Park That PTL Built Rides Roller-Coaster of Success, Scandal

Billboards with the smiling faces of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker guide visitors along the 15 miles from Charlotte, N.C., to a woodsy, inspirational park here created by the scandal-blemished evangelist.

Once past the rustic sign announcing “Heritage USA, home of the PTL television network,” motorists drive on a winding road past dozens of Bradford pear trees whose bright white blossoms are just now turning into lime-green leaves.

Visitors can head for--among other attractions--campsites, tennis courts, miniature train rides, seasonal religious pageants or, reopening by Easter, the palm-bedecked Heritage Island that features slides, a 300-foot-long wave pool and a tube ride through rapids.

By amusement park standards, Disneyland and Knott’s it is not. But Heritage USA officials said the park drew 6.1 million people in 1986, which exceeds the number of visitors that year to Knott’s Berry Farm. In 1985, Heritage Park attendance was 4.9 million, compared to 1.2 million in 1982.

“This happens to be a marvelous idea. . . . Jim Bakker has to be credited with identifying a need. . . . a Christian vacation paradise,” exulted the new chairman of the $172-million PTL empire, the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

With his public admission of a sexual encounter with a New York church worker in 1980 and of paying hush money, Bakker announced March 19 that he was turning over PTL to Falwell to keep the ministry afloat--Raging Canyon Rapids tube ride and all.

Most observers say that regardless of the park’s appeal to conservative Christian families, its success is tied to the fate of the PTL network’s flagship talk show, which heavily promotes this 2,300-acre complex and is the ministry’s primary fund-raising vehicle.

With the departure of Jim and Tammy Bakker, the PTL program’s long-term prospects are uncertain. The show drew thousands of fans here each week in the past, mainly to see in person the boyish-looking Jim and the mascara-laden Tammy Faye. Others nationwide tuned in to watch and hear the Bakkers candidly describe their hopes and hurts on live TV each weekday.

Typical remarks from people visiting or staying at the 400-room luxury hotel here indicate that there is a deep reservoir of forgiveness for Bakker and his recently disclosed indiscretions.

But when the lights went out briefly at the hotel during a sudden rainstorm Friday night, “there was total panic” among the waitresses at one of the restaurants, said a waitress who did not want her name used.

“We thought this was a warning” from God, she said. “We all have been feeling bad that the Lord’s name has been torn down. I know we’re not supposed to judge others, but we’re disgusted at the whole thing.”

Still others are suspicious of Falwell, a conservative Baptist who is associating closely for the first time with a group that has been led by Pentecostals, whose brand of Christianity is much more emotional and expressive than that of fundamentalists.

“Don’t you think he just wants more power?” asked one young man who declined to be identified. PTL (which stands for Praise the Lord and People That Love) and Heritage USA, in eyes of many, cannot do without the presence of Jim and Tammy and yet would lose credibility if the pair made an early return.

Falwell made it clear after his first meeting Thursday with a board of big-name fundamentalist and Pentecostal leaders that the Bakkers have to stay away indefinitely while the board seeks to restore confidence in the operation.

Falwell, who is receiving no pay from PTL, pledged a policy of financial disclosure to the public, including the sources for a reported $265,000 paid in a settlement with Jessica Hahn, the woman with whom Bakker had the sexual liaison. Falwell’s news conference remarks were accompanied Thursday by the release of PTL figures for the last two fiscal years.

Uncertainty Over Projects

“We anticipate no financial crisis for this organization,” Falwell said.

Whether some projects are carried out, however, has yet to be decided, he said.

Bakker, who praised Robert Schuller for building the $19-million Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove despite a series of obstacles, broke ground Jan. 2--his 47th birthday--for a $100-million Crystal Palace. Bakker conceived it as a replica of an 1851 building in London and designed it to contain the “world’s largest church” (12,000 seats plus an adjoining 18,000-seat exhibition area) and a 5,000-seat TV studio.

A championship-level golf course, estimated to cost $3 million and to be built near outside-financed clusters of condominiums, is in abeyance.

