Jim Bakker, Televangelist Whose Empire Collapsed In Scandal, Dies At 86
Jim Bakker, the popular 1980s televangelist who with his first wife, Tammy Faye, built one of the largest Christian television ministries in the country before its spectacular collapse in scandal and fraud, died Monday. He was 86.
His death was announced by his second wife, Lori Bakker, who said her husband had “gone home to be with the Lord.”
“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 added in a social media post.
READ: Former ‘American Idol’ Star Gets Life Without Parole For Wife’s Murder
No cause of death was immediately disclosed. Bakker had suffered a stroke in 2020.
For more than five decades, Bakker embodied both the possibilities and the perils of American televangelism. He was a pioneering religious broadcaster who understood that television could turn a ministry into a mass-media enterprise. He was also a convicted felon whose career became an enduring cautionary tale about money, celebrity and religious power.
Born James Orsen Bakker in Muskegon, Michigan, in 1940, he met Tammy Faye LaValley while attending North Central Bible College (now North Central University) in Minneapolis. They married in 1961, dropped out of college and began traveling as evangelists.
Bakker, a member of the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination, preached while Tammy Faye sang and played the accordion. Their talents soon brought them to the Christian Broadcasting Network of Pat Robertson, where they helped develop Christian television programming. Bakker eventually became host of Robertson’s “The 700 Club” before leaving CBN in the early 1970s.
‘The PTL Club’ juggernaut
In 1974, the Bakkers launched “The PTL Club” — standing for “Praise the Lord” — and created the PTL Satellite Network. Their formula was strikingly modern: Part sermon, part talk show, part variety program and part fundraising telethon. Tammy Faye’s exuberant personality and famously heavy mascara became as recognizable as Jim’s energetic appeals to viewers. At its peak, the program reached roughly 13 million households.
The Bakkers expanded their ministry into Heritage USA, a sprawling Christian resort and theme park in Fort Mill, South Carolina. At its height, the 2,300-acre complex attracted millions of visitors a year and ranked among the nation's most popular theme parks. PTL became a multimillion-dollar enterprise, taking in an estimated $129 million annually by 1987.
The couple’s success was accompanied by conspicuous wealth. The Bakkers owned expensive homes and became symbols of the prosperity theology they promoted — the notion that faith could be accompanied by material abundance.
In 1987, the Charlotte Observer exposed a sexual encounter Bakker had had years earlier with Jessica Hahn, a church secretary. PTL officials had made a substantial payment to Hahn as part of an effort to keep the episode secret. Bakker admitted to the encounter and resigned from the ministry in March 1987, ending his reign over the empire he had built. His wife was never charged with a crime.
Jerry Falwell subsequently took control of PTL, but the ministry soon descended into bankruptcy. The sex scandal was followed by revelations about PTL’s finances. Federal prosecutors charged that Bakker had sold vastly more $1,000 “lifetime partnerships” in Heritage USA than the resort could accommodate, promising purchasers annual lodging that could not realistically be provided. According to federal investigators, nearly 160,000 partnerships were ultimately sold.
In 1989, a federal jury convicted Bakker on all 24 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. He was initially sentenced him to 45 years in prison and fined him $500,000. The sentence was later reduced to eight years. Bakker was released in 1994 after serving roughly five years.
In a 1996 book, “I Was Wrong,” Bakker wrote that his Bible studies while in prison had led him to understand that Jesus “did not have one good thing to say about money.”
Bakker’s second act
Prison did not end Bakker's career. Tammy Faye divorced him in 1992 and died of cancer in 2007 at age 65.
Bakker married Lori Graham in 1998, and in 2003 he returned to television with “The Jim Bakker Show,” broadcasting from Missouri. The new program emphasized biblical prophecy, disaster preparedness and the possibility of catastrophic events.
“I’m not back for the perfect people, the people who have it all together,” he said during a 2007 interview. “I’m here for the broken and the bruised and the hurt. I’m here to say we have a God of second and third chances.”
Bakker’s second act brought new controversy. During the pandemic in 2020, Bakker promoted a silver-based product in connection with claims about the coronavirus. The FDA and FTC warned in March 2020 that products sold through his ministry were being marketed as intended to treat or prevent COVID-19. A subsequent Missouri lawsuit ended in a 2021 settlement requiring Bakker to issue $156,000 in refunds.
Nonetheless, Bakker remained a presence in American religious broadcasting, attracting supporters who regarded his later years as a story of repentance and restoration and critics who viewed them as evidence little had changed.
Bakker and Tammy Faye had two children. He and his second wife adopted five children.
Clemente Lisi serves as executive editor at Religion Unplugged.