Televangelist Jim Bakker, Who Built and Lost the PTL Empire, Dies at 86
Jim Bakker, who with his first wife Tammy Faye built the PTL Club into a televangelism empire before a sex scandal and financial crimes brought it down, has died at 86, his second wife Lori announced.
Jim Bakker, who with his first wife Tammy Faye built one of the most influential evangelical broadcasting empires in the United States before a sex scandal and financial crimes destroyed it, has died at 86. His second wife, Lori Bakker, announced the death in a statement, saying he died Monday. The cause of death was not immediately clear.
«He was a pioneer of Christian television, but to me, he was my husband, my best friend, and the man I was honored to walk beside through so many seasons of life and ministry,» Lori Bakker said. The couple lived near the Missouri entertainment town of Branson, where they filmed «The Jim Bakker Show» since its launch in 2003. Bakker suffered a stroke in 2020.
It was an earlier program that made Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker cultural icons. At its peak in the mid-1980s, their ministry included «The PTL Club» — PTL stood for «Praise the Lord» — which drew up to 13 million nightly viewers and brought in millions of dollars annually from followers. The show featured chats with guests and Christian entertainers, with Bakker offering upbeat sermons while Tammy Faye, charismatic and known for her trademark heavy mascara, sang. Most episodes were taped at their sprawling complex just south of Charlotte, North Carolina. The ministry also included the Christian-themed Heritage USA theme park and hotel in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
The couple became so famous that they were frequently parodied by late-night comedians for their lavish lifestyle and Tammy Faye's abundant makeup, and they were skewered on «Saturday Night Live.» A theatrical film on their lives, «The Eyes of Tammy Faye,» was released in September 2021.
Bakker was born in Muskegon, Michigan, and attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, where he met Tammy Faye. They married in 1961 and dropped out of college to start their own traveling ministry — he preached while she sang and played the accordion as they crossed the country visiting churches and tent revivals. They caught the attention of televangelist Pat Robertson, and in 1965 launched a children's show on Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. By 1966, Bakker was hosting «The 700 Club,» a Christian talk show. He left CBN in 1972 and two years later formed the PTL Satellite Network, with «The PTL Club» becoming its signature program.
In March 1987, the empire began to crack when Bakker admitted to a sexual encounter with church clerk Jessica Hahn. He was forced to resign from his own ministry, turning over operations to pastor and broadcaster Jerry Falwell. Tammy Faye stuck by Bakker, often with tears running down her mascara, even as many saw his downfall as a symbol of the greed and hypocrisy of the 1980s.
Things worsened in 1988, when Bakker was indicted for mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy after an investigation of PTL's finances. He was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in federal prison, though the sentence was later reduced to eight years. At a news conference after Bakker was found guilty, Tammy Faye stood in front of the microphones and sang the hymn «On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand.»
Their marriage crumbled, and Tammy Faye divorced Bakker in 1992, just short of their 31st anniversary, while he was still in prison. She later married Roe Messner, a building contractor whose projects included the Heritage USA theme park. Messner was convicted of bankruptcy fraud in 1995 and spent about two years in prison. Tammy Faye died of colon cancer in 2007.
Bakker was released on parole in 1994. He married his second wife, Lori, in 1998, and the couple launched «The Jim Bakker Show» on the PTL Satellite Network five years later. In June 2021, Bakker and his Morningside Church Productions Inc. settled a lawsuit accusing him of falsely claiming the health supplement Silver Solution could cure COVID-19. The settlement called for $156,000 in refunds to people who paid money or gave contributions to obtain the product in the early days of the pandemic. The lawsuit said Bakker and a guest made the cure claim during 11 episodes in February and March of 2020.
Bakker and Tammy Faye had two children. He and his second wife adopted five children in 2002.
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