The park does not charge admission, and many people just drive through for the sights. Ride tickets for attractions range for $1 for an antique car ride to $10 for a daylong adult admission to the water park.

The Falwell family of Lynchburg, Va., in fact, drove around the grounds once about two years ago while en route to Florida. “I don’t think they set foot out of their car,” an aide said.

But Jerry Falwell Ministries was one of several religious groups last year that contributed money (along with private companies) for the park’s annual Christmas decorations, which called for more than 1.5 million lights in 1986.

The Christmas Party, like many events at Heritage USA that have drawn some conservative Protestant criticism, mixes the spiritual and the secular. The amphitheater, also used for Passion plays before Easter, has Living Nativity pageants before Christmas. But elsewhere in the park are Candy Cane Lane, Gingerbread Village and Santa’s House and Workshop.

Nevertheless, a religious flavor pervades the park--from the Scripture-quoting wake-up call at the hotel, “This is the day which the Lord hath made. . . .” (Psalms 118:24), and paintings of Jesus in the rooms to nightly “camp meeting” services and tours of the restored childhood home of evangelist Billy Graham, once destined for destruction at its original Charlotte site.

Hotel rules prohibit smoking or drinking of alcoholic beverages in the rooms, restaurants and adjoining shopping mall. The closest thing to a wine and liquor list is the brochure at a mall store selling Tammy Faye Cosmetics. Lipstick shades include Sangria, Onyx Wine and Golden Brandy; creme blush comes in Sparkling Burgundy and eye shadow is available in Pink Champagne.

Although the park’s name hints of patriotic messages inside, Heritage USA is more God than country. Just inside the TV studio, for instance, is a Hall of Faith with portraits of Reformation leader Martin Luther and Methodism’s John Wesley alongside early 20th-Century preachers Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple McPherson.

Anointing Services

Anointing and communion services are held several times daily in the Upper Room, a building patterned after a site in Jerusalem traditionally held to be where the apostles experienced the Holy Spirit on the Jewish holiday of Pentecost. That event, described in the New Testament book of Acts, has special meaning for modern Pentecostals, who believe that they experience certain spiritual gifts by being baptized by the Spirit.

Anointing services in which oil is dabbed on a person’s forehead during prayer for healing--not a common rite in mainline churches--are held as late as 2 a.m.

“We had 15 people here last night,” said Pastor Louis Campbell, seated on one of the backless benches in the room. “Jim Bakker wanted a place where people could come at all hours.”

The social service side to the park includes residences for men seeking drug rehabilitation and for unwed mothers.

Linda Ivey, director of media services for the hotel, said PTL is often accused of taking the savings or hard-earned money of viewers giving “to the Lord’s work” and then using the money to build an amusement park and hotels.

But Ivey said the hotels and attractions are financed on a pay-as-you-go basis by contributors who give as much as $1,000 for those designated projects--and, in the case of the hotel, get to stay free three nights a year.

No similar fund-raising is used for the social projects. “It costs $24,000 a month to support the house for unwed mothers,” Ivey said.

One of the biggest expense items on the PTL budget is the $15 million spent, according to Ivey, on buying time for the PTL Club on 171 stations, including KHJ-TV in Los Angeles. PTL also sends its programming to 1,300 cable systems via satellite.

No Personnel Changes Planned

Falwell said last week that there are no plans to change any personnel at the complex, including the program host. That position is held by white-haired Richard Dortch, who moved from executive vice president to president after Bakker resigned. Dortch, the only holdover from the old PTL board, has come under fire because of allegations that he tried to cover up Bakker’s tryst and participated in negotiating the settlement.

“Last week, when the transition occurred,” Falwell told viewers of the PTL Club, “we had to be sure there would not be a gap here of any kind, not even a hiccup.”

Meanwhile, the PTL faithful who make this a vacation mecca are hoping, as indicated by random inquiries, that they will see the Bakkers again in the PTL’s TV studios.

Until then, they will have to be content with things the founders left behind, not the least of which are eight Tammy Faye record albums sold in the bookstore, “Der Bakker’s Bakery” and the Tammy Faye line of cosmetics and panty hose.