Jim Bakker, PTL Televangelist, Dies at 86
Jim Bakker, the television evangelist who built a Christian broadcasting empire before scandal and a federal fraud conviction brought it down, died Monday near Branson, Missouri. He was 86.
His wife, Lori Bakker, announced the death in a ministry statement. No cause was disclosed. She called him a “pioneer of Christian television” and said he had devoted 66 years to preaching the Gospel.
Bakker rose to national prominence beside his first wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, on “The PTL Club.” Their ministry grew from a television program into a fundraising operation and Heritage USA, a 2,300-acre religious theme park in Fort Mill, South Carolina. At its peak, Reuters reported, PTL reached 13 million viewers and collected $129 million a year.
The empire collapsed in 1987 after Bakker resigned amid revelations of a sexual encounter with church secretary Jessica Hahn and a $265,000 payment made with ministry funds. Federal prosecutors later accused him of selling more lodging partnerships at Heritage USA than the ministry could honor.
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A jury convicted Bakker in 1989 on 24 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. He received a 45-year prison sentence, which was later reduced, and served about five years. Tammy Faye divorced him while he was incarcerated. She died in 2007.
Bakker rejects prosperity gospel
After leaving prison in 1994, Bakker rejected the prosperity gospel he once preached and wrote “I Was Wrong.” He married Lori in 1998 and returned to television in 2003 with “The Jim Bakker Show,” filmed in the Ozarks near Branson.
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Controversy followed him. Missouri authorities sued Bakker in 2020 over claims that a product called Silver Solution could treat COVID-19. The case ended with refunds to consumers and restrictions on how the product could be marketed.
Bakker suffered a stroke in 2020 but remained a divisive figure in religious broadcasting until his death at 86.
–Dwight Widaman
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With our SI research assistant.
