Televangelists’ son rallies voters against Amendment One

The son of televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker led a rally to encourage voters to cast ballots against the anti-gay marriage referendum in North Carolina.

Jay Bakker appeared on April 22 in a get-out-the-vote rally in Durham. He said though his parents didn’t always bring favorable attention to North Carolina, they taught him that Jesus’ message was to love others.

Bakker grew up near Charlotte watching his parents run the Praise The Lord ministry, which collapsed in scandal the late 1980s. His father went to prison and his mother remarried and became a television personality who embraced gay men living with HIV/AIDS. She died in 2007.

Jay Bakker now runs a ministry in New York City and says people north of the Bible Belt are watching to see what happens May 8 in North Carolina.

Several religious leaders also joined the rally that drew about 100 people.

Organizers say the rally at the Trotter Building focused on the harms of the proposed constitutional amendment, which would identify traditional marriage as the only domestic legal union recognized by the state.

After the 1 p.m. rally, people marched to the polls to take advantage of Sunday voting during the early voting period.

For more on the North Carolina measure, click here.

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