Posted: March 7, 2020
Dangerous and offensive, but true: The Jim Bakker Show, hosted by the namesake televangelist, tried to sell liquid silver solution as a $125 prevention and probable cure for coronavirus (it isn't).
Update 5/8/20: For the past two months, Faithful America has been running a public-health campaign asking networks to drop the Jim Bakker Show for its past promotion of a false coronavirus cure. We are nevertheless saddened to learn that Bakker has had a stroke, as was announced on his show this morning. Thankfully, his wife says he is okay and resting. Jesus taught us to love our neighbors, no exceptions -- including those we support and those with whom we deeply, deeply disagree. Out of respect for Bakker's illness, we are suspending our campaign until he returns to his show. We do not wish poor health or personal suffering on anyone, and as Christians, we pray for him and for his family.
You might remember Bakker as the 1980s TV preacher accused of a rape and jailed for fraud. He's back on the air, selling snake oil and emergency supplies for the end times while proclaiming that Christians must support Donald Trump to prove they're saved.
Bakker's silver-solution sales may be his most dangerous action yet. If one of his viewers catches COVID-19 and chooses to treat it with only silver instead of with proper health care, their entire community will be put at risk. Thankfully, state attorneys general and federal regulators have stopped Bakker's sales, but he remains defiant and on the air. It may only be a matter of time before his show tries something else that endangers public health.
Preachers like Bakker are a leading reason why "hypocrisy" is the word many Americans most closely associate with religion. It's up to us to shut down his dangerous message and reclaim Christianity as a force for good, by asking DirecTV, DISH, and Roku to take away Bakker's platform.
UPDATE: DirecTV's owner AT&T has listened to this petition, thanking its signers "for bringing this issue to our attention" and asking their channels to "carefully review this programming." In response, World Harvest Television and the GEB Network have both dropped or are in the process of dropping the Jim Bakker Show. We are grateful to DirecTV for taking public health seriously, and we hope and pray that Roku, DISH, and the networks listed below will do likewise!
Sign the petition:
Love thy neighbor.