I remember almost nothing about Jim Bakker. I have a sort of skewed vision of he and his wife standing at the pulpit, tearfully asking for support for their ministry; PTL (acronym for Praise The Lord.) Things get blurry though as to whatever happened to him or his love affair with Jessica Hahn (whom I only remember from a Playboy documentary type show on VH1 a few years back.) As for Tammy Faye? Well, other than her 15 delayed minutes of pop-icon fame as the overly made-up, prescription med. addicted, drag queen superhero, reality show queen….nothing. Nada. Forgotten too.

To give you the abbreviated “whatever happened to….”:

• Jim Bakker was indicted in 1988 on eight counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy. In 1989, after a five-week trial which began on August 28 in Charlotte, the jury found him guilty on all 24 counts, and Judge Robert Potter sentenced him to 45 years in federal prison and a $500,000 fine. He was released in 1994.
• Tammy Faye Bakker divorced Jim during his prison years and married Roe Messner (the builder of their Fort Mill, SC hub) and died in 2007 of cancer.
• Jessica Hahn is a D+ actress and model who appeared in Playboy after the PTL scandal and later appeared on Married…With Children (twice.)

So allow me to cut to the chase. Why am I blogging about Jim Bakker?

This past weekend Pan and I visited with some family at a halfway point that happened to be Fort Mill, South Carolina. Our hotel? Heritage Grand Hotel. What’s wrong? Does it not ring a bell? What if I called it Heritage USA? Now we’re talking. That’s right. Pan and I stayed at the grand hotel once the centerpiece of the PTL-funded, religi-tainment complex, Heritage USA.

Heritage USA opened in 1978, and by 1986 was one of the top vacation destinations in the nation, behind only Walt Disney World and Disneyland, attracting nearly 6 million visitors annually and employing around 2,500 people.

The facilities included the 501-room Heritage Grand Hotel, Main Street USA, an indoor shopping complex, the Heritage Village Church, a 400-unit campground, The Jerusalem Amphitheater, conference facilities, a skating rink, prayer and counseling services, full cable TV network production studios, Bible and evangelism school, visitor retreat housing, staff and volunteer housing, timeshares and the Heritage Island water park and recreational facilities. What is left though is quite different.

Now owned by MorningStar Ministries, the complex has little more than the hotel (which is quite dated), an overgrown and poorly kept campground, an ampitheater that lacks a stage or any other recognizable theatrical unit, and a few scattered timeshares and cabins. The waterpark is long gone. The skating rink is no more. The rec facilities are either hidden or long disguised by overgrowth. The place is eery to say the least.

Heck, I have to admit….I have no idea where I am going with this post. It is just interesting to see what was once the third largest entertainment facility in America (just behind Disneyworld and Disneyland) and grossed some $286 million annually now reduced to little more than a dated hotel that is home to a progressive ministry that attracts people largely unborn at the height of Bakker or PTL.

Check out some of the pictures here. NOTE: They were taken with my cell phone so they are less than stunning.

I have been staring at this empty block for almost a half hour now. My only company the sound of the overhead fan in my 5th wheel office. I don’t like to write depressing things. I don’t like to add too much of the world’s reality into my own life or writing. But today I can’t seem to help it.

I turn to food for comfort. These past two months I have gained probably 10-12 pounds. What could I possibly be stressed about? Beyond the transition of a new job, a growing homestead, Pan and I trying to start a family, and the influx of media I am forced to swallow each day, I guess nothing. But each day I wake up I down a cup of coffee and a little pick-me-up (usually fruit or a bowl of mueslix) and flip on the news. I am not specific in which channel or news team. Delivery is delivery no matter how much Splenda you might put in it. BP. Wall Street. A failing presidential office. War. Sex Trafficking. Terrorism. Obesity. Obsession. It is all a bit much over what should be “the best part of waking up.” After about 15 minutes though I cut it off and join the sun as it rises into the sky.

