Transcript for Inside Heritage USA, the Christian theme park dreamt up by Jim Bakker: Part 3
Are we in Los Angeles or Beverly hills? This is Los Angeles. It’s known as Westwood village. We’re here today with governor Ronald Reagan in his office in Los Angeles, California. By the late ’70s, early ’80s, televangelists as a whole had an enormous audience, and politicians could appreciate this. I believe we can deliver with god’s help, all the men quietly behind the scenes, 50 million voters. I believe that with all my heart. Well. They are television stars, these preachers. And they’ve created a brand-new political constituency. In this country right now, there’s a growing political movement. A coalition of evangelical Christians and conservative groups. The power of the televangelist became very evident during the elections. The evangelicals created a significant vote and the — the presidential candidates courted them. Just as we see today, the evangelical voter was a very attractive group of folks for any political candidate. So, Bakker was someone that politicians were courting. At ptl’s hometown newspaper, “The Charlotte observer,” two reporters disclosed that the ptl club collected $280,000 to set up a TV ministry in Korea, but used the money to pay other bills. “The observer” published a story that prompted an investigation by the federal communications commission. They were concerned that he was using public airwaves to go on and raise all this money for a charity. And was the money legitimately being spent on the charities? He made promises about supporting ministries in Brazil, ministries in Korea, ministry in the Middle East. And he’s running into financial trouble. So the money he promises to these ministries, doesn’t get to them. Ptl fought back. Eventually they created their own documentary. What they called a documentary. In 1979 the FCC launched a massive inquiry into the internal operations of ptl. We do not want this church or any other church destroyed or intimidated by the government. It’s not that they’re really investigating ptl. They’re trying to investigate god. Nobody is forcing us to give the money. We want to give it. And whatever way Jim Bakker feels he has to spend it, for the word of god, that’s good enough for me. Even if he spends it for his own mansion, I couldn’t care less. All I know, that if he does anything he shouldn’t do with the money, he’s in trouble with god. What’s going to happen to ptl in the next five years? Well, we have a lot of friends. We have more friends than enemies. I, Ronald Reagan. Do faithfully swear I will execute the office of president of the United States. Eventually the FCC dropped their investigation. They said there was not enough evidence and they voted to close it. It starts during the Carter administration, um, and it ends during the Reagan administration. And that’s probably not a coincidence. The ptl TV network is setting out a master plan for people who love. Well, Jim Bakker took that as vindication. They looked into it. There’s nothing here. There’s no there, there. Let’s go. Let’s raise more money and let’s get bigger and bigger. And that’s exactly what happened. You know, Tammy, $15 a month is 50 cents a day. That’s small when you think about it. It’s just soft drink or a couple of candy bars. You could give up one of those tabs. And I’d gladly do it. In many ways, the federal communication investigation was kind of a — a practice run for what Bakker would later be accused of on a much bigger scale. This shows the location where we are right now. We’re actually sitting right here. The income from the satellite network allowed Bakker to launch his third big innovation which was creating a Christian disneyland on the border of north and South Carolina. What became heritage usa. Bakker says he doesn’t mind the label “Christian disneyworld” as a description of his plans to create a place where ptl members can vacation with inspiration. Bakker had always been fascinated by Walt Disney. He sat back and said, “Why can’t we have a Christian version of disneyland?” I had a vision and a plan, and I was a man with fire inside of me to do something for the Christian world. It had a big hotel. Little shops, a big waterpark. We didn’t have an ocean, so we brought the ocean to heritage usa. It was meant for families. Well, especially with the waterpark. That was wildly popular. It’s taken three years. They laughed when I started it. Some of the critics called it “Jim Bakker’s folly.” This park will be open and it will be paid for. They put in a water park. This is about a $6 million water park with the slides. We’re the first Christians to ever have a wave pool. We’re the first Christians to ever build an amusement park. We are fishers of men and this is the bait. Another part of the ptl experience that people came really from around the world to be a part of was the passion play. It was done in an incredible panoramic outdoor amphitheater that was built just for that. And the park is officially open. We were trying to build the best theme park for families in this country. We had more than Mickey mouse. We had salvation. Top that. Heritage usa in the ’80s becomes the third biggest theme park in America. Right next to disneyland and disneyworld. As part of heritage usa, Bakker decided that he needed to build a giant hotel complex. 500 room hotel, “The heritage grand.” And soon after, decided to build a tower with another 500 rooms. So he had a lot of money to raise. You say, “Jim, why would you build the tower when you need money to finish the grand?” Because if you don’t expand and you don’t keep growing, you can’t go forward. The problem was how to finance such a big project. And at this point, Bakker did something brilliant. When you give your $1,000 gift, you’ll receive a special membership card that will allow you to stay here in the heritage grand for four days and three nights every year for the rest of your life. He invented gospel timeshare, you could say. That was a pretty good deal. And people bought up the partnerships like hot cakes. Even I bought one of the rooms, which I have never stayed in. I mean, that was actually a great deal if he had been able to — to live up to it. Problem is, there were way too many people giving $1,000. Not nearly enough hotel rooms. When people started cashing in, wanting to come stay and use their $1,000 lifetime partnerships, there wasn’t room at the inn. He sold more than 66,000 lifetime partnerships in the heritage grand. Which amounted to more than 100% occupancy in that hotel. They had the ear and the heart of a huge portion of the American public. It was then a stunner, a shock when suddenly there were some revelations that nobody could
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
