Posted by:
Nancy Rigdon
(
)
Date: July 14, 2012 11:40AM
Some of you may recall the saga of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker who were televangelists from the southeast US. Their multi-million dollar tax-exempt “ministry” was called PTL, or Praise The Lord.
From Wikipedia: “By the early 1980s, the Bakkers had built Heritage USA in Fort Mill, South Carolina, (south of Charlotte), then the third most successful theme park in the US, and a satellite system to distribute their network 24 hours a day across the country. Contributions requested from viewers were estimated to exceed $1 million a week, with proceeds to go to expanding the theme park and mission of PTL.
Heritage USA opened in 1978, and by 1986 had become one of the top vacation-destinations in the US, behind only Walt Disney World and Disneyland. It attracted nearly 6 million visitors annually and employed 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.”
Eventually, a sex scandal and accounting fraud led to the dissolution of PTL and the imprisonment of Bakker. At the time, TBMs loved to poke fun at the PTL ministry. PTL (Praise The Lord) became known as “Pass The Loot.”
Now that the great and spacious Jesus Mall, and other for-profits of TSCC have been exposed, LDS should be known as
“Let’s Do Shopping”
“Latter-Day SHOPPING”
“the LORD DOTH SHOP”
your ideas???