Tammy Faye Messner, the former wife of televangelist Jim Bakker known for her heavy makeup and frequent crying, was the special guest speaker at the fifth anniversary celebration of a homosexual church in Tampa, Fla.
“People are always on me about the crying,” Messner said, according to a report in the St. Petersburg Times. “But honey, it’s my party, and I’ll cry if I want to!
“When I start talking about God, I get emotional.”
 Tammy Faye Messner (Photo: Hollywood.com) |
Messner spoke to 100 members of Potter’s House Fellowship Church, approximately half of whom are homosexual, according to the report.
Pastor Robert L. Morgan told the paper he has been trying to get Messner to speak in his church for the past two years because, he says, she carries a powerful message: God loves all.
Messner once hosted a daytime television show with a homosexual co-host and, the Times said, has appeared at “gay pride” events throughout the country.
“I wanted to set as an example that not all straight people hate you,” Morgan is quoted as telling his congregation prior to introducing his guest speaker.
According to the Florida paper, Messner told the churchgoers how difficult it was when Jim Bakker’s Praise the Lord television network was shut down so quickly in 1987.
“Everything was gone, everyone hated us,” she said through tears, the paper reports. “I couldn’t read my Bible. You know what sustained me? The old hymns.”
She then sang, “Oh, what a friend we have in Jesus.”
As Messner spoke, she walked among the wooden pews of the small, white church.
Touching on her theological beliefs, the paper quotes the former TV star as stating, “I think Jesus really loves crazy people. He really does. He made so many of us!”
Also included in Messner’s sermon, which lasted over an hour, was mention of her new book, “I Will Survive … And You Will Too!” and talk of her appearance in the reality show “Surreal World 2,” which features has-been celebrities rooming with each other for several days.
Messner divorced Bakker while he was serving a prison term for fraud, and then remarried.
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