Branson, Mo. — Jim Bakker, who built a hugely successful evangelical media empire with his first wife, Tammy Faye, before a sex scandal and financial crimes brought it down, has died at 86.
Bakker died Monday, his second wife, Lori Bakker, said in a statement. No cause of death was immediately provided.
Jim and Lori Bakker lived near Branson, Missouri, and filmed “The Jim Bakker Show” there after launching the program in 2003. Bakker suffered a stroke in 2020.
“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. “Jim loved people deeply. He loved this ministry, and he loved the friends and partners who stood with him throughout the years. Even in his final days, his heart was still for the work of God and for the Gospel to continue reaching the world.”
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Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker became cultural icons through another evangelical television program, attracting frequent ridicule from late-night comedians during the 1980s and 1990s and becoming the subject of “Saturday Night Live” parodies. Their lives were later dramatized in the film “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” released in September 2021.
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At the ministry’s height in the mid-1980s, the Bakkers’ operation included “The PTL Club,” which drew as many as 13 million viewers each night, as well as the Christian-themed Heritage USA theme park and hotel in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
Bakker was born in Muskegon, Michigan, and attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, where he met Tammy Faye. They married in 1961, left college and began a traveling ministry of their own. He preached while she sang and played the accordion at churches and tent revivals across the country.
Their work caught the attention of televangelist Pat Robertson. In 1965, the couple began hosting a children’s program on Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network. By 1966, Bakker was the host of “The 700 Club,” a Christian talk show.
Bakker departed CBN in 1972 and founded the PTL Satellite Network two years later. Its flagship program was “The PTL Club,” with PTL standing for “Praise the Lord.”
During its 1980s heyday, “The PTL Club” attracted millions of viewers and generated millions of dollars each year from its followers.
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The program was essentially a Christian take on “The Tonight Show,” combining guest interviews and performances by Christian entertainers. Bakker delivered upbeat sermons, while Tammy Faye — known for her charismatic personality and trademark heavy mascara — sang. Most episodes were recorded at the couple’s sprawling complex south of Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Bakkers’ fame made them frequent targets of television comedians, who mocked their lavish lifestyle and Tammy Faye’s dramatic makeup.
Jim Bakker gets caught up in scandals
Their empire began to unravel in March 1987, when Bakker acknowledged a sexual encounter with church secretary Jessica Hahn. He was forced to resign from the ministry he had founded, handing control to pastor and broadcaster Jerry Falwell.
Tammy Faye remained at Bakker’s side, often appearing with tears running through her mascara. To many observers, his collapse became a symbol of the greed and hypocrisy associated with the 1980s.
The scandal was followed by an even more damaging chapter.
In 1988, an investigation into PTL’s finances led to Bakker’s indictment on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. He was convicted and initially sentenced to 45 years in federal prison, though that sentence was later reduced to eight years.
After Bakker was found guilty, Tammy Faye stood before reporters at a news conference and sang the hymn “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand.”
The couple’s marriage deteriorated, and Tammy Faye divorced Bakker in 1992, shortly before their 31st anniversary, while he remained 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. He married Lori in 1998, and five years later they launched “The Jim Bakker Show” on the PTL Satellite Network.
In June 2021, Bakker and his Morningside Church Productions Inc. settled a lawsuit accusing him of falsely claiming the health supplement Silver Solution could cure COVID-19. The settlement called for $156,000 in refunds to people who paid money or gave contributions to obtain the product in the early days of the pandemic.
The lawsuit said Bakker and a guest made the cure claim during 11 episodes in February and March of 2020.
Bakker and Tammy Faye had two children. He and his second wife adopted five children in 2002.
