Catch a Falling Star

Don't Pray the Biscuits Cold

Upon arriving in Charlotte, N.C. from Daytona Beach, Fla. in 1978 as a budding PR executive in the sport of NASCAR stock car racing, I received a daily dose of satirical humor from a colorful local morning radio personality who would- during each  morning drive- do a well produced skit about the phenomena of televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and their immensely successful  TV show "PTL( Praise the Lord) Club".  The skit was titled "Pass the Loot."

I had no  prior familiarity with the "PTL Club" which happened to be based and produced just down the road in Fort Mill, S.C., nor with Jim Bakker. The satire of this irreverent and humorous skit just served to reinforce a growing and prevailing secular attack  on organized religion generally and Christianity specifically.  My chance meeting with Jim Bakker less than two  years later would do nothing to debunk this less than Holy image portrayed by the media.

In my first days in Charlotte, I was PR Director for a company called DiGard Racing which built and fielded the #88 Chevrolet sponsored by the Gatorade brand, owned by Stokely- Van Camp and driven by Darrell Waltrip.  Subsequently I was hired by Charlotte Motor Speedway in their Marketing & PR department where one of my primary responsibilities was to produce and direct the Pre-Race shows for the two Major NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National races.

It was at the 1979 World 600 Pre-Race Show where I  would have my encounter with Mr. Bakker. The Pre-Race Show for a NASCAR race is the equivalent of an NFL Halftime Show except it comes before the event. A successful pre-race show will involve all the elements of a classic P.T. Barnum 3 ring circus.  The promotion as such will be designed to influence the spectators to arrive early at the track to accomplish 2 objectives: reduce traffic congestion and boost concession sales.

The challenge to the producer is to keep things flowing into a final crescendo culminating with an Invocation and National Anthem, followed by the command "Gentlemen (and perhaps Lady(s)) Start Your Engines" on time! For the 1979 World 600 I was informed by my boss H. A. "Humpy" Wheeler, -who was a modern day P.T. Barnum in his own right- that Jim Bakker would be saying the invocation this particular Sunday.

For this show I had already decided to enlist the US Navy's Chuting Stars parachute team to bring in the colors via the air during and as part of the performance of the National Anthem.  To accomplish this objective it would take precision coordination from ground to air with a small degree of flexibility.  So as fate would have it, coming to conclusion we were a bit behind schedule.  As I approached Mr. Bakker with the PA microphone I implicitly directed him to "make it short and compact and cut his time."

Well, I must have been speaking a foreign language. Jim Bakker commenced to- as we are fond of characterizing in my different fellowships- "pray the biscuits cold."  As the time was winding down the jumpers had exited their plane planning to land the flag before the main grandstands at the start/finish line. They had to buy time as Mr. Bakker's seemingly endless prayer went on. There was nothing I as director could do. One does not interrupt or cut-off a preacher in mid-prayer.  As it turned out the Navy skydivers landed haphazardly around the Speedway.  I would learn later that one young man landed on the third turn banking and broke his ankle.  To this day I have a framed picture hanging in my living room that has signatures from all the jumpers except one blank space where our wayward skydiver would have signed except he was at hospital being treated.  I have always wondered about that wayward sailor as I gaze at this treasured gift.

Amen Brother

Bradford Bosworth
September, 2016