My first stop is at the herb boxes. I love to smell them and wonder just what recipe they will end up ‘completing’ or how Pan will dry them for tea or shaker spices. I then ramble on towards the corn. We try to water it every other day and when I say water I mean for a few hours. Because of the position of the field it gets pummeled with afternoon sun and needs every drop of liquid it can get. It is usually at this point that I can’t help but checking on the chickens. I can hear them so they are pretty hard to ignore. And now with the new chicks…well, who doesn’t want to see new chicks fumble around and play what looks like a game of poultry rugby?

And then it is on to the main garden. I can’t step into it without being washed over by its miracle. At the risk of sounding emotionally drippy, this garden is so much more to me than probably to most. It represents new life in its most raw form. It is my church. It is where I was baptized a second time, changing from the consumptive person I thought I deserved to be in life to the humbled man I am now. I typically reach down and poke my finger in the dirt. Most mornings it is moist with dew; a reminder that each day is a new one and everyone deserves to be cleaned and refreshed. And then? Well then I park it. I sit on a bench made of old granite curbing that we recycled from a downtown renovation project. I star at the plants thinking about how Pan and I have poured hours into it hoping for a harvest that will last us well into fall and early winter. I think about how we tithe the first of the harvest and give thanks to God for what he has blessed us with on Odom’s Idle Acres. I think about how a tiny seed turns into a huge plant that bears food. Think about that for a moment.

What starts out as a seed….well, perhaps Robert Schuller (yes, the televangelist….so sue me) said it best, “Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed.” How amazing is that. And as I stare at that garden – what it once was, what it is now, and what it will be in a month – I find my hunger being satiated. No, I am not talking about a twinkie I hid amongst the okra but rather a satisfying bite of relief; freedom from the very stressed that one hour ago gripped me tight like a boa constrictor on his prey. And it is at that moment that the world makes sense again. It began in a garden. A garden shall sustain us. And if I have my druthers, it will all end in a garden.

Fox and his Friends can say what they want but when the world gets extra hairy and Uncle Sam reaches out his hand one last time, I am headed to the garden. And there I will find new life, new hope, and a new understanding of what we are here for.

I detest almost all Christian films. They lack budget. They lack quality actors (we can thank Kirk Cameron and that ‘other’ Baldwin brother for that). They lack depth. They just lack.

Christian films today conjure up thoughts of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ or that abominable Left Behind series. Neither a great premise for the new Denzel Washington movie Book of Eli.

But the new movie doesn’t fit the standard mold and until about an hour into the film I was not even sure it was the Christian movie so many “cool pastors” had been Tweeting and blogging about. In fact, this incredibly entertaining, ultra-violent, post-Apocalyptic story of a lone wanderer named Eli (Denzel Washington) setting about headed “west,” defending the mysterious book in his possession at all costs is one of the boldest and most random faith-based films to ever come out of a major studio.

Eli is carrying a copy of the last KJV Bible on the planet (we figure this out since it has a large, golden cross on the front), since all other religious texts—including Torahs and Korans—were rounded up and destroyed 30 years prior to the “great flash.” Eli believes he’s heard the voice of God telling him to bring the Bible to an unspecified place in the West, but a ruthless ne’er-do-well named Carnegie (played by the always bewildering yet charming Gary Oldman) knows that if he gets his hands on the precious book, he can distort its teachings and have total control over the minds and spirits of the people who live in his empire of revived, Old West-style towns (please hold all Pat Robertson jokes until the end).

With Eli joined by Samara (a bit out of her element Mila Kunis), a Carnegie servant, the race is on between the duo and the tyrant’s small army of thugs who, with their questionable hygiene, maintain final control over mankind’s destiny. And that means Washington – in true Hollywood style – will slice, dice, sever or shoot anyone who gets in his way. Oh, and did I add shoot with a bow and arrow? Yeah, he does that too!

I don’t want to say this is going to be a Sunday School favorite or the next hot sermon series making its rounds on the mega-church circuit as Oldman and his boys spew the F*bomb rather literally and the violence is reminiscent of something out of Tarantino’s catalogue. But to its redemption (pun entirely intended) the movie also features a few prize moments in which Eli reads the Bible privately while praying or recites particularly vivid Scriptures.

