Do you think Christians have a corner on the market of God?

Absolutely not. No. They think they do, but they don't. [Mischievous giggle.]

Anybody can come to God, anybody. God loves a person who is not a Christian just as much as he loves Billy Graham. Just as much as he loves Oral Roberts. Just as much as he loves these great men of God, he loves that person that he still wants to bring to him. So nobody has a corner on God. We're all exactly the same in God's eyes.

What about if you don't accept Jesus Christ as your savior, are you going to hell?

Yes. Oooh yes.

Even if you live a righteous life?

Oh yes, because it's not by work lest any man should boast, the Bible says. You have to come to Jesus. You have to come to him. And that's a choice. So, he loves us whether we come to him or not, but there is a consequence to pay if we don't come to him and that's going to hell. I believe in hell.

So Jerry Falwell ...

He can be forgiven. Jerry Falwell, if he's asked God to forgive him for what he did, then he's right with God again.

But if he lives this cruel and crooked life, which you have experienced, and I, who am not Christian, live a perfectly upright life, then am I going straight to hell and yet he gets to go to heaven?

See, honey .. [pausing to bite into a cookie] God doesn't do it that way. The way God says is if you come to God, he will in no way cast you out. It doesn't make any difference if you're Jewish, if you're Catholic. If you love God and you've asked God to be a part of your life then it's not works, it's not anything else that you've done, or haven't done, it just ends at the cross.

Switching tacks a little bit ... I didn't know this until I saw the documentary "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," but you really were quite progressive when it comes to the gay rights movement. How do you reconcile that with the fundamentalist Christian stuff?

Because I think that's the way Jesus would be. He loves everybody. I think Jesus loves the rascals. [Laughs mischievously.]

Was there any backlash? I mean, the clip that's shown in "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," where you're interviewing the fellow who has AIDS and you're crying because no one will embrace him. When was that, in the '80s?

Yeah, that was way back. And people wouldn't even walk into the same room as someone with AIDS. They wouldn't even breathe the same air. Wouldn't even hug 'em. That's awful.

It is awful. What was the reaction when you did shows like that? Did anyone ever try to stop you?

They never tried to stop me, which was very interesting. I wouldn't have stopped anyway, but they never tried to.

You're not wearing a wig now, are you?

No, this is my hair.

I got the impression from the book that you never went out without a wig on.

Well, I didn't and then all of a sudden my hair began to grow under my wig and when I took it off I thought, "I don't need these wigs anymore." I just started sticking my hair up and letting it go. I washed it last night, which was a very daring thing on a trip, because it only looks good if it's real dirty.

Well, it looks great now. You must have rolled in dirt.

Thank you.

So are you done with wigs? This is a news flash.

No, I'm not done with wigs, but I'm not gonna wear one unless I have to. If it's raining outside, I might put one on because you can take it off and just shake it and put it back on and look great. You can't do that with your own hair.

What motivated you to become a preacher?

It was sort of an accident. I mean, there are no accidents with God, I know, but people always ask me how I do the will of God for my life and I couldn't tell them, I don't know. I think you just get out and start doing something, if it works, it's God's will and if it doesn't ... [Laughs] Everybody's on his own for that.

Are you still in touch with Jim Bakker?

Oh yeah. Jim and [his new wife] Lori live in Branson, and Jim's back on television also. Not long ago, the grandkids graduated from their middle school and Jim and Lori came and Roe and I were there and we all laughed and had a really good time together. We all get along just fine, which is wonderful because I was married to Jim for 30 years so why not be friends?

Did you ever consider living a very private life after all your troubles and not going back out into the spotlight?

Oh, I tried until he [her friend Joe, across the table] came along. He literally pulled me back into my work again. He said, "Tammy, it's not right that you sit back here and don't do anything, because the people need you. They need you back." And he was doing big flea markets at the time. Beautiful big flea markets. And he said, "I'll tell you what, you try it. You come to my flea market, you sing, and you autograph pictures, you talk to the people, and let's see how you feel doing that." And when I went to that flea market it was totally, like, overwhelmingly awesome what happened. And [tearing up] I've been back ever since.

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