Televangelist Jim Bakker carried sexual and financial scandals that brought down his multimillion-dollar Christian TV empire before his death. The US preacher died aged 86, with his second wife Lori calling him a “pioneer of Christian television” and sharing her heartbreak over his passing.
Rise of the PTL empire
Bakker and his late first wife Tammy Faye Messner rose to fame with their evangelistic empire Praise The Lord (PTL), leading to regular parodies on the sketch show Saturday Night Live. They hosted The PTL Club, one of the best-known Christian TV programs of its time, and eventually their own theme park from suburban Charlotte, North Carolina, for some 15 years.
Bakker was forced to resign from the PTL ministry in 1987 after admitting to a sexual encounter with his secretary, Jessica Hahn, who he had paid to keep quiet. Hahn, then a 21-year-old, said she had been sexually assaulted by him in a Florida hotel room, something he denied.
Hahn's account and legal fallout
She later shared her “anger” with him in a 2017 interview, telling The Charlotte Observer: “He just believed that everybody should serve him because he was serving God. I wake up now and go, ‘Oh my God, I’m so angry.’” Hahn said she identified with women telling their stories of sexual harassment after staying silent for years. “People used to say, ‘Jessica, you kept quiet for eight years. Why?’ Well, there were a million reasons,” she said. “These women coming out now – there were a million reasons. It’s like the power position is abused in every lifestyle, whether it’s politics, religion or business.”
After Bakker resigned, fellow televangelist Jerry Falwell took control of the operation. Bakker encountered further trouble over a probe into PTL’s finances. He was indicted on mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy charges in 1988 and later convicted. The minister was initially sentenced to 45 years in prison although that sentence was later reduced to eight years. He was released on parole in 1994.
Later career and Covid controversy
His wife Tammy Faye divorced him in 1992 while he was still in prison. She died from colon cancer in 2007. The former couple’s rise and fall was dramatised in the 2021 film, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, starring Andrew Garfield as Bakker. They were also regularly mocked by comedians on TV.
Bakker eventually returned to religious broadcasting after leaving prison. He married Lori in 1998 and launched The Jim Bakker Show in 2003 from Missouri. He faced further controversy in his later career, battling a lawsuit after being accused of falsely claiming a health supplement could cure Covid. Bakker claimed Silver Solution could heal the disease during 11 episodes on The Jim Bakker Show in February and March of 2020, according to the filing.
Republican Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt sued Bakker, seeking an injunction ordering Bakker to stop selling Silver Solution as a treatment. Bakker and his church paid $156,000 (£117,000) to settle the lawsuit, providing refunds to people who had paid for or donated money to obtain the product. The settlement banned him from advertising or selling Silver Solution “to diagnose, prevent, mitigate, treat or cure any disease or illness.” Bakker, in the agreement, did not admit wrongdoing.
Bakker suffered a stroke in 2020. He had two children with his first wife, and he and Lori adopted five children in 2002.