The Book of Eli clearly credits the Bible as the one book above all that can change the world. And of this there is left no doubt. Oldman is bad. Washington is good.

So thank you Hollywood. Thank you for The Book of Eli , a film that delivers on hardcore action while still delivering a poignant message.

I haven’t been to a church on my own accord in almost five years. I did attend a church several times in NYC but it more at the expectations of others rather than for my own benefit. I went closed-minded, half-hearted, and bitter. So, needless to say I got nothing out of it.

When Pan and I started dating she was involved in a church in North Carolina that she loved and that she found a family in. I was jealous but refused to let on. I longed for the type of community and fellowship I had once had back in OV. When she and I married she expressed a desire for us to find a church together; a family of God that spoke to us both. I thought it was impossible. The two of us have different styles of worship, different expectations, and different desires.

When we moved to Barnesville we felt like our search was even more hopeless. Neither of us wanted to be a card-carrying member of a Methodist church, a Southern Baptist congregation, or a non-denominational sect. We prayed about it. We waited on Him. And today we felt like our prayers were answered.

This morning we straggled over to the E.P. Roberts center on the “other side of the tracks” to visit with Vertical Community – a new ‘church’ in Barnesville whose pastor is basic, youngish, intelligent, intuitive, and displays a heart for reconciliation and community. It was inspiring to be in that rented room this morning with representatives of all ages, races, financial means, and groups, as represented in B’ville. We left knowing we had found a family we were looking for.

“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”

- Mahatma Ghandi

And on a more serious note, I offer this Irish-Catholic blessing to all the readers of anotherkindofdrew.com:

God, bless to me the new day,
Never vouchsafed to me before;
It is to bless your own presence
You have given me this time, O God.

Bless to my eye,
May my eye bless all it sees;
I will bless my neighbor,
May my neighbor bless me.

God, give me a clean heart,
Let me not from sight of your eye;
Bless to me my family,
And bless to me my means.

I have decided to reevaluate my beliefs of a messiah. For those readers who are already confused….I am Messianic because I am a believer in God’s chosen Messiah, Yeshua.  Yeshua is the original name of God’s Son, our Saviour.  “Messiah” is the Hebrew word for the Greek word “Christ” -they both mean “annointed” or “chosen”. However, with Louis Farrakhan’s latest proclamation of Obama as a herald of the Messiah, I have decided to rethink things.

“You are the instruments that God is going to use to bring about universal change, and that is why Barack has captured the youth. And he has involved young people in a political process that they didn’t care anything about. That’s a sign. When the Messiah speaks, the youth will hear, and the Messiah is absolutely speaking.”

“Brothers and sisters,” Farrakhan said, “Barack Obama to me, is a herald of the Messiah. Barack Obama is like the trumpet that alerts you something new, something better is on the way.”

Today was Go Topless Day across the United States. That’s right. Go topless. Women (and some men) across the nation gathered to demonstrate and exercise the female constitutional right to go topless by actually assembling and going topless in public spaces. The visual effort was also used to reemphasize Women’s Equality Day. Now, as a man I am all for the female form. As a student of international custom and heritage I understand toplessness in most countries as an everyday occurrence. But as a Christian I am quite confused by the issue altogether.

Is it okay for a man to be in public with his shirt off for any reason? If yes, what is the difference between a man doing it and a woman doing it? Besides, of course, the obvious mammary gland issue. The question then becomes one of modesty. Modesty deals with the understanding of the presentation of the physical body in public situations. The Bible speaks about this subject and so we should try to understand what the Bible has to say about the subject and then conform our lives to that standard. There are basically two principles involved within the discussion of modesty which we must consider. The first is the principle of giving glory to God. The Bible teaches that one should glorify God in the body. In 1 Corinthians 6:20 we read, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” The principle is to bring glory to God through the use of one’s body and not to bring glory to oneself. There is a way to dress so as to glorify one’s self instead of giving glory to God. Now this is where I really get confused because I am obviously very into the fiber arts, design arts and fashion, in general. I have a consistent hard time deciding what is tasteful and what is not when it comes to artistic license. Christians, both male and female, should not dress in such a fashion, as described in the Bible. This aspect of modest dress can and does involve the culture in which one is living. It could be a sin for me to dress in a three-piece suit and oxford shoes in a culture where everyone wears robes and sandals. It would be a sin for a Christian woman to not veil her face in public in some areas of the world today because that is what the culture dictates and God does not want us bringing glory to ourselves in the presence of cultures who need the gospel more than anything.

