At TPM, Nick Martin has some fun with Jim Bakker:
The disgraced televangelist is now hawking survivalist gear and books about the apocalypse on his website… For just $500, you can get “Jim’s All American 4 Star Vegetable” buckets. A cool two grand will get you the “Jerry Jones Special,” which promises “over 3,300 servings of food and enough fuel to cook 480 meals.”
…”Pastor Jim,” as he calls himself now, published a book in 1998 called Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse, which he sells on his site for $20 and proclaims: “This is not just a book of prophecy, it is a book of survival.”
I’m surprised to see that Prosperity is still available; like the late Grant Jeffrey’s Millennium Meltdown (see yesterday), the book was part of the Y2K bandwagon (Y2K being “a highly plausible explanation for what the Bible refers to as the black horse of famine and economic chaos”, according to Bakker). However, Bakker’s blog has plenty of new material which plays on more contemporary fears. Here’s a typical extract, from 29 February:
It is an amazing time to be living as the Bible’s Last Days events are taking place on a daily basis. Earthquakes have increased and even tornados have quadrupled! This should not scare us but reassure us that the Bible is true!
…Lori and I are not only storing more food at Morningside and doing more to help our friends and faith partners get ready, we are adding to our personal storage for our family! The Bible even says that a person is a fool who sees trouble coming and does not prepare!
…I will give you just a few reasons why I am storing more food right NOW! The number one reason is that I have spent the last two decades studying the Bible and focusing on the book of Revelation, researching in the Greek each word of this amazing book one word at a time and I am totally convinced we are living in Revelation Days NOW!
…Read Rabbi Cahn’s book, “The Harbinger” if you do not know of this important warning from God to America! 2012 is not the end of the world like many are saying, but as Rick Joyner has said, it may be the end of the world as we know it!
The third reason is that Jesus says in Matthew 24, that a sign of His return is there will be “no food to eat,” and there will be earthquakes all over the place! In case of earthquakes or hurricanes or tornadoes or lack of food or riots or power failures, do you have a plan where you will go and where will your family meet if all phone lines and phone towers are down? Iran plans to explode an Electric Magnetic bomb over America shutting down all transportation that has motors and our electric grid system…
It’s time to prepare food and water, for this is key to sustaining life! Look over our food offers and get ready NOW! One day it will be too late!
I noted Bakker’s doom-mongering a year ago. In the wake of the Fukushima earthquake – which he claims to have predicted – he warned that “more earthquakes and major events are coming to Japan very soon. California and the area from Illinois and Missouri to Arkansas will have major events in the future. Keep you eyes on the Ring of Fire.” Cahn’s Harbinger, meanwhile, is being heavily promoted by both WND and Charisma magazine – I discussed the book here. Cahn has appeared on Bakker’s show, and Bakker is offering a set of CDs entitled “Further Harbinger Mysteries Revealed”.
Bakker’s association with Rick Joyner is long-standing; Joyner’s Morningstar Ministries also runs Heritage International Ministries, which controls the Heritage Grand Hotel at the site of Bakker’s ruined Heritage USA project. The hotel was the location for an investiture ceremony of a strange “chivalric order” of which Joyner is a member, along with William “Jerry” Boykin. Joyner has also promised to turn a deserted tower on the site into a retirement community; as of December, though, that building was under threat of compulsory demolition.
Bakker claims not to be selling his survivalist products – rather (as Martin notes), they are “love gifts”, which one may receive after clicking a “give” button for a certain amount of money. Although most of the food items come without any obvious branding, they have been sourced from a company called Food for Health International; the labels can be seen here. The 2kg of Dehydrated Tomato Flakes which Bakker will give you for a $100 gift can be bought from Food for Health for $53.95; 2kg of freeze-dried corn from Bakker at $100 costs $52.95 from Food for Health. Bakker’s bulk offers, though, appear to be better value. However, don’t forget to purchase the Food Bucket Opener for $10; one is reminded of a famous Gary Larson cartoon about the lack of a tin-opener in a nuclear bunker.
Bakker is also offering a solar panel “fuel-less generator” for £1,700. Unfortunately, though, it will not be available until 15 August – do we have that long?
UPDATE: At the Atlantic, Elspeth Reeve points out that a number of survival products available from Bakker can acquired more cheaply elsewhere.
(Hat tip: Cult News Network)
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