Tammy Faye passes

[keltic63]

Tammy Faye Messner passes (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/21/tammy.faye/index.html?eref=rss_topstories)


from the 2000 Advocate interview
Bailey: Why do you think gay and lesbian people love you so much?
Tammy Faye: Well, because I love them. And I'll tell you something: When my husband was in prison and I wasn't getting any presents for Christmas, it was the gay community that gathered around me and saw that. They gave me beautiful bathrobes with my initials on; they gave beautiful leopard hangers and leopard shoe bags. And I had the most awesome Christmas I've ever had. They'd write to me, and I'd write back to them, and we would talk about our animals, and they would name all their dogs Tammy Faye. It was so cute [laughs]! I still write all these guys! They cared about me more than the Christians cared about me [begins to cry], and that says something to me right there.
Barbato: Do you think you've had a similar experience? Is being Tammy Faye similar to being gay?
Tammy Faye: The fact that people look at you oddly like you're a strange duck and that you can't possibly be real ... [Barbato and Bailey laugh] You know, I think, Randy, you have something there--because I'm different than most [Christians]. I'm not the normal pastor's wife; I'm not the normal minister. I look different. I'm not afraid to say what I feel.


without being the stereotypical gay man, I want to say how much I loved and respected this woman. In so many ways, she was one of us. she knew what she was, was proud of who she was, and put herself out there in a very real and candid way. as a former AoG kid, I hold this woman in a special place in my heart. Underneath the makeup, I truly believe there was a woman with a loving heart, and AFTER the PTL scandal, it became very clear to me that she was indeed genuine. I'll miss her.

[tdogg]

Tammy Faye Messner passes (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/21/tammy.faye/index.html?eref=rss_topstories)
I want to say how much I loved and respected this woman. In so many ways, she was one of us. she knew what she was, was proud of who she was, and put herself out there in a very real and candid way. as a former AoG kid, I hold this woman in a special place in my heart. Underneath the makeup, I truly believe there was a woman with a loving heart, and AFTER the PTL scandal, it became very clear to me that she was indeed genuine. I'll miss her.

Me too Steve, I loved her too. She was a loving, kind and wonderful woman. A true "Christian" in the real sense of the word. I hope Tammy Faye is at peace and has no pain, she certainly deserves to be in heaven if there is one. I love you Tammy Faye! :love::love::love: I'll miss you too.

[mjules]

Ah, Tammy Faye. Such a sweetie. We'll miss her. <3

I'm living on what used to be the PTL property, actually, so I'm reminded of her every day.

:flower2::flower::flower2:

[Daniel]

I have to say that when I was Pentacostal, I thought Tammy and Jim were pretty shallow- they has sold out the faith- and she really could not sing. It was awful! But then, much later, after I had come out, and she had remarried and appeared in a movie made by a gay man, I took another look at her. And what I saw surprised me. Here was a woman who had come into herself. She owned who she was. Lashes, eyeshadow and all.

I caught her appearance on Larry King this past week. And was shocked at how she looked. But she still smiled- and joked- and told it like it was. In retrospect, she always did that.

[pnggrad79]

I just saw on Yahoo News where Tammy Faye died. I had been watching her son, Jay, on A&E or Bravo, with his church, Revolution. He taped a few episodes where he had gone to visit his mother, and she looked so pitiful, but yet in the face of great pain because of her cancer, she walked and talked like a lady, a class act. I believe it was largely her great influence and training that helped Jay create an atmosphere in his church where gays and lesbians were welcome.

I had hoped that she would die peacefully and that her legacy will continue on in her son, as he forges ahead with Revolution and paves the way for more churches in the mainstream accepting gays and lesbians.

She was a classy lady who died with dignity and grace. God's blessings on Jay and his wife, and sister.:pray:

[Steven E. Webster]

Friends,

Ex-gay watch has a nice tribute:

http://www.exgaywatch.com/wp/2007/07/tammy-faye-messner-remembered-for-welcoming-spirit/

Steven Webster

[labguy22]

Thanks Keltic63 for posting this, I saw it on the news last night.

I loved her comment that gays stepped up with love when the christians disowned her. I pray they, (the christians), see the hypocrisy of there actions some day.

I may be mistaken, but doesn't she have a gay son?

Be Blessed,
Nick

[keltic63]

Thanks Keltic63 for posting this, I saw it on the news last night.

I loved her comment that gays stepped up with love when the christians disowned her. I pray they, (the christians), see the hypocrisy of there actions some day.

