BLUE EYE, Mo. -- Televangelist Jim Bakker, the defrocked former Assemblies of God minister and convicted felon, will air at least two programs later this month featuring potential Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.
Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor, taped the shows Tuesday in Blue Eye, Mo., population 167, roughly 2 miles north of the Arkansas state line.
On Saturday, Huckabee, 59, severed ties with Fox News so he could weigh another White House bid.
Huckabee, who carried eight states and collected more than 4 million votes during the 2008 Republican presidential primary season, came within 10,000 votes of winning Missouri that year and swept all of its southernmost counties.
During Tuesday's taping, he promoted his forthcoming book God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy, and discussed numerous topics, including Christianity, corporal punishment and concealed-weapons permits.
Huckabee criticized the nation's capital and the politicians who live there, adding, "There's only one address in Washington that I would be willing to live at" -- 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
He said Americans are more divided by faith than by finances.
"The biggest gap [that] there is in America is not economic; the gap is spiritual and cultural," Huckabee said.
Bakker, 75, who said he hopes that Huckabee wins the White House, called Tuesday's interview "one of my great moments" as a Christian talk-show host.
"You've got to read the book. Order it today. It's hot off the presses," Bakker said as he looked into the cameras. "It will give you hope for America."
Bakker told viewers that they could obtain the book by calling the ministry's toll-free number.
During the interview, he also touched on apocalyptic problems.
The televangelist teaches that the end of the world is approaching and sells what he calls "survival items" on his website and at his ministry compound.
On Tuesday, he talked extensively about Chapter 2 in Huckabee's book: "Guns and Why We Have Them," speculating that the Holocaust happened because Jews didn't have enough firepower. He also wanted to know Huckabee's stance on protecting the nation's power grid and preparing for electromagnetic pulses.
"If the grid goes down, 95 percent of America could die," Bakker warned.
After the interviews, people were able to buy end-times products, including buckets of dehydrated food and copies of The Practical Prepper's Guide to Disaster Preparedness. Foldable solar panels were also available for a $450 "love gift" to the ministry.
The 150 people who watched the taping gave Huckabee a standing ovation. Dozens lined up afterward to buy autographed copies of his book, which is officially scheduled to be released on Jan. 20.
Buyers received the book with a "Happy New Year" card and a recipe for Corn Grits Casserole (it suggests using smoked gouda cheese; jalapenos are optional.)
Decades ago, Bakker led one of the nation's largest television ministries, overseeing a ministry with annual revenue that exceeded $100 million and a Christian theme park near Charlotte, N.C.
His daily program, the PTL Club [for Praise the Lord] attracted celebrities, and American presidential candidates in the 1970s and 1980s courted his support.
He resigned in March 1987 in the midst of a sex and money scandal, and his denomination stripped him of his preaching credentials two months later. The Assemblies of God said Bakker's dismissal was based on his confession of a sexual encounter with church secretary Jessica Hahn and his alleged bisexual activity, according to media reports at the time. Bakker was later convicted of 24 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy for bilking his supporters in a time-share scheme. He served five years for his crimes.
While he was behind bars, his wife Tammy Faye Bakker divorced him.
After his prison release, he wrote a book titled I Was Wrong: The Untold Story of the Shocking Journey from PTL Power to Prison and Beyond. He married the former Lori Beth Graham, a counselor and fellow Pentecostal.
He also returned to religious broadcasting, eventually launching Morningside. The ministry, a short drive from Branson, sits on 700 acres, according to its website. The "thriving Christian community" includes a television studio, restaurant, gift store, RV park, campground and condominiums.
Ministry officials said Bakker would not be granting newspaper interviews Tuesday.
Huckabee, who now lives in Florida, could not be reached for comment. His spokesman, Alice Stewart, declined to say how Huckabee feels about Bakker's past.
"All I can say is they had a wonderful visit today," Stewart said. "Jim and his wife, Lori, could not have been more gracious and welcoming. The governor has really enjoyed the opportunity to talk about his book and, to be honest, he was very flattered that they'd gone to such great lengths to read the book, dog-ear the book, highlight the pages."
The Jim Bakker Show goes out on Dish TV, the Dish Network and 50 television affiliates, according to its website and Facebook page.
During the 2008 campaign, Huckabee appeared on Fort Worth televangelist Kenneth Copeland's program repeatedly and spoke at churches in key primary states on the eve of elections. A Huckabee fundraiser, attended by prominent TV preachers, was held at Copeland's ministry headquarters shortly before the Super Tuesday primaries, reportedly raising more than $100,000.
Asked if Huckabee will be appearing with other televangelists, Stewart said similar events may be part of the "huge media rollout" for the book that begins later this month.
"The faith community is a great audience for this book. I mean God is the first word in the title of the book, so obviously we're going to target God-fearing readers," she said.
Hal Bass, a political science professor at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, said it's logical for Huckabee to accept these types of invitations. "It's a matter of going where there's an audience," Bass said Tuesday.
Even though he had strong evangelical backing in 2008, "Huckabee can't take Christian conservatives for granted," Bass added.
Some Christians question whether it will help Huckabee to appear with Bakker.
"On Religion" columnist Terry Mattingly covered PTL, including a stint while working for the Charlotte Observer. He says Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were "the first domino that fell in the Great Pearly Gate Scandal of the 1980s" -- a series of sexual and financial meltdowns that claimed several prominent ministries.
"They were the poster children for the health and wealth movement, the prosperity gospel, on the white side of the church fence," said Mattingly. The movement teaches that God wants all Christians to live long and prosper, and that worldly riches come to those with sufficient faith.
"I can't see anything to be gained from a mainstream evangelical being associated with Bakker," Mattingly said.
The Jim Bakker Show audience members, on the other hand, welcomed the alliance.
Mary Ann Armstrong, a 63-year-old retired nurse, traveled up from Berryville to see Huckabee on Tuesday. If elected, Huckabee would take good people skills and "a sense of righteousness to the White House," she said. "He gets his point across, but he's not so aggressively forceful that he offends people."
Gerald Stewart, 88, who traveled from Springfield, Mo., to hear Huckabee, called the Republican "a wonderful Christian statesman."
We're praying that if it's God's will, he will run and he will win," the retired Greyhound bus driver said.
A section on 01/07/2015