what can we do to help you? that is what we want to know, why we want a dialogue with you, what can we do to help it?????????

that is what we want to know. no, we didn’t wage the war against your country, few people in power did that, the rest of us want to help to get you out of it………so check the attitude about america, we didn’t wage the war, the few in power did, the rest of us want to help, how can we? red crescent? we already are, any other means we can help with????????

i ‘get’ your rage, but we are trying to fight what is going on, and you maybe need to see that…….

Do I think they preyed upon vulnerable people. Yes, I do. Just like I think the current pink hair lady and that entire network crew prey upon vulnerable lonely, usually elderly, people. It is a cult. However, they did still send it of their own free will. They were taken advantage of to be sure. That’s done. It can’t be undone. Its personal for you and most unfortunate. I’m sorry you had to have that experience with your family. I’m not sure what return on their money they expected. Even if the Bakkers hadn’t done anything illegal, your family’s money would be just as gone.

I’m not in anyway defending anything about what they did. She changed her life. That’s a good example. That’s all I got for her.

As far as cons…. they’re all around us these days. I can’t even get through the grocery checkout without being solicited for money for one thing or another. All I can say is I’m glad you’re telling your story here because it might alert others’ families to re-evaluate what they’re donating to….. and why before the consequences become destructive. Thanks for that. :-)

Pretty much when people send money, of their own free will, to any religious nutjobs, well they really aren’t victims except of their own flawed thinking.)

This may be the case for you and I. But we weren’t the people they were preying on.

Certain elderly relatives of mine wound up giving away their life savings to Tammy and her husband. Then, even after other family members bailed them out…they gave MORE. It was like an addiction. Instead of Crack it was jesus. They had to be monitored to make sure they didn’t sneak any money out in the mail.

Being elderly and lacking/having lost certain intellectual processes, they were especially vulnerable to the sh*t these two were shoveling.

Rational people making bad decisions and living with the consequences is one thing (Fool me twice, shame on me.)

People who don’t know better being victimized by charlatans is totally different. (Fool my grandmother, prepare to dodge shotgun rounds.)

It’s amazing me how many people are glossing over all of this just because the woman was idolized by drag queens.

How’s about people take responsibility for their own flawed thinking. There. No more victims. :-)

A person decides to walk down a dark alley and gets brutally mugged. According to you, because they made a “flawed decision” they are not to be considered a victim.

I’m sorry, that just doesn’t add up.

[RBG Note; please avoid even veiled threats of violence or the mods will delete your comments. And, while I’m at it, let’s be very careful about how we talk about drag queens.

PTL and neither of the Bakkers were elected to anything. Did they break the law? Sure they did. How’s about everybody just not send money to such obvious con jobs, religious or otherwise. How’s about people take responsibility for their own flawed thinking. There. No more victims. :-)

I’m just asking a question. Did she or didn’t she?
Don’t you dare….don’t you DARE even group those two together you idiot.

Jesus loves the preview button, dear.

Also? You’re wrong, and rude, both in the way you’re handling your question and your behavior towards a fellow community member who’s behaving significantly better than you are.

Wow. You are *so* nice, dear. I wouldn’t dare think for a moment that you were being patronizing, dear. (You must not get much of a chance to do that in real life, I suppose…dear.)

Of course, in the process of so many people being “nice”, I still have yet to hear a satisfying answer to my question aside from sparse claims that she had “atoned” and smug admonishments for violating the fragile surface tension holding together the “Air of Superiority” so loved by the FDL “Community”.

I’m glad to hear she “turned her life around” and such. I’m glad to hear she was nice to gay people with Aids. They certainly deserve it. I’m so glad she was nice to a has-been porn star…even though she still managed to pass judgment on him, if only tangentially.

How much work did she do to raise funds to re-pay those followers she helped to con out of their money?

None.

It’s funny, because when a republican politician gets caught bilking the public and claims that merely saying “I’m sorry”, “I take responsibility” or “God has forgiven me” is all he needs to do in order to claim full atonement, people on boards like this one go NUTS.

Tammy Faye, however, is somehow re-classified from “crook” to “American Original”.

Hypocrisy comes in more than one flavor I guess.

The fact is, to the end, she (AND her son) STILL made a living out of peddling the wares of her imaginary friends god and Jesus.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not happy that the woman died. What is causing me to retch is that this woman, who was still essentially a crook, has been placed on a pedestal like some kitschy pop-culture circus clown and fawned over as if she was some kind of….martyr. It’s sad.

Seriously, I want to like Liberals. I really do. I would consider myself “on their side”. They have the best intentions and when they overcome their idealism they can accomplish great things….but things like this they make it so hard for me to cheer for them.

BigMitch @ 92

But it is a slippery slope to say she was conned, if she was promised eternal salvation, and that she didn’t get it.

Glad you feel that way. Send me all your money and you’ll be saved.

Faith breeds gullibility.

Televangelism makes me cringe,but I ended up really liking Tammy Faye. And she did atone for the PTL mess. She talked alot with gay teens who had families that rejected them. She told them she loved them as they were,how God made them. Her son has a ministry that actually seems to be founded on principles like love,peace,acceptance and joy. When Tammy was on that goofy show,The Surreal Life,she even made friends with Ron Jeremy,though she didn’t like what he does for a living and rejected that.

People screw up,they lie,they steal,they cheat. Tammy could have gone on and kept doing that,she didn’t,she quietly changed,from within and I think she was sincere,something you don’t see out of many of those flashy folks who claim Jesus as only belonging to them.

I agree. I do believe she was sincere.

Cobalt90 I think she did apologize at some point. And for sure after the hammer came down on them, and they lost everything, I think it made them and alot of other people understand money can’t buy what they were seeking. ’nuff said.

Mainly I want to say I was taken aback at first on her appearance on LKL. But then I think how showing that one can die with dignity on to a teevee audience was the point of that. Rather than languishing in a hospital room, she choose hospice. If we get anything from her it should be to donate to your local hospice. Death is a part of life and they understand that and respect that part of life and honor humans with dignity through that part of life. In addition to the AIDS topic she helped bring into the public discourse, I think her LKL appearance helps bring the important role hospice care plays in bringing dignity and compassion to the end of life forward for discussion.

Donate to hospice care.

Melissa at 209, she died not 2 days later than the interview which might explain why she does not look well. This person to whom looks were so important put on the makeup and the charm and put herself out there to let the whole world see what “it” looks like. we dont see approaching death very often in our society. I think she felt she could do one last thing, perhaps to teach, perhaps to atone.

Exactly. I’m sure by this last public appearance showing her acceptance of death, she gave a lot of comfort to people who are dying and their families or have family members that have recenlty died. Maybe not to everyone, but to some.

Gosh I checked my copy of Miss Manners and I just can’t find the chapter about this.

When the “proper” amount of time has elapsed after TFB’s passing, let us know.

Then and only then, please post a thread whereupon it would then be appropriate to express the full 360deg of opinions on the full 360deg of a person’s life.

Until then, by all means, let’s continue to prop up one version of dysfunctional need for control, while railing against another.

Well, said!! Thank you.