I may be mistaken, but doesn't she have a gay son?

Be Blessed,
Nick

I believe he is straight, but he sets off my gaydar, so who really knows. He has no reason to be in the closet and is the head of a great ministry in NYC called Revolution (http://www.revolutionnyc.com/) which reaches out to those who live on the fringe of society. Sounds like he learned a lot from his mother.

[pnggrad79]

Jay Bakker is married to a woman. I know that doesn't matter, but he is married, and seems to be really crazy about her. He doesn't come off to me as gay, but ya neva know!:D

[Steven E. Webster]

Friends,

Here's the Wikipedia article on Jay Bakker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Bakker

Notice that he was born in 1975--a quarter century and more younger than a lot of us Baby Boomers. I think Jay represents a younger generation that will not be as hung up over gay people.

We just hired a young minister of music and the arts at the church where I work full-time. She made a passing comment about how the Baby Boomers are responsible for the hang ups the churches have about LGBT people. I think she is right.

I came out as a young baby boomer 35 years ago--it was really pretty lonely--those of us who were out were a very small "club." When I came out homosexuality was still officially a "mental illness" and a crime in all but a few states.

Steven Webster

[NathanATX]

I'm all choked up after seeing that video. :'(

Today, Carlton Pearson was talking about her... she wrote him a note in a book she signed for him. It said "don't let the bastards get you down." It was when he was first experiencing the backlash of hate from the fundamentalist community for being open about not believing in hell anymore and for accepting gay/muslim/agnostic/etc people without reserve. She really touched his life.

For me she was the embodiment of God's love... and she still is.

[dsdrane]

I will miss her, too. And God bless Larry King for continually giving her a platform over the years where she could redeem herself...and do some good.

Dash and I were just catching up on her this past Saturday, in fact, while scrolling through the news. She really did look shockingly awful, but there was a beauty in the fact that she was determined to show up and get her message out anyway.

Good for her.

Rest in peace, Tammy Faye.:love:

[Vanessa White]

What a great interview with Larry King. It brought tears to my eyes. Who would have known that she would have been a symbol of acceptance for those of us here? I really believe she was just fully genuine, and just being who she really was. I will miss her and her presence. :'(:love:

[keltic63]

from the beliefnet interview:

But doesn’t the Bible condemn homosexuality?
The Bible says ‘Judge not lest ye be judged.’ Our lives are supposed to be hospitals, not courtrooms. Religious people today are courts and juries. When it comes down to it, Jesus died on the cross so that we could learn to love others like we love ourselves, not judge them or persecute them. Yet these people today who are supposed to be Christians are the first ones to pick up The Globe, The Star and The National Enquirer. And they are supposed to be good Christians?


.....People think that if they read something in the newspaper or see it on TV, it has to be true. Well, we invited journalists into our home and opened up to them and tried to give them the whole truth about PTL, but they came with their stories already written and their minds already made up. It’s funny--people used to throw Christians to the lions. Now they just throw them to the press.and from "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" :

“We’re all just people made out of the same old dirt, and God didn’t make any junk.” referring to the lgbt community.

[Dash]

:'( Oh... Sigh... I watched The Eyes of Tammy Faye a few months ago. I totally fell in love with her.

David, it must have been Saturday morning when we were looking at the news story, yes?...so I guess she had already taken flight by then.

Sweet Tammy...you sure got some lemons in life, but you made some sweet lemonade out of 'em. :love::'(

[Jamie McDaniel]

USA Today article
Tributes pour in for late 'PTL' host Messner (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-22-tammy-faye_N.htm)

...Messner's second husband, Roe, who was with her when she died, has carried out her final instructions "to the letter." That included having Rev. Randy McCain, an openly gay minister from the Open Door Community Church in Sherwood, Ark., conduct the private service.

[RedneckDyke]

My old coonhound was named Tammy Faye Barker. She died a couple weeks before Tammy Faye the person. I figure Tammy Faye And Tammy the dog are in heaven at my Granny's heavenly mansion. They are having sweet tea with Ladybird Johnson, Molly Ivins, and Anne Richards. They are the Southern Ladies planning on settin' thangs rahght(right).

[keltic63]

My old coonhound was named Tammy Faye Barker. She died a couple weeks before Tammy Faye the person. I figure Tammy Faye And Tammy the dog are in heaven at my Granny's heavenly mansion. They are having sweet tea with Ladybird Johnson, Molly Ivins, and Anne Richards. They are the Southern Ladies planning on settin' thangs rahght(right).


at one time, I had a dog named Tammy Faye Cock-a-Poo and yes, her eyelashes were FAAAB-U- LOUS! :D

[revtj]

We used to come in after our late-late night gay partying in 1980 -81 and Jim & Tammy Faye would be on tv. We loved to watch them and make fun of them. We always said Jim was gay and she was on pills. We turned out to be 85% correct (apparently he's bi with a preference for women; she went to rehab for Ativan)...I remember the night she told the audience the Lord spoke to her and told her not to wear waterproof mascara because he (that would be God the Father) wanted his people to see her tears. We roared. And we would count the number of times she would stumble ever so slightly in her heels while she sang gospel songs. That Ativan can whup up some Holy Spirit don't ya know!?

I never took her seriously until I saw the documentary "The Eyes of Tammy Faye (http://www.eyesoftammyfaye.com/)," narrated by RuPaul, at the LGBT Film Festival here about 7-8 years ago. It was wonderful. I fell in love with her and I finally felt I understood her. I did not realize she had talked about AIDS on PTL (http://youtube.com/watch?v=_pu39Pk26lQ&mode=related&search=) when most of us were still in the dark about it...I did not know that she, like Princess Di, touched an AIDS patient on camera at a time when people thought you could catch it from a mosquito bite.

After that I followed her on Larry King and realized she was different from Falwell and many other fundamentalists . I saw 2 things different about her that I don't often see in fundies..1) she loved, to the best of her ability, everyone unconditionally, and 2) she was willing to learn from her mistakes and laugh at herself -- she really didn't try to pretend she was holier, she freely admitted she was a mess.

I hope she sets a standard for fundamentalists and Pentecostals (and all Christians, really) for a long time to come.

This one's for you Tammy Faye :'(

[fromac6263]

I have been following Tammy Faye's life since the PTL club, but never had the respect for her until after the scandal of Heritage U.S.A. She is truly what a christian should act like and be like in every way. She is a evangelical evangalist BUT she is NO fundamentalist by a long shot. A lay man's term for a fundamentalist is: If you do not believe exactly what the fundamentalist believe in to the T word for word than you are wrong and your going to hell unless you repent and follow what they follow. That is VERY short definition of fundamentalism is. I'm a preachers kid who came from a conservative fundamentalist background and let me tell you, STRICT upbringing is a understatement for me. She will be missed always.

[revtj]

My definition of fundamentalist would be more expansive than yours, basing it in the history of fundamentalism in America beginning with Dwight Moody (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalist_Christianity) and the research of Martin Marty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Marty)...so in my opinion Tammy Faye is/was a fundamentalist, but there are good people in EVERY religious tradition!!!!

[tdogg]

My old coonhound was named Tammy Faye Barker. She died a couple weeks before Tammy Faye the person. I figure Tammy Faye And Tammy the dog are in heaven at my Granny's heavenly mansion. They are having sweet tea with Ladybird Johnson, Molly Ivins, and Anne Richards. They are the Southern Ladies planning on settin' thangs rahght(right).

Oh, I miss Molly Ivins!!!!!

[pnggrad79]

My old coonhound was named Tammy Faye Barker. She died a couple weeks before Tammy Faye the person. I figure Tammy Faye And Tammy the dog are in heaven at my Granny's heavenly mansion. They are having sweet tea with Ladybird Johnson, Molly Ivins, and Anne Richards. They are the Southern Ladies planning on settin' thangs rahght(right).

Redneck,
I am right there with ya, girl! Being from Texas, I know about sweet tea and Lady Bird. I love TEXAS but I wish they would come around to the 21st century and give us our "rahghts". Y'know what I'm sayin?:D

[Tinkerbell047]

Hold the presses... Tammy Faye died? When did this happen? GASP! That's terrible. And I sure didn't know that she was a GLBT supporter. Wow.

-Tink

[Sundance]

The Biography channel reran her Bio. There was also "Tammy Faye: Death Defying", on Women's Entertainment.

Surprisingly, many people don't know a lot about her.

Lots of great Tammy Faye footage and tributes on youtube. :)

I used to have some of her books but they're long since gone....

[sailaway58]

Well I have to say I had no idea Tammy had any affect on anyone other than the same effect you have when you go to a freak show.
I found her to be painfully annoying.
It goes to show you you never know who will have a positive affect on some one. It is nice to hear she was more to some than what I perceived.
I guess I never really got past the PTL days.
It is interesting reading these posts and seeing her from others eyes.