Sex scandal and fraud conviction toppled his empire

Jim Bakker, who with his first wife Tammy Faye built an evangelical empire around the hugely successful “The PTL Club” TV show before losing it over a sex scandal and federal fraud conviction, died Monday at age 86, his second wife Lori Bakker said in a statement. The cause of death was not immediately clear.

Lori Bakker said her husband “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.” The couple lived near the Missouri entertainment town of Branson and filmed “The Jim Bakker Show” there since it launched in 2003. Bakker suffered a stroke in 2020.

At its mid-1980s peak, “The PTL Club” drew up to 13 million nightly viewers and brought in millions of dollars annually from followers, anchoring a ministry that also included the Christian-based Heritage USA theme park and hotel in Fort Mill, South Carolina. The show featured chats with guests and Christian entertainers; Bakker offered upbeat sermons, and Tammy Faye — charismatic and always wearing her trademark heavy mascara — sang. Most episodes were taped at the Bakkers’ sprawling complex just south of Charlotte, North Carolina. The couple was so famous that they were often parodied by TV comedians in the 1980s and 1990s for their lavish lifestyle and Tammy Faye’s abundant makeup, skewered by late-night comedians and parodied on “Saturday Night Live.” A theatrical movie 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, dropped out of college and began a traveling ministry — he preached, 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 his Christian Broadcasting Network. By 1966, Bakker was hosting “The 700 Club,” a Christian talk show. He left CBN in 1972 and in 1974 formed the PTL Satellite Network, with “The PTL Club” — “PTL” stands for “Praise the Lord” — as its signature show.

The ministry’s fortunes reversed in March 1987, when Bakker admitted to a sexual encounter with church clerk Jessica Hahn and was forced to resign from PTL, turning over operations to pastor and broadcaster Jerry Falwell. Tammy Faye stuck by Bakker after the admission, often with tears running down her mascara, even as many saw his downfall as a fitting symbol of the greed and hypocrisy of the 1980s. In 1988, Bakker was indicted on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy after an investigation of PTL’s finances. He was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in federal prison, later reduced to eight years. At a news conference after the verdict, 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 served about two years in prison. Tammy Faye died of colon cancer in 2007.

Bakker was released on parole in 1994 and married Lori in 1998. 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 that accused him of falsely claiming the health supplement Silver Solution could cure COVID-19. The settlement provided $156,000 in refunds to people who had paid for the product or given contributions to obtain it during the early months of the pandemic; the lawsuit said Bakker and a guest made the cure claim during 11 episodes in February and March 2020.

Bakker and Tammy Faye had two children. He and his second wife adopted five children in 2002.