What type of criminal in America can receive a prison sentence worse than some murderers and spend more time in jail than some rapists and drug dealers? The answer: a televangelist.
Jim Bakker, the first major TV preacher ever to do time behind bars, is in his fifth year of prison. As a researcher who has conducted academic studies of Bakker since 1980, I originally felt that the former host of the PTL Club deserved every day of his prison term. But two things have recently changed my opinion about keeping the televangelist locked up: first, I know that truly dangerous criminals are walking the streets while Bakker’s notoriety keeps him behind bars; and second, I visited Bakker in prison in late 1992. My conclusion: It is time to let Jim Bakker go free.
The Bakker I visited at the Federal Correctional Facility was not radically different from the Bakker who appeared daily on the TV screen. His hair is a little more gray, and he does not flash that cheesy grin as often as he used to. But he is still a man who wants to head a ministry that makes a difference. And he still feels God has given him the gift of fundraising, even though he says that prison has changed his view of how he should use that gift.
I have listened to his version of his failures and, while still believing there are legitimate reasons why the U.S. Parole Commission has refused to let Bakker out, I am convinced he has been discriminated against due to his role as a spiritual leader. What Bakker did over six years ago was wrong—but does he deserve to be treated as one of the worst criminals in America? Even celebrity white-collar criminals, like financier Michael Milkin, have received better treatment than Bakker.
During my visit, I learned firsthand that Bakker was a model prisoner in Rochester, Minnesota. Not only did he continue to take on the low-paying job of cleaning toilets when he could have moved up to better-paying positions, but he has not used his reputation to gain followers.
When the U.S. Parole Commission rejected Bakker’s early release from prison in July, they may have had reason to believe that he would quickly return to evangelizing and asking for money. There is no doubt that, once released, he will go on the road to local churches and draw crowds. He has received as many as 2,000 letters a week, and his daughter heads a ministry that still receives money from thousands of Bakker financial supporters.
But Bakker told me, and repeated in his eight-page September letter to supporters, that he no longer believes in the “prosperity” gospel that he had preached on his PTL Club. The old Jim Bakker, who headed a $150-million-a-year operation, bragged on the air that his two Rolls Royces were proof of God’s blessing on his life. The new, imprisoned Jim Bakker says he now believes Jesus taught that the poor are the ones truly blessed by God.
He says he will live a simple lifestyle once he leaves prison. I told him that it is easy for him to say this while he is behind bars. He insists he will not return to his old ways.
Keeping Bakker in prison has, if anything, increased his value as a speaker and Christian celebrity. While the Parole Commission’s intentions may be good, they have unknowingly added to Bakker’s victimization by keeping him behind bars. Some feel Bakker has been unfairly singled out for persecution.
Some Christians have continued to malign the imprisoned Bakker publicly, still blaming him for starting financial and moral problems in the evangelical community. Yet Bakker is not the cause so much as he is the best-known result of an Americanized Christianity that enshrines religious leaders with power and wealth.
Could Bakker be another Charles Colson—destined to use his prison experience to become a great spiritual leader? Or will Bakker use his prison experience to portray himself again as a victim in order to elicit sympathy from supporters? We will not know until Bakker, currently in a Georgia prison facility, is freed for everyone to see if his time behind bars has truly changed his life.
By Stephen Winzenburg, Communication Professor at Grand View College, Iowa.
Speaking Out does not necessarily reflect the views of CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
