American televangelist Jim Bakker, ensnared in fraud and sex scandal, dies at 86 | US News

American televangelist Jim Bakker, who built a multimillion-dollar empire and lived in opulence before being disgraced by a sex scandal, a conviction for defrauding his followers and his divorce from his television co-host Tammy Faye, has died aged 86.

The death of Bakker, whose journey from the television pulpit to a prison cell in the 1980s inspired comparisons to the corrupt character of fictional preacher and dealer Elmer Gantry, was revealed on social media by his second wife, Lori Bakker.

“It is with a broken heart that I share that my beloved husband, Jim Bakker, went home to be with the Lord tonight,” she wrote on the Facebook and Instagram pages of her husband’s latest television ministry.

She praised Bakker as a “pioneer of Christian television.” The causes and circumstances of his death have not been revealed.

Bakker revived his television preaching career after prison with a new wife and TV show in 2003, later becoming an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump.

Bakker was one of the most popular Christian preachers who thrived on American television in the 1980s, rising to fame on the show The PTL Club. PTL stood for “Praise the Lord” and “People Who Love.” His detractors, pointing to his unabashed daily exhortations to viewers to donate to his ministry, said PTL should have meant “pass the spoils.”

Bakker spent four and a half years in prison after being convicted in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1989 of defrauding followers in a scheme involving vacations at his Heritage USA Christian theme park and resort.

Prosecutors portrayed him as a selfish and mean-spirited crook motivated by greed and a lust for power. “Those of us who have religion are tired of being saps for money-hungry preachers and priests,” Judge Robert Potter told Bakker before sentencing him.

Bakker had left the PTL ministry in 1987 after revelations of a 1980 sexual relationship with Jessica Hahn, a former church secretary who later posed nude in Playboy magazine, and a subsequent $265,000 reward with ministry funds to secure his silence. Bakker was later defrocked.

Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, his first wife, had started with a small television ministry and eventually built a multimillion-dollar company with 2,000 employees and the 2,300-acre (930-hectare) Heritage USA complex in Fort Mill, South Carolina. At its peak, PTL Ministry attracted 13 million viewers across 200 television channels and raked in $129 million a year.

With his working-class upbringing, the affable Bakker got along well with ordinary people. He did not deliver incendiary sermons like other televangelists, but instead offered a friendly Christian message – although he was peppