\n<\/p>\n
Jim Bakker, who along with his first wife Tammy Faye built an evangelical empire around the hugely successful \u201cThe PTL Club\u201d TV show, only to lose it all over a sex scandal and financial crimes, has died. He was 86.<\/p>\n
Bakker died Monday, his second wife, Lori Bakker, said in a statement. His cause of death was not immediately clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The pair lived near the Missouri entertainment town of Branson and filmed their TV show \u201cThe Jim Bakker Show\u201d there since it launched in 2003. Bakker suffered a stroke in 2020.<\/p>\n
But it was another evangelical program that made Jim and his first wife Tammy Faye Bakker cultural icons \u2014 so much so that they were often skewered in the 1980s and 1990s by late-night comedians and parodied on \u201cSaturday Night Live.\u201d A theatrical movie on their lives, \u201cThe Eyes of Tammy Faye,\u201d was released in September 2021.<\/p>\n
At its peak in the mid-1980s, the Bakkers\u2019 ministry included not only the TV show drawing up to 13 million nightly viewers but also the Christian-based Heritage USA theme park and hotel in Fort Mill, South Carolina.<\/p>\n
Bakker was born in Muskegon, Michigan, and attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, where he met Tammy Faye. They married in 1961 and dropped out of college to start their own traveling ministry \u2014 he preached, she sang and played the accordion as they crossed the country visiting churches and tent revivals.<\/p>\n
They caught the attention of televangelist Pat Robertson, and in 1965 launched a children\u2019s show on Robertson\u2019s Christian Broadcasting Network. By 1966, he was hosting \u201cThe 700 Club,\u201d a Christian talk show.<\/p>\n
Bakker left CBN in 1972 and two years later formed the PTL Satellite Network. \u201cThe PTL Club\u201d \u2014 PTL stands for \u201cPraise the Lord\u201d \u2014 became its signature show.<\/p>\n
When it hit its heyday in the 1980s, \u201cThe PTL Club\u201d was drawing millions of viewers \u2014 and bringing in millions of dollars annually from followers.<\/p>\n
The show featured chats with guests and Christian entertainers. Bakker offered upbeat sermons and Tammy Faye \u2014 charismatic and always wearing her trademark heavy mascara \u2014 sang. Most episodes were taped at their sprawling complex just south of Charlotte, North Carolina.<\/p>\n
The couple was so famous that they were often parodied by TV comedians for their lavish lifestyle and Tammy Faye\u2019s abundant makeup.<\/p>\n
In March 1987, their empire began to crack when Bakker admitted to a sexual encounter with church clerk Jessica Hahn. Bakker was forced to resign from his own empire, turning over operations to pastor and broadcaster Jerry Falwell.<\/p>\n
Tammy Faye stuck by Bakker, often with tears running down her mascara, even as many saw his downfall as a fitting symbol of the greed and hypocrisy of the 1980s.<\/p>\n
Things only got worse.<\/p>\n
In 1988, Bakker was indicted for mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy after an investigation of PTL\u2019s finances. He was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in federal prison, though the sentence was later reduced to eight years.<\/p>\n
At a news conference after Bakker was found guilty, Tammy Faye stood in front of the microphones and sang the hymn, \u201cOn Christ the Solid Rock I Stand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their marriage crumbled and Tammy Faye divorced Bakker in 1992, just short of their 31st anniversary, while he was still 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 spent about two years in prison.<\/p>\n
Tammy Faye died of colon cancer in 2007.<\/p>\n
Bakker was released on parole in 1994. He married his second wife, Lori, in 1998. The couple launched \u201cThe Jim Bakker Show\u201d on the PTL Satellite Network five years later.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit said Bakker and a guest made the cure claim during 11 episodes in February and March of 2020.<\/p>\n
Bakker and Tammy Faye had two children. He and his second wife adopted five children in 2002.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Salter, a former Associated Press journalist, was the main author of this obituary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n