Ex-Televangelist to Hold AIDS Drag Benefit (Tammy Faye Bakker Messner)

Yahoo News ^ | 12/22/03

[Libloather]

Ex-Televangelist to Hold AIDS Drag Benefit
Mon Dec 22, 8:02 AM ET

DURHAM, N.C. - Former televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker Messner will headline a drag bingo benefit for AIDS here next month.

The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, which serves people with HIV and AIDS in Durham, Orange and Wake counties, is organizing the fund-raiser at the Durham Armory on Jan. 2.

The headliner was a source of surprise to at least one group official.

"When they told me, I said, 'Oh, this is not going to work' — far right and all that," acting executive director Jacquelyn Clymore said Friday. "I have to say it has completely changed my perception of her. She appears to be completely committed" to HIV work.

Messner and ex-husband Jim Bakker helped build the world's three largest Christian networks, only to lose everything amid scandal. Her ex-husband was convicted of fraud and served five years in federal prison.

Messner was never charged.

In a telephone interview, Messner said her AIDS work was nothing new.

"Everyone has a right to be who they are. I believe that," she said. "I think people are just people. God does not put labels on people. People put labels on people. And it's none of my business what goes on in people's bedrooms."

[Libloather]

From 10-21-03 -

Televangelist's ex sharing Hollywood mansion with porn legend
Modesto Bee

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Former televangelist wife Tammy Faye Messner and porn legend Ron Jeremy are Hollywood Hills mansion housemates for nearly two weeks in WB's "Surreal Life 2" which began taping on Monday. The odd couple share the house and act as house hosts for 11 days. They will have four other roommates - rapper Vanilla Ice, "ChiPs" actor Erik Estrada, former "Baywatch" actress Traci Bingham and "Real World: Las Vegas" cast member Trishelle. They will also have a celebrity guest move in each week.

[AppauledAtAppeasementConservat]

They're stinking up my STATE!

[WackyKat]

Former televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker Messner will headline a drag bingo benefit for AIDS here next month.

I'm not surprised by this at all.

I always thought Tammy Faye looked like a drag queen

[billbears]

What? They've been here for 30 years. Last I heard Jim was preaching in a small church up in the mountains. Saw part of one of his sermons on TV once. I'm not saying I support him but he was a lot more humble than he had been on PTL. But they sure made a mark on Charlotte back in the 1970s I'll say that. Anybody remember the 'I ran into Tammy Faye at the mall' T shirts?

NC/PTL ping!!

[Doctor Stochastic]

Tammy Faye ski conditions: 2" powder on a 40" base.

[ladyinred]

- Former televangelist wife Tammy Faye Messner and porn legend Ron Jeremy are Hollywood Hills mansion housemates for nearly two weeks in WB's "Surreal Life 2

NO! I can't stand it! NO!!!! OMG!!!

Calgon take me away!

[Old Grumpy]

Oh, for crying out loud! Another fruitcake that just won't stay gone.

[Robert Lomax]

More profiteering at the expense of others. While Jim may have changed (a little) she evidently hasn't.

[CounterCounterCulture]

Didn't care for her then; don't care for her now.

Go away Tammy Faye Bakker Mascara!

[Paul Atreides]

To think, that there were once people stupid enough to be taken in by that trollop, and her chipmunk husband.

[AUH2OY2K]

Tammy Faye is becoming a caricature...err...hold it...she always was a caricature. Never mind

[Buck W.]

Please--NO PICTURES!

[I still care]

Tammy Faye was, is, and probably will always be a fruit loop.

From her escapades during the PTL years, to ditching her husband for his best friend, to never getting checked for cancer when she was practically bleeding to death.

(She ended up practically terminal and then refused conventional treatment. Who knows what is going on with her now.) Not to mention bizarroworld makeup. Let's face it, normal people don't go out looking like that.

I am not surprised at all that this very strange woman, who claims to be a Christian, is hosting a drag queen show or spending time with a porn star. The thing I can't figure out is how she pulled the wool over people's eyes for so long in the first place.

[GulliverSwift]

Why does this not surprise me? All of those televangelists have such a phony quality to them.

[DainBramage]

The irony is she is actually going to make Ron Jeremy look worse .

[billbears]

Well to a lot around Charlotte she didn't. I don't know about the rest of the country but I remember being younger back in the late 70s-early 80s and seeing them on TV when they were just getting to the 'top'. I said something to my mother about them being fake and I was told not to say anything like that around my grandparents because they sent them money. Heck, a lot of people did. Guess that's why they lived in Tega Cay

[Libloather]

I said something to my mother about them being fake...

The eyelashes?

[mountaineer]

I hope it's not wishful thinking, but my impression is that Jim Bakker truly was brought to repentance by his prison experience, and he's now a humbled and sincere man. I hope it's true.

A friend of mine worked for PTL in the early 1980s. As I recall, she implied Jim had a thing for young men, and Tammy wasn't exactly faithful to her marriage vows, either.

[Bluntpoint]

[billbears]

I agree with you. Don't know about any of the rumors back then, but I do think it changed him a lot.