Rest In Peace, Tammy Faye

[Sunta 5]

I will really miss Tammy Faye Mesner. I just loved her. She embodied what Christianity is supposed to be about. She was also incredibly smart, funny, and kind.

Let me know your thoughts about Tammy, a truly marvelous spirit.

[midnightblue 0]

My heart truly aches for anyone who suffers from a ravaging disease like Tammy Faye did. That being said she was no idol of mine. Her ex, Jim Baker, and her ripped off millions of unsuspecting people who believed in their "fake" ministry and sent in money that made Tammy and Jim millionaires. I am old enough to remember them being on TV every morning and begging for donations for "their ministry" which turned out to be self-serving. Americans made them millionaires and they mis-used all the money and lived like royalty. That being said I feel badly about the death of anyone, but miss her...NO...that I won't do. Justice would have been her serving prison time with her ex.

[green 6]

She was one of the best drag queens I've ever seen and I have seen quite a few.

[marjon9 6]

My heart truly aches for anyone who suffers from a ravaging disease like Tammy Faye did. That being said she was no idol of mine. Her ex, Jim Baker, and her ripped off millions of unsuspecting people who believed in their "fake" ministry and sent in money that made Tammy and Jim millionaires. I am old enough to remember them being on TV every morning and begging for donations for "their ministry" which turned out to be self-serving. Americans made them millionaires and they mis-used all the money and lived like royalty. That being said I feel badly about the death of anyone, but miss her...NO...that I won't do. Justice would have been her serving prison time with her ex.

I am no Tammy Faye scholar, but I must say my understanding of her is pretty much along these same lines as midnightblue. From what I understand, Jim and Tammy Faye sold the rough equivalent of religious timeshares at their PTL facility. But they sold a hundred times more of these timeshares than they had room to accomodate. She and Jim ripped off a lot of people - people who were trying to get closer to god. I have a low tolerance for that sort of thing.

People are complex and Tammy Faye may have had some really good qualities, I really don't know. But she also stole a lot of money from a lot of people in the name of religion.

[Sunta 5]

I don't think Tammy Faye was ever charged with anything regarding the scandal. It was my understanding that Jim Baker was the one behind everything. I know I wouldn't want to be lumped in with anything illicit my husband did without my knowledge. I don't believe that she had intimate knowledge of what was happening.

[midnightblue 0]

Maybelline may go out of business because of the passing of Tammy Faye. I think she kept make-up companies in business. I do give her credit that at her sickest she got up, got dressed, and put on her make-up..it never ended, even though she looked like a living corpse towards the end she still had all that make-up on. Would I have gone on Larry King last Wednesday night (2 days before her death)..NO. She looked horrible and I'm sure felt horrible, but I think she was being "exploited" in her illness to tell you the truth, but none-the-less still making money.

May she rest in peace.

[skyeblu79 0]

I don't think Tammy Faye was ever charged with anything regarding the scandal. It was my understanding that Jim Baker was the one behind everything. I know I wouldn't want to be lumped in with anything illicit my husband did without my knowledge. I don't believe that she had intimate knowledge of what was happening.

I didn't think she was charged with anything either. I guess it's whether you believe her or not. She said she didn't know the stuff Jim was doing. Jim was able to hide some stuff, at least for a while. Just like that affair w/his secretary.

I guess no one really knows for sure, but her, Jim and God.

I liked Tammy Faye too, and she sorry hear about her illness. I am just glad she isn't suffering anymore.

[BabyGotBack 0]

All I can say is Thank God for forgiveness. No one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes.

[Lucy 0]

Tammy Faye had nothing to do with the scandals -- it was all her slimebag husband's doing. She truly did epitomize what Christianity should be -- she loved everyone and really wanted to bring goodness and love to the world. It's just too bad that she was surrounded by greedy assholes.

[marjon9 6]

Tammy Faye had nothing to do with the scandals -- it was all her slimebag husband's doing. She truly did epitomize what Christianity should be -- she loved everyone and really wanted to bring goodness and love to the world. It's just too bad that she was surrounded by greedy assholes.

I am really surprised by the comments I am seeing on this thread. You are seriously suggesting that she did not know what was going on, and that is unbelievable to me. In any other situation, if a man were suggesting that a woman was that stupid and unaware, he be shredded alive by an army of irate and indignant women. Why the free ride for Tammy Faye in this particular situation? I don't get it at all. Can any of you truly imagine that you, yourselves, were living like Tammy Faye and would be unaware of what was happening? That is absurd. I can tell you my wife would understand the whole picture in about 42 seconds.

Jim and Tammy Faye engaged in a religious ministry, pleaded for money on the air week after week, and lived an outrageously opulent lifestyle. Do you really believe that Tammy Faye did not connect the dots? Who could possibly be that stupid? Are you really going to blame this all on her "slimebag husband" and various other "greedy assholes?" That's just sad. I am truly shocked at the denial that is going on here, and I don't understand it at all.

