopefully you see that in my life and you see the positive things that are coming from it."
In 2001, Jay Bakker wrote an autobiography, "Son of a Preacher Man: My Search for Grace in the Shadows," which The Times described as a "spirited defense of his father and a rebuke of Jerry Falwell" who hijacked PTL after Jim Bakker went to the pokey.
In the article we also learn that Focus on the Family founder, James Dobson, has a son, Ryan, who is heavily tattooed and is aggrieved by the "the Christian tendency to shoot our wounded."
It is encouraging to see that the two sons have learned from the judgmental sins of the older generation and are working for a better world in which all people are afforded the respect and dignity they deserve.
