Son of a Preacher Man: My Search for Grace in the Shadows
By any standard, Jay Bakker has had it rough. The son of Jim and Tammy  Faye Bakker, Jay was only 11 years old when his parents' empire collapsed and  his family was vilified as the epitome of televangelism's excesses. Jay Bakker's  autobiography,Son of a Preacher Man, unflinchingly addresses all of his  family's major scandals, including his father's affair with Jessica Hahn and his  mother's battle with drug addiction. Bakker also reveals that by age 13, he had  developed a serious drinking problem, and that was only the beginning of a long  period of rebellion that intensified during his father's years in prison. After  his father's release, Jim and Jay began to rebuild their relationship, and Jay,  though still struggling with alcoholism, discerned a calling to ministry. After  several false starts he built a ministry to young people in Atlanta called  Revolution. As a minister, Bakker's main interest is in the kids that churches  overlook--the pierced, tattooed, smoking, drinking kind. The message of this  ministry, like the message of this book, is simple: "Jesus loves you for who you  are, not who you can become." Bakker says that he still works every day to learn  that lesson, and to pass it on to others, as he does with some eloquence inSon of a Preacher Man.--Paul Power