Jim Bakker, televangelist who led PTL, dies at 86, wife says

Televangelist Jim Bakker, who built a multi-million-dollar Christian broadcasting empire before it collapsed amid sex and financial fraud scandals, died Monday at the age of 86, according to his wife, Lori Bakker, The Washington Post reported. His cause of death was not immediately clear in the statements released by his family.

Rise of the PTL Club Network

Bakker rose to national prominence in the 1970s and 1980s alongside his first wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, according to CNN and NBC News. The couple originally captured attention with a puppet show on a Virginia television station before joining Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network, where Bakker hosted The 700 Club, as reported by the Boston Herald.

In 1974, the Bakkers left CBN and moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, to start the Inspiration Network and launch The PTL Club, which stands for Praise the Lord or People That Love, according to CNN and NBC News. The program grew into one of the best-known Christian television programs of its era.

Heritage USA Theme Park Peak

Operating out of a base in Fort Mill, South Carolina, across the North Carolina state line, the ministry expanded rapidly on small donations from hundreds of thousands of believers, as detailed by NBC News. The Bakkers constructed Heritage USA, a sprawling Christian theme park and resort that featured a grand hotel added in 1984 and a water park in 1986, according to CNN.

At its peak in the mid-1980s, more than 6 million people visited Heritage USA annually, making it the nation’s third most popular attraction behind Walt Disney World and Disneyland, CNN reported. The PTL ministry brought in more than $128 million annually, airing on 1,300 cable systems with 12 million subscribers, though the Boston Herald noted that the nightly TV audience reached up to 13 million viewers.

Bakker Resigns After Reports of Hush Money and Lavish Spending

The empire unraveled in March 1987 when The Charlotte Observer reported that the ministry had paid church secretary Jessica Hahn $115,000 in a one-time payment plus monthly interest from a $150,000 trust fund to keep quiet about an affair, according to CNN and NBC News. Bakker resigned from PTL on March 19, 1987, turning operations over to pastor Jerry Falwell, while PTL filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection the following month, according to CNN and the Boston Herald.

Further reporting exposed lavish spending of ministry funds, including an air-conditioned doghouse and gold-plated bathroom fixtures at the Bakkers’ lakefront home, NBC News reported. In 1989, a federal jury convicted Bakker of fraud and conspiracy, resulting in a 45-year prison sentence, of which he served just under five years before winning parole, according to CNN and NBC News.

Return to Ministry and Later Years

Tammy Faye Bakker stood by him initially but filed for divorce in 1992 while he was in prison, later marrying contractor Roe Messner before dying of cancer in 2007, CNN and NBC News reported. Following his release from prison, Bakker returned to broadcasting and launched The Jim Bakker Show in 2003 with his second wife, Lori Bakker, whom he married in 1998, according to NBC News and the Boston Herald.

In 2021, Bakker and his church settled a lawsuit brought by the state of Missouri that accused him of falsely claiming a health supplement named Silver Solution could cure Covid-19, NBC News and the Boston Herald reported. The settlement required $156,000 in refunds to individuals who had purchased the product during the early stages of the pandemic, according to the Boston Herald.

It is with a broken heart that I share that my beloved husband, Jim Bakker, went home to be with the Lord this evening. For 66 years, Jim gave his life to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Lori Bakker