Jim Bakker, the televangelist who built a national broadcasting empire before scandal and a fraud conviction sent him to prison, has died. He was 86.
His wife, Lori Bakker, announced that he died on Monday, October 5th, in a statement shared through his ministry’s social media accounts.
“For 66 years, Jim gave his life to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” Lori wrote, remembering him as “my husband, my best friend.”
No cause of death was disclosed, Reuters reported. His family asked for prayers and privacy as they grieve.
PTL Expanded From a Talk Show to a Christian Theme Park
Born James Orson Bakker in Muskegon, Michigan, on January 2nd, 1940, he met Tammy Faye LaValley at North Central Bible College in Minneapolis. They married in 1961, left school and traveled the country as evangelists.
The couple entered television through Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network in the 1960s, making children’s programming before Jim became the first host of The 700 Club. In 1974, they established the PTL Satellite Network.
The PTL Club combined Jim’s sermons, Tammy Faye’s singing, interviews and appeals for viewer donations. The Associated Press put its peak audience at 13 million viewers.
The ministry also developed Heritage USA, a 2,300-acre Christian resort and theme park in Fort Mill, South Carolina. Hotels, recreation facilities and television studios became part of an operation that employed about 2,000 people.
The Fraud Case Centered on Promised Resort Stays
Bakker resigned from PTL in 1987 after a confidential payment involving church secretary Jessica Hahn became public. Hahn accused Bakker of sexually assaulting her during a 1980 encounter. He maintained that it was consensual. Ministry funds had been used in the settlement.
Federal investigators separately examined PTL’s sale of “lifetime partnerships” promising annual stays at Heritage USA. The scheme raised at least $158 million through roughly 153,000 partnerships with lodging benefits, according to the Fourth Circuit’s account of the case.
Bakker oversold those promises while diverting money to ministry expenses and an extravagant lifestyle. Most buyers never received the accommodation they had been promised, the court said.
A federal jury in Charlotte, North Carolina, convicted him on all 24 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy on October 5th, 1989, exactly 37 years before his death. His initial sentence was 45 years.
The appeals court upheld the convictions but ordered resentencing after finding that the trial judge’s religious remarks had compromised sentencing. The sentence was ultimately reduced to eight years, and Bakker left prison in 1994 after serving about four and a half years.
He Returned to Television With Lori Bakker
Tammy Faye divorced Bakker in 1992 while he was incarcerated. He later disavowed the prosperity-gospel message he had preached and published his 1996 memoir, I Was Wrong.
Bakker married Lori Beth Graham in 1998, and they launched The Jim Bakker Show in 2003. In 2008, production moved to Morningside, a development near Branson, Missouri. He and Tammy Faye had two children. He and Lori adopted five children in 2002.
In June 2021, Bakker and Morningside Church Productions settled a Missouri lawsuit alleging that the program falsely promoted Silver Solution as a COVID-19 remedy. They denied wrongdoing.
The agreement brought total consumer refunds to approximately $156,000, including money already repaid, according to the National Association of Attorneys General. It also barred them from advertising or selling the product as a treatment or cure for illness.
Andrew Garfield Played Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye
The Bakkers became recurring subjects of late-night comedy and Saturday Night Live parodies. Andrew Garfield played Jim opposite Jessica Chastain as Tammy Faye in the 2021 film The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Entertainment Weekly reported.
Michael Showalter directed the film, with a screenplay by Abe Sylvia. Chastain won the 2022 Academy Award for Best Actress for the performance. The film also won for makeup and hairstyling.