Televangelist Jim Bakker’s daughter publicly apologises for harm he caused to LGBTQ+ people

Tammy Sue Bakker, daughter of televangelists Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker, has apologised to people hurt by her family’s ministry and urged Christians to support their local LGBTQ+ communities.

In an 8 October statement, Tammy Sue said she wanted to apologise “from the depths of my soul” to anyone who had been hurt by the church or her family’s ministry over the past 60 years.

“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,” she wrote.

She also encouraged people to donate money or volunteer their time with local LGBTQ+ organisations, saying even a small contribution could make a difference and potentially save a life.

“No amount is too big or too small to make a real change and possibly save someone’s life,” she wrote. “It is time for Christians to stand up and show the true love of Christ. It is time to stop judging. To stop hating. To unconditionally wrap your arms around your brothers and sisters and say, ‘I love you just the way you are.’”

Tammy Sue Bakker says she has carried a ‘heavy burden’ since childhood

The statement came after the 5 October death of her father, Jim Bakker, the conservative Christian broadcaster who built a multimillion-dollar television ministry alongside his then-wife, Tammy Faye.

Tammy Sue said she had been estranged from her father since leaving his ministry in 2022 because “the message that was being delivered was not mine”. She said she learned of his death through a friend who had seen the news online.

She explained that she had remained silent for much of her life because she did not want to hurt her family or the church. However, she said she had been thinking about speaking out for many years.

“I would normally never release a statement, but I can hear my precious mother’s voice saying, ‘Sis, this is your time. Do it,’” she wrote.

Tammy Sue acknowledged that the PTL ministry, founded by Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye in 1974, had positively changed many lives, and reflected on the people who had given “their last dime” to the ministry.

“My friends tell me, ‘You are not your family. This is not your burden to bear,’ but I have carried it since I was a child,” she wrote. “It is a very heavy burden that has brought me to tears more times than I can count.”

Honouring Tammy Faye’s legacy of LGBTQ+ acceptance

Tammy Sue also reflected on her mother’s legacy, describing the unconditional love Tammy Faye showed as something that remained part of her own heart.

Tammy Faye, who died in 2007, became known for her more compassionate approach to LGBTQ+ people than many of her evangelical contemporaries. During the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, she publicly showed support for gay men and people living with HIV, challenging the stigma surrounding the disease and its impact on the LGBTQ+ community.

Her most definitive and groundbreaking moment occurred in 1985 during an episode of her live show ‘PTL Talk’, where she interviewed Steven Pieters, a gay Christian minister living with HIV/AIDS who later passed in 2023 after a prolonged battle with cancer. During the emotionally raw broadcast, she wept, held his hand, and explicitly told her conservative audience, “How sad that we as Christians, who are supposed to be the salt of the earth and love everyone, are so afraid of an AIDS patient that we will not put our arm around them and say, ‘We care.’”

Her approach stood in contrast to the anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric promoted by some prominent conservative Christian leaders, including Jim Bakker. In 2022, he voiced support for Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which restricts classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in certain grades.

Jim Bakker also became a vocal supporter of Donald Trump in the final decade of his life. He was previously convicted of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy in connection with the finances of his ministry, and served a prison sentence.

Tammy Sue’s statement did not ask people to overlook the past. Instead, it called for Christians to recognise the suffering that rejection and condemnation can cause and to take practical steps to support LGBTQ+ people.

“In lieu of flowers or gifts,” she wrote, she was encouraging people to donate to LGBTQ+ communities. “No amount is too big or too small to make a real change and possibly save someone’s life,” she stated.

She concluded by urging Christians to show love without judgement, adding that she wanted LGBTQ+ people to know they were accepted just as they are.