Jim Bakker, disgraced former host of The PTL Club, is being sued by the state of Missouri for selling a bogus coronavirus cure called Silver Solution. After spending five years in prison for defrauding his followers out of $158 million to support a lavish and immoral lifestyle (including the famous air-conditioned doghouse), Bakker launched a new career with The Jim Bakker Show. He sells survival food and equipment for preppers who, we suppose, plan to hide from the Antichrist. Bakker also has been selling Silver Solution, though it has conveniently disappeared from his web site. This is one of the many brands of colloidal silver (tiny silver particles suspended in a liquid) that are marketed as a health product. On his Feb. 12 broadcast, Bakker’s guest Sherrill Sellman, a “natural health expert,” said, “It has been tested on other strains of the coronavirus and has been able to eliminate it within 12 hours. Totally eliminate it. Kills it. Deactivates it. Silver Solution has been proven by the government that it has the ability to kill every pathogen it has ever been tested on, including SARS and HIV” (“Missouri Sues Televangelist,” NPR.org, Mar. 11, 2020). Four 4-ounce bottles are a mere $80. On its very face, Silver Solution has all the hallmarks of snake oil quackery by claiming to be a cure for just about anything. Not only does it kill bacteria and viruses, it boosts the immune system, and is an effective treatment for cancer, arthritis, diabetes, and other things. Bringing everything back to reality and bursting the Silver Solution bubble, the Mayo Clinic says, “Colloidal silver isn’t considered safe or effective for any of the health claims manufacturers make. Silver has no known purpose in the body. Nor is it an essential mineral, as some sellers of silver products claim. It’s not clear how much colloidal silver may be harmful, but it can build up in your body’s tissues over months or years. Most commonly, this results in argyria (ahr-JIR-e-uh), a blue-gray discoloration of your skin, eyes, internal organs, nails and gums. While argyria doesn’t usually pose a serious health problem, it can be a cosmetic concern because it doesn’t go away when you stop taking silver products. Rarely, excessive doses of colloidal silver can cause possibly irreversible serious health problems, including kidney damage and neurological problems such as seizures. Colloidal silver products may also interact with medications” (mayoclinic.org). So silver won’t cure coronavirus, but it might turn your skin blue if you want to look like a Martian! Since it appears that Bakker no longer sells Silver Solution, you can always get the Keto Hydrolyzed Collagen Powder or the Fermented Green Supremefood made of fermented vegetables and grasses and enzymes. Bakker’s wife and former co-host of the PTL Club, Tammy Faye, divorced Jim while he was in prison and married Roe Messner, an old family friend whose company helped build PTL’s Heritage USA resort complex. She had a second wind evangelistic ministry, too, before she died in 2008.
(Friday Church News Notes, May 15, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)