After getting out of jail for fraud, televangelist Jim Bakker wasted no time in using religion to peddle a variety of dubious products and claims. We previously discussed his selling Trump coins as a direct contact with God and Doomsday pancake mix. Now he has got himself in hot water with a purported cure for COVID-19 called his “Silver Solution” which I referenced in a recent column.  Now, as we discussed, the government has pursued Bakker, including Missouri suing the televangelist last month and New York’s attorney general sending a cease and desist letter. So Bakker has found himself in “a situation” where he is telling his followers to send him checks rather than use credit cards.  He is calling on the faithful to keep him out of bankruptcy.

Bakker told his viewers that “You can’t use credit cards if you do give to our ministry at this time because there’s a situation.” Bakker explained that the government said, “’You sold products that we didn’t approve of,’ but that’s not what we did.”  Now he is pleading for a miracle from his miracle cure: “SOS, save our station, save our ship, help us stay on the air. We’re asking people to give an offering, and we need a miracle.”

Bakker added:

“Your products are going to come to you. Every one of them will come to you, come right to your house, and if we can’t, we are going to refund. I will sell the buildings, parts of the buildings at Moringside in the long run if you give me a chance. Don’t let me have to file for bankruptcy . . . We need money to say on the air. I am just saying it bluntly,” he said. Bakker and his wife asked for people to buy their books or send in donations . . . They’re already bleeding us to death, and now we’re going to have to pay lawyers that will bleed you to death.”