Jim Bakker, the charismatic televangelist who built a multi-million-dollar Christian broadcasting empire around The PTL Club before his career collapsed amid sex and financial scandals, has died at the age of 86, according to a statement from his second wife, Lori Bakker.
Bakker passed away on Monday, leaving behind a complex legacy in American religious broadcasting. His death closes a remarkable chapter in media history that spanned decades of immense wealth, a dramatic fall from grace involving federal prison time, and an eventual return to the airwaves.
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 in announcing his death.
Rise of The PTL Club and Heritage USA
Born in Muskegon, Michigan, Bakker attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, where he met his first wife, Tammy Faye. Leaving their education behind, the pair set out as itinerant preachers while he trained for ordination as a Pentecostal Assemblies of God clergyman. They married in 1961 and crossed the country visiting churches and tent revivals, with him preaching while she sang and played the accordion.
Their distinct style caught the attention of Pat Robertson, who had a fledgling TV station in Portsmouth, Virginia, and asked Bakker to bring the show to television. Bakker agreed, under the condition that they could eventually launch a “Tonight” show style program for Christians. From 1966 to 1973, the couple hosted “700 Club,” which was syndicated across the nation. Bakker left CBN in 1972 and two years later formed the PTL Satellite Network.
When it hit its heyday in the 1980s, the program drew millions of viewers—and brought in millions of dollars annually from followers. During its mid-1980s zenith, the Bakkers’ enterprise encompassed a television program with as many as 13 million nightly viewers alongside the South Carolina-based Heritage USA Christian hotel and theme park located in Fort Mill.
Jim and his first wife Tammy Faye Bakker became cultural icons through this religious broadcast; consequently, late-night comedians frequently mocked them during the 1980s and 1990s, and Saturday Night Live.
A theatrical movie on their lives, The Eyes of Tammy Faye,
was released in September 2021. Tammy Faye stood out for her colorful, theatrical style, marked by vibrant singing and emotional outbursts that regularly caused her heavy cosmetics to run down her face.
PTL Collapses After Sexual Scandal and Financial Misuse
The ministry’s financial and public standing collapsed swiftly after Bakker departed from PTL in 1987. This followed the disclosure of a 1980 sexual encounter with former church secretary Jessica Hahn—who subsequently appeared unclothed in Playboy—and a later hush-money payment of $265,000 sourced from ministry accounts to ensure her silence. Bakker confirmed the encounter but said he had been wickedly manipulated by treacherous former friends and then colleagues who victimized me with the aid of a female confederate.
Further reporting disclosed lavish spending on the Bakkers’ behalf, including an air-conditioned doghouse. Following the loss of his broadcast empire, Bakker stepped down and handed leadership over to televangelist and pastor Jerry Falwell.
Things only got worse. In December 1988, Jim Bakker was indicted for mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy after an investigation of PTL’s finances, facing charges of defrauding churchgoers of $158 million. Tammy Faye Bakker was not named in the indictment.
Following a six-week trial in federal court where a jury convicted him on all 24 fraud and conspiracy charges, Judge Robert Potter told Bakker before sentencing him: Those of us who do have a religion are sick of being saps for money-grubbing preachers and priests.
Potter sentenced Bakker to 45 years in federal prison, though the sentence was later reduced to eight years.
She stood by Bakker at the trial—even singing to reporters after his conviction—but in 1992 she filed for divorce while he was in prison. Messner was convicted of bankruptcy fraud in 1995 and spent about two years in prison. Tammy Faye died of colon cancer in 2007. Bakker spent just less than five years in federal prison before he was paroled in 1994.
“I’ve had a second chance at life. And I have a beautiful wife who loves me.”
Jim Bakker
After leaving prison in 1994, Bakker started his life over, renouncing the prosperity gospel
he once preached and writing a book titled “I Was Wrong.” Bakker later married his second wife, Lori, in 1998.
Return to Television and Later Controversies
Jim Bakker returned to ministry after his prison term and in 2003 launched The Jim Bakker Show
with Lori Bakker on the PTL Satellite Network. In 2008, they began taping The Jim Bakker Show
at a 600-acre development called Morningside near the tourist city of Branson, Missouri, that bore similarities to Heritage USA. He and his second wife adopted five children in 2002.
Bakker once again pleaded with his followers for donations. During the pandemic in 2020, he provoked sharp criticism from both state and federal authorities by marketing an unverified Covid-19 remedy. The subsequent legal resolution mandated $156,000 in reimbursements for individuals who had purchased or donated money to acquire the item during the initial phase of the health crisis, stemming from allegations that Bakker and a visitor promoted the fraudulent remedy throughout 11 separate broadcasts in February and March 2020. Bakker also suffered a stroke in 2020.
Bakker said in 2017 that Christians would launch a civil war if Trump were to be impeached, and he later became a staunch supporter of Donald Trump. Trump later became the first US president to be impeached twice.
“It is with a broken heart that I share that my beloved husband, Jim Bakker, went home to be with the Lord this evening.”
Lori Bakker
Jim finished his race with faith,
Lori wrote. His voice, his vision, and his legacy will never be forgotten.
