Jim and Tammy Bakker, 1986
Having known both right-wing politicians and radio/TV preachers, I can tell you that most operate identically — they just wear different costumes.
Sadly, most are after the money of poor, uneducated people who become their “believers.” These unsuspecting people buy the arguments of the public mouthpiece who blames third parties for whatever is causing their sad, miserable existence. This sort of evangelism has probably been around forever in some form.
The modern electronic media version, however, probably began with Father Coughlin, one of the first Roman Catholic priests to use radio to reach a mass audience. He began his broadcasts in 1926.
Coughlin started out as a supporter of President Roosevelt in the 1930s. He wrote a platform calling for monetary reforms, the nationalization of major industries and railroads and protection of the rights of labor. The membership ran into the millions, resembling the Populist movement of the 1890s. Coughlin had a great platform, blaming others for the Great Depression.
After hinting at attacks on Jewish bankers, Coughlin began to use his radio program to issue antisemitic commentary, and later to support some of the policies of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. The broadcasts have been called "a variation of the Fascist agenda applied to American culture."
After Coughlin’s radio show was canceled by the traditional radio networks, he raised money to build his own network, which soon reached millions of listeners on a 36-station hookup. What Coughlin proved is that anyone with the microphone and a “message” could raise money on the air. It was a revelation that many understood and adopted for their own uses.
This, of course, extends with variations of theme to the modern day. On the political side — all far to the right on the political spectrum — are the likes of Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and the late Rush Limbaugh. Donald Trump took it to an absurd new level.
Add to that the late Sen. Jesse Helms, who rose to the U.S. Senate from racist broadcasting in North Carolina, and created one of the biggest money machines of all of them.
On the religious side were Jerry Falwell, Billy and Franklin Graham, Kenneth Copeland, Reverend Ike, Billy Sunday, Aimee Semple McPherson, Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart and two of my old favorites, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.
Jim Bakker created the PTL Club, a popular television program. A sex scandal led to his resignation from the ministry. Subsequent revelations of accounting fraud brought about his imprisonment and divorce from Tammy Faye.
You can’t keep an old evangelist down, though. Bakker is still on the air and still owes the IRS about $6 million. These days, he pitches buckets of survival food to sell his audience for “the end of days.” And, yes, he’s a big Donald Trump supporter.
Tammy Faye, Bakker’s on-air cohort, died in 2007 of cancer. Today, she would have turned 79 years old.
Sadly, these media hustlers prey upon uneducated people by giving them someone to blame for their problems or someone who can fix them. The politicians, from Limbaugh to Helms to Trump, have blamed welfare mothers, dark-skinned people, draft dodgers, immigrants or anyone who challenges their own status quo.
The preachers say belief in “God” can fix all problems and it helps if listeners send them money to help them continue do their “good works.” Many of the people run for their checkbooks and some even leave their entire estates to these media evangelists.
At the end of the day, both groups solicit money from people, who keep paying them month after month. It’s a sad but true story that continues until this day.
It’s part of the human condition I’ll never understand.