Week after week, Jim and Tammy Faye sold religious timeshares at their PTL facility in a volume that was many orders of magnitude bigger than the number of timeshares they had available to sell. In other words, they had, for example, 100 timeshares and sold 10,000. Are you seriously suggesting that Tammy Faye could not do the math?

There is some reason why the Tammy Faye defenders on this thread are willing to compromise their intellectual integrity and defend Tammy Faye against blatantly obvious facts. I don't understand why it is happening, and I am truly sad to see it.

[Lucy 0]

There is nothing "unchristian" about making money. If it's done illegally, then of course that's a different story. But I really don't think Tammy Faye had a clue. I'm certainly not defending the concept behind PTL, but you need to understand how most conservative Christian marriages work -- the husband is the head of the household and has full control over the money (and pretty much everything else). Yes, your wife would know if something like that happened because you respect her and I assume you share knowledge of your finances. Tammy Faye probably never saw a single bank statement and had absolutely no idea what was really going on. I'm sure she was well aware that they were making a lot of money, but if you were on television and investing in real estate, wouldn't you expect to be making money, too?

[green 6]

I gotta agree with Marjon. How blonde can any one adult be???? And isn't there a fundamental disparity between being an individual who is committed to following a lifestyle as exemplified by Jesus and prostituting yourself on TV with a bordello's worth of make-up on your face in order to flog a bunch of cheap crappy razz-ma-tazz Jesus-village time share garbage to a clutch of innocent people who have more faith than money or brains?

There is a disparity between talking Jesus and living rich and that was something which Tammy Faye surely must have noticed. I cannot believe that this chick was a complete innocent. At some level she was complicit; she must have liked the lifestyle, she must have like the recognition, she must have liked the make-up. She sure as hell wasn't channelling Mother Theresa, was she?

[faithmd 14]

I doubt anyone here had the "pleasure" that I did of meeting her face to face as well as reading her "autobiography" that was written while she and Jim Bakker were still married. My mother was a PTL FANATIC and as such we of course had most of the books and tapes and records. I think they still have quite a few of them. We were fairly poor when I was growing up, and my mother would call or write in to PTL and promise to pay a little at a time if only they'd send X tapes or X book. You know what? They did, every time.

Even though I was a little girl, Jim Bakker struck me as a slick snake oil salesman and Tammy Faye struck me as really really blonde. I agree with Lucy, I don't think she had a freaking clue. Not about Jim and not about life. At least not in the beginning, I think she may have finally figured it out near the end, but at that point she was soooo devastated by learning that her husband had tag teamed a 21 yr old church secretary in a swap fashion with another preacher (after purportedly drugging her-but I again take that with a grain of salt, just like the Kobe Bryant thing) that it just didn't matter. This all didn't come out until Bakker announced that he was stepping down as head of PTL and Heritage USA, pending the imminent disclosure of the sexual encounter and that he would be replaced by televangelist Jerry Falwell. Investigative journalists and auditors hired by Falwell uncovered $265,000 in hush money paid to Hahn as well as serious financial irregularities that led to the collapse of the PTL empire and Bakker's conviction.

I think Tammy Faye was way too wrapped up in herself, and her kids and decorating their penthouse apartment at Heritage USA (not to mention probably drowning in Valium) to notice what the real story was.

I am sorry she passed, she really was a passionate Christian who seemed to truly love the Lord and enjoy singing the Gospel when she and Jim were still together in PTL. It was an addictive show, I'll admit. I used to not mind watching because I'd play a game with myself and try to guess how many times she'd cry on camera in an episode.

[DerickM 1]

I am little happier whenever a major evangelist dies. I feel just a little safer.

[gadgetlady 4]

There is nothing "unchristian" about making money. If it's done illegally, then of course that's a different story. But I really don't think Tammy Faye had a clue. I'm certainly not defending the concept behind PTL, but you need to understand how most conservative Christian marriages work -- the husband is the head of the household and has full control over the money (and pretty much everything else). Yes, your wife would know if something like that happened because you respect her and I assume you share knowledge of your finances. Tammy Faye probably never saw a single bank statement and had absolutely no idea what was really going on. I'm sure she was well aware that they were making a lot of money, but if you were on television and investing in real estate, wouldn't you expect to be making money, too?

I'm torn on this one. I agree there is nothing wrong with making money. I am in a "conservative Christian marriage", however, and while my husband is the "head of the household", I handle the money almost entirely. So from my perspective, I find it difficult to understand how she did NOT know what was going on. I just can't imagine it happening or for a woman to be that "out of it" when it comes to finances.

That being said, from everything I've read about her, apparently she really did not know. I guess it's certainly possible. I was surprised to see this article on her on msnbc a few days ago: Through it all, Tammy Faye never wavered - Focus on Faith - MSNBC.com because it's not often that televangelists and Christians get a good word in the press.