A Review of ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’

Since before ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ came out in 2021, the film (directed by Michael Showalter) has been on my watchlist. I was finally able to watch it last week. The film is a biopic that follows the late televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker (1942-2007) from her youth in Minnesota until after the collapse of her marriage to Jim Bakker and their collective empire’s implosion. The film is beautifully shot and captures all the camp and gaudiness of the 70s-80s televangelist world. Jessica Chastain delivered an award-worthy performance as Tammy Faye and is supported well by the rest of the cast. 

For those unfamiliar, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were household names in evangelicalism in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Coming from humble, charismatic beginnings in ministry, the Bakkers grew their empire by pioneering televangelism, particularly in starting the wildly successful PTL Club in 1974. If the Bakkers had continued in their success with no frustrations, the biopic would’ve been far less interesting. But as we know, every good biopic has a crash-and-burn. And my, how the mighty fell in this sad story. Because of financial mismanagement and Jim’s unfaithfulness, the Bakkers’ empire completely and publicly imploded. Jim ended up with a prison sentence and the marriage fell apart.

‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ does not obscure the charismatic roots and ministry of the Bakkers and the televangelism craze of the 80s and 90s. The Bakkers—especially Jim—were convinced that God had called them to a life of financial riches and luxury. The prosperity gospel plays a vast and vocal role in the film, especially in scenes between Jim and Tammy Faye. We see Jim Bakker asking his faithful followers to pledge more and more money to support the ministries. Bakker’s primary motivation in seeking this money was that he believed the Lord had told him to. Throughout the film, Tammy Faye seems to become more and more uncomfortable with this prosperity gospel. Maybe the best part about the movie is its unapologetic exposure of the sinister side of the prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel is unadulterated evil, a distortion of the gospel that purposefully drives people away from trust in the gospel revealed in Scripture. ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ rightly casts Bakker and his ilk as charlatans who are chiefly concerned with growing their own kingdoms over above the kingdom of God. The prosperity gospel does not lead to fulfillment in any way; in fact, it leads to spiritual emptiness and death that lead only to the second death.

While the film takes a journey away from the prosperity gospel, it ends up at a wrong destination. Sadly, ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ errs in its direction away from error. 

Tammy Faye has her own words from God, and the movie does a good job of displaying the tension between her’s and Jim’s competing visions. According to Tammy Faye, God told her that “God loves everybody, just the way they are.” As the movie progresses, it displays Tammy Faye as a heroine to those needing to simply “love themselves for who they are.” This thought process leads to Tammy Faye becoming accepting of unbiblical lifestyles. So Tammy Faye transitioned from the prosperity gospel to a different gospel: the gospel of self-love and unconditional acceptance of all lifestyles. The movie frames Tammy Faye’s theological transition away from the prosperity gospel to another false gospel as a triumphant realization rather than theological error. 

Disappointingly, ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ fails to display the emptiness that will come as a result of Tammy Faye’s gospel of self-love. This false religion is just as filled with error as the prosperity gospel. It’s true, God does love people as they are, but he calls them to repent of sinful lifestyles and desires, and grow in holiness. The gospel of God is not a gospel of self-love, but a gospel of self-denial, of repentance, and of a pursuit of biblical holiness.

Perhaps the largest error in the movie (and in the real lives of Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker), is their reliance on hearing audible words from God. Tomes have been written about the voice of God and his communication to his people, so I won’t wade too deeply into the discussion here. I will tell you that I believe that audible words from God are unnecessary for believers today, as we have a sufficient Scripture with a canon that has been closed. However, if God does speak to people, he would never speak a word that is contradictory to his given word in Scripture. As Voddie Baucham has said, “‘The Lord told me’ is no excuse for what the Bible says.” While Jim had a vision of prosperity and luxury, Tammy Faye had a vision of unconditional acceptance and inclusivity. Both visions and words from God did not have God as their source. We must measure all visions and audible words against Scripture, which is the norming norm of all Christian theology and belief. 

A lesson from this movie and the life of the Bakkers: Do not move from one error into another. If you are seeing issues in your theological system, search the Scriptures to find and shape your beliefs. I think the movie is a valuable film to watch, if only to get a look into the rise of a dark side of evangelicalism in the late 20th century. But beware of turning from one error to another, as Tammy Faye did. Let ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ be a motivation to turn to the Scriptures for your faith and theology.