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As my regular readers know, I have blogged in the past two weeks about my visit to Lakewood Church. I issued an open letter to Joel Osteen asking him to embrace the gay community by responding to Soulforce's request for Lakewood Church to participate in the American Family Outing. I also blogged about the press conference that Soulforce held last week. You can read these previous entries on this blog. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the picnic on Saturday because of other family and church obligations, but Soulforce issued the following press release just moments ago. Jay Bakker and...

The son of evangelical Tammy Faye Bakker Messner will spend his first Mother's Day weekend since her death in Houston, waiting to hear from Lakewood Church Pastor Joel Osteen. Jay Bakker, a high-profile supporter of Soulforce — a group that fights religious and political oppression of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders — wants Osteen to join the nontraditional families at a picnic Saturday and welcome them to church on Sunday. As the tattooed and pierced Bakker spoke at a Soulforce news conference Wednesday, it was clear his mother was in his thoughts. Though she died of cancer last July, she...

RALEIGH, N.C. - Tammy Faye Messner, who as Tammy Faye Bakker helped her husband, Jim, build a multimillion-dollar evangelism empire and then saw it collapse in disgrace, has died. She was 65. Messner, who had battled colon cancer since 1996 that more recently spread to her lungs, died at her home Friday, said her booking agent, Joe Spotts. A family service was held Saturday in a private cemetery, where her ashes were interred, he said. She had frequently spoken about her medical problems, saying she hoped to be an inspiration to others. "Don't let fear rule your life," she said....

Tammy Faye Bakker, the disgraced televangelist who is suffering from cancer, has penned a goodbye letter to her fans in which she says doctors have halted her treatment. "The doctors have stopped trying to treat the cancer and so now it's up to God and my faith. And that's enough! But please continue to pray for the pain and sick stomach," Tammy Faye, 65, wrote in a letter on her Web site. "My precious daughter, Tammy Sue, and her wonderful friends are staying with me," Tammy Faye wrote. "They don't want me falling down the stairs. I am down weight...

Editor's note: Jay Bakker, son of former Praise The Lord leaders Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Messner, is minister of Revolution Church and subject of a new documentary series, "One Punk Under God," on Sundance Channel. Marc Brown is a Revolution staff member. NEW YORK (CNN) -- What the hell happened? Where did we go wrong? How was Christianity co-opted by a political party? Why are Christians supporting laws that force others to live by their standards? The answers to these questions are integral to the survival of Christianity. While the current state of Christianity might seem normal and business-as-usual...

NEW YORK (AP) -- He was born into the glare of televangelist parents Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Then the "Praise the Lord" empire collapsed in scandal. His father went to jail for fraud. Jay Bakker spent his teens in the darkness, rebelling and bent on self-destruction from alcohol and drugs. But now, with his 31st birthday next week, this tattooed, multi-pierced pilgrim is on a righteous path: preaching God's grace to a flock of young, downtrodden and disillusioned parishioners most any other church would turn away. Jay is the focus of "One Punk Under God: The Prodigal Son of...

RALEIGH, N.C. Former televangelist Tammy Faye Messner says cancer has returned to her lungs, marking her third battle with the illness. Messner was first diagnosed with colon cancer nearly a decade ago. Last year she announced that the disease had spread to her lungs, where it has since reappeared. Messner says she's "not worried ... not afraid," adding: "By the third time you have cancer, you begin to think about your mortality." Despite her ailment, Messner is planning to continue traveling the country to give inspirational talks. The former Tammy Faye Bakker divorced Jim Bakker in 1992 while he was...

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....

'New' Jim Bakker Returns to Christian Television Show started taping 16 years to the day of his last 'PTL Club' program Though he once said he would never start another Christian TV ministry, televangelist Jim Bakker is back on the air. "The New Jim Bakker Show" debuted 16 years to the day of his last broadcast of the "PTL Club," the flagship of a ministry empire that crashed amid headlines about financial and sexual scandal, and saw its head jailed for five years. Bakker's new show is taped at the former Cowboy Café-turned-Studio City Café in Branson, Mo. Guests since...

This is huge. It means that Scott's boat was NEVER LAUNCHED.