Second, there is also the principle of sexual attraction. In consideration of this principle, there are no cultural considerations. Neither men nor women should dress in such a provocative way so as to entice the opposite sex into immoral sexual thoughts or behavior. WOW! Now that is a tough pill to swallow in this day and age of glamour photography, swimsuit magazines, lengerie commercials, backless dresses, etc. We are children of our God and God tempts no man with evil and neither should we ( James 1:13).

So I ask you, my loyal reader, what do you think? Where do you stand on this issue? What is modest and what is not? Should American women be allowed to go topless? Should men even be allowed to go topless? What are some other issues that come into play in regards to this topic? Help me out.

In all of my eco-friendly efforts so as to be a solid steward of the environment I never once stopped to think what Jesus would think of what we have done to our own precious planet. How would he feel knowing that we were knowingly destroying 1.5 acres of rainforest per second? Would he choose paper or plastic or choose to only buy what he could carry in his arms? What kind of car would he drive so as to save on emissions or would he continue to walk everywhere? Would he drink from the water sources we have spilled oil in and thrown our waste into? As I read The Shack I was amazed at how the idea of God, in the flesh of Jesus, could be so awestruck by his own creation and quickly realized that my intentions this whole time had just been wrong. We are to look in awe of our little blue-green ball in the sky and treat it with kid gloves. I was just thinking about my own health and perhaps that of my family. My concern stretched a little less than the house across the street.

God could have been no more clear about this than He was in the Old Testament. Leviticus 25:4 lays out His desire for us to maintain a land sabbath and leave the land uncultivated every seventh year. Every 50th year we are told to give our property back to its original owner, return to our original families dwelling place and discontinue sewing or reaping anything. God’s desire for us and our role on this earth is a cyclical one. We are products of our environment and it is a product of our behavior. God intends for us to recognize the gift of Creation and hold fast to it by living an intentional and responsible lifestyle.

The idea is not necessarily plastic bags or reusable hemp sacks. It is not gasoline vs. electric. The idea is are we in constant praise of a God that could create such an amazing landscape and allow us to dwell on it? And if so, what are we each doing to maintain it thereby praising Him?

We all know (okay, so maybe I had to look it up too) that in 1456, Gutenberg printed the first Bible using movable type. Until the 19th century no record was kept as to how many more Bibles were printed in some form or another. However, starting in 1816 The Bible Society of the United Kingdom estimates that by 1975 some 2,458,000,000 Bibles had been printed and that by 2007 over 7.5 billion Bibles were in print. That is roughly one Bible per person on the Earth. “So what?,” you ask. Well, if the average sized Bible has some 1200+ pages then there are…what even comes after billions? There is a lot of paper out there that could possibly be used for a host of other purposes.

I, myself, own six Bibles. Yes, I use them all at some time or another. I treasure each of them. But, yes, I could do without five of them if need be. That is 6000 pieces of paper in my house alone that could be recycled and possibly used for something else. I could even get away without a print copy altogether as I have a Bible on my phone, one on my laptop, and several favorite websites all with every word of the scripture.

We live in a time when printed materials are not necessary. They are desire, true. But we can live without them and I am sure I would be better off to limit myself to one print copy and recycle the others. I could donate them to a shelter. I could hand them out on the corner. I could leave on the table at Denny’s as part of my waitresses tip. GASP! I could use the Word to spread the Word.

What other ways might you have recycled your Bible collection? Have you? Have you ever thought about it?