Jim Bakker, who alongside together with his first spouse Tammy Faye constructed an evangelical empire across the massively profitable “The PTL Membership” TV present, solely to lose it throughout a intercourse scandal and monetary crimes, has died. He was 86.
Bakker died Monday, his second spouse, Lori Bakker, mentioned in a press release. His reason behind loss of life was not instantly clear.
“He was a pioneer of Christian tv, however to me, he was my husband, my finest pal, and the person I used to be honored to stroll beside by so many seasons of life and ministry,” she mentioned.
The pair lived close to the Missouri leisure city of Branson and filmed their TV present “The Jim Bakker Present” there because it launched in 2003. Bakker suffered a stroke in 2020.
But it surely was one other evangelical program that made Jim and his first spouse Tammy Faye Bakker cultural icons — a lot in order that they had been typically skewered within the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties by late-night comedians and parodied on “Saturday Night time Dwell.” A theatrical film on their lives, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” was launched in September 2021.
At its peak within the mid-Eighties, the Bakkers’ ministry included not solely the TV present drawing as much as 13 million nightly viewers but additionally the Christian-based Heritage USA theme park and lodge in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
Bakker was born in Muskegon, Michigan, and attended North Central Bible Faculty in Minneapolis, the place he met Tammy Faye. They married in 1961 and dropped out of school to begin their very own touring ministry — he preached, she sang and performed the accordion as they crossed the nation visiting church buildings and tent revivals.
They caught the eye of televangelist Pat Robertson, and in 1965 launched a kids’s present on Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Community. By 1966, he was internet hosting “The 700 Membership,” a Christian speak present.
Bakker left CBN in 1972 and two years later fashioned the PTL Satellite tv for pc Community. “The PTL Membership” — PTL stands for “Reward the Lord” — turned its signature present.
When it hit its heyday within the Eighties, “The PTL Membership” was drawing tens of millions of viewers — and bringing in tens of millions of {dollars} yearly from followers.
The present featured chats with company and Christian entertainers. Bakker provided upbeat sermons and Tammy Faye — charismatic and at all times carrying her trademark heavy mascara — sang. Most episodes had been taped at their sprawling advanced simply south of Charlotte, North Carolina.
The couple was so well-known that they had been typically parodied by TV comedians for his or her lavish life-style and Tammy Faye’s plentiful make-up.
In March 1987, their empire started to crack when Bakker admitted to a sexual encounter with church clerk Jessica Hahn. Bakker was compelled to resign from his personal empire, turning over operations to pastor and broadcaster Jerry Falwell.
Tammy Faye caught by Bakker, typically with tears operating down her mascara, whilst many noticed his downfall as a becoming image of the greed and hypocrisy of the Eighties.
Issues solely obtained worse.
In 1988, Bakker was indicted for mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy after an investigation of PTL’s funds. He was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in federal jail, although the sentence was later decreased to eight years.
At a information convention after Bakker was discovered responsible, Tammy Faye stood in entrance of the microphones and sang the hymn, “On Christ the Strong Rock I Stand.”
Their marriage crumbled and Tammy Faye divorced Bakker in 1992, simply in need of their thirty first anniversary, whereas he was nonetheless in jail. She later married Roe Messner, a constructing contractor whose tasks included the Heritage USA theme park. Messner was convicted of chapter fraud in 1995 and spent about two years in jail.
Tammy Faye died of colon most cancers in 2007.
Bakker was launched on parole in 1994. He married his second spouse, Lori, in 1998. The couple launched “The Jim Bakker Present” on the PTL Satellite tv for pc Community 5 years later.
In June 2021, Bakker and his Morningside Church Productions Inc. settled a lawsuit accusing him of falsely claiming the well being complement Silver Resolution might treatment COVID-19. The settlement referred to as for $156,000 in refunds to individuals who paid cash or gave contributions to acquire the product within the early days of the pandemic.
The lawsuit mentioned Bakker and a visitor made the treatment declare throughout 11 episodes in February and March of 2020.
Bakker and Tammy Faye had two kids. He and his second spouse adopted 5 kids in 2002.
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Salter, a former Related Press journalist, was the principle writer of this obituary.