When Grace Speaks Louder Than Scandal
Now Shawn Bolz Is Exposed — Will the Church Choose Stones or Love?
I remember in the 1980s when Jim Bakker’s sexual immorality and financial wrongdoing came to public light.
I also remember how almost everywhere I went, professing Christians talked about him: “What a liar.” “What a hypocrite.” “False prophet!” “What a pervert.” “He deserves what’s coming.” “I hope he learns his lesson.” “How could he?”
Before he went to prison, I once saw him at the post office where I lived. I watched as people turned one after another, sneering at him and speaking curses under their breath.
After Jim Bakker got out of prison (his wife divorced him while he was incarcerated), I heard him share something heartbreaking: not one Christian visited him. Instead, he received hate mail from people who claimed to follow Christ.
Except for one day.
While he was in prison, wearing rubber gloves and boots as he cleaned toilets, he received a call saying he had a visitor. He wondered, “Who could it be? All the Christians hate me, and even my own family has turned away.”
He removed his gloves and boots, washed up, and went to the visiting area. To his shock, standing there was Billy Graham.
Yes, this is true.
Billy Graham was the only Christian who chose to show Jim Bakker love in the middle of his failure. He visited him multiple times. And the story doesn’t end in shame — it ends in redemption.
Jim Bakker is a radically changed man today. He repented and was transformed by the grace of Jesus Christ. Jim shared that when he was finally released from prison, no one came to meet him… except Billy Graham.
Billy was waiting outside the prison gates to take him home and have Thanksgiving dinner with the Graham family.
Jesus said: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)
And also: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”
