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Thursday, December 14, 2006

One Punk Under God


NEW YORK (AP) -- He was born into the glare of televangelist parents Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Then the "Praise the Lord" empire collapsed in scandal. His father went to jail for fraud.

Jay Bakker spent his teens in the darkness, rebelling and bent on self-destruction from alcohol and drugs.

But now, with his 31st birthday next week, this tattooed, multi-pierced pilgrim is on a righteous path: preaching God's grace to a flock of young, downtrodden and disillusioned parishioners most any other church would turn away.

Jay is the focus of "One Punk Under God: The Prodigal Son of Jim & Tammy Faye," a reality series about the back-to-basics church he calls Revolution, which, notwithstanding his decade-long sobriety, holds services in an Atlanta bar.