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Premiering tonight on the Sundance Channel is a six part reality series about a tattooed, pierced alterna-preacher Jay Bakker, called One Punk Under God. As the only son of TV evangelical preachers Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Jay had a pretty troubled childhood what with the scandals over Jim's illicit affair and accounting fraud, the Bakkers subsequent divorce and Jay's descent into substance abuse. However, now Jay has his life more on track with a marriage and a commitment to running his church, Revolution which holds its non-denominational services in a bar. The series follows Jay's attempts to reconnect with his estranged father, care for his mother who's battling cancer and move Revolution from Atlanta to Williamsburg, Brooklyn when his wife gets into grad school.
What makes this show compelling viewing is when it focuses on Jay telling stories to his congregants about his past and struggles to find God. Usually when kids do that 180 rebellion from their conservative parents with body art and drugs, they don't end up coming back to the fold. But for Jay, his sense of conviction in the power of faith is pretty remarkable even to a cynical, urban TV viewer. In one scene in tonight's episode, he holds a packed bar rapt as he preaches. Afterwards, you can just see how moved the audience was by his honesty about his problems and the comfort he finds in religion. We also see Jay travel back to the now dilapidated Heritage, USA, a crazy elaborate theme park for Christianity run by his parents where Jay spent many childhood days, and are introduced to Jay's adorable wife, Amanda, an opinionated nurse with Run Lola Run electric red hair.
The producers of the series also made a great documentary about Jay's mom, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, so we expect good things from the rest of the episodes which run through January on Wednesdays at 9 pm. You can download the first episode for free on iTunes.
Daniel Radosh wrote a Talk of the Town piece in The New Yorker about Jay when he first moved his church to Williamsburg. Jay Bakker also wrote a book in 2001 about his experiences aptly titled, Son of a Preacher Man.
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a punk christian is like a Jewish Nazi. that shit don't make no sense.
how so?
So he's exploiting his family history the way his parents exploited their religion? Nice!
Isn't there anyone left who can feel validated and worthy without starring in a reality show?
Reminded me of that NY Times story about the documentary where the guy paid for a new religion to be created...
">Seeking Entry-Level Prophet: Burning Bush and Tablets Not Required
By MICHAEL LUO
Published: August 28, 2006
The help-wanted ad had the whiff of a practical joke. “Documentary will pay you $5,000 to start your own religion,” it said. “No exp. necessary.”
“I laughed out loud,” said Joshua Boden, 35, a bald-headed bassist in an indie rock band, the Angelic Bombs, who stumbled across the ad in the Village Voice last spring.
But Mr. Boden, whose friends have long urged him to write down some of the bits of pop religion and philosophy that he has developed over the years, said his curiosity was piqued. He went to the corresponding Web site and dashed off an application.
As it turned out, the advertisement was seeking participants for a very real, albeit unusual, social experiment: take $5,000 to start your own religious movement, in exchange for allowing a film crew to follow you around as you try to get under way.
The project, while certainly amusing to some, is intended to examine a serious set of questions about how religious movements begin and take hold. “It’s not cynical or skeptical,” said Andy Deemer, 33, an independent filmmaker who hatched the idea. “Ultimately, I want the project to be interfaith and supporting different faiths.”
etc...
I admit that when I first saw an ad for this series (I think on a bus or something), I found it tacky and seemingly exploitive, but reading more about it, I do think he has a valuable story to tell.
The fact that he went through what he did and still finds faith in God is really intriguing. I would love for more churches to meet in bars and talk frankly about spirituality and faith that is messy, irreverent, and healing at the same time. I think faith needs to be less about appearances (which is what his parents had portrayed) and be more about "being real"...so yes, it's possible to be a punk and a Christian at the same time.
I admit that when I first saw an ad for this series (I think on a bus or something), I found it tacky and seemingly exploitive, but reading more about it, I do think he has a valuable story to tell.
The fact that he went through what he did and still finds faith in God is really intriguing. I would love for more churches to meet in bars and talk frankly about spirituality and faith that is messy, irreverent, and healing at the same time. I think faith needs to be less about appearances (which is what his parents had portrayed) and be more about "being real"...so yes, it's possible to be a punk and a Christian at the same time.
I don't know the guy and probably won't watch the show, but at the risk of coming off as a cynical buzzkill I'd be wary of anyone named Bakker "finding God." Other than "finding God to be a pretty quick vehicle for generating a load of cash."
In his father's case, through his disgraced ministry. In his case, though the joy and beauty of reality TV.
Nature vs. nurture and all that.
It's intriguing. I'd like to hear more about his beliefs, so I'll hang in there for a while.
One tacky questions, though...they have a really nice apartment, how do they afford that?
God is dead