‘A most interesting life’: 4 Christian leaders react to the death of Jim Bakker
4. Albert Mohler
Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, penned a piece for WOLRD magazine in response to Bakker’s death, noting that “he lived a most interesting life.”
Mohler believed that “the rise and fall of Jim Bakker is one of the most bizarre but revealing chapters in the story of American religion” and that his death “raises all the issues that are connected to prosperity theology, American Pentecostalism, religious television, and celebrity culture.”
Mohler also recounted that, back in the 1980s, when he was a doctoral student, he visited the famed Bakker theme park, Heritage USA, with noted theologian and author J.I. Packer.
“We drove onto the property only to see tractors plowing through a giant planting that spelled ‘FORGIVEN’ at the entrance. Packer quietly said that the entire vision was horrifying,” wrote Mohler.
“But it was also clarifying. Almost 40 years later, the memory remains powerful. The whole scene was wretched and tragic, and that pretty much sums up the story of PTL.”
