Tammy Sue Bakker, the daughter of the late televangelist Jim Baker with his late ex-wife Tammy Faye, has released a statement on Facebook following her father’s death at the age of 86. She publicly apologized to anyone hurt by her father’s theology while urging folks to donate to LGBTQ groups.
Bakker reveals in her letter that “she left his ministry in 2022 because the message that was being delivered was not mine,” and that the distance between them caused her to be out of the loop in a big way.
I have spent the years since estranged from my father.
No one told me my father was ill or that his illness had progressed to hospice care until three hours before his death. I learned he had passed from a friend who saw it online and didn’t realize I hadn’t been told.
Noting that “There are very few times in life—if any—that we are given the chance to show the world that everyone is loved,” she used his death to say:
I want to publicly apologize, from the depths of my soul, to anyone who has been hurt by the church or my family’s ministry over the last 60 years. I know that millions of lives were positively changed by PTL, and for that I’m grateful. I have also read the letters and comments—and have been told in person many times—that so many gave their last dime to the ministry.
It breaks my heart to know that the church has been responsible for millions of people suffering, being rejected by their families, living with depression, being kicked out of their family homes, feeling like outcasts, dealing with suicidal ideation, or dying by suicide.
In lieu of flowers or gifts, she asks everyone to “donate funds or your time to your local LGBTQIA+ community” and that “no amount is too big or too small to make a real change and possibly save someone’s life.”
Likewise, Jay Bakker, Jim’s other child with Tammy, did not attend his father’s funeral. Publicly acknowledging the complicated relationship they had, he says he visited him several weeks ago and said his goodbyes then.
Jim Bakker has 5 other adopted children with his second wife Lori.
Full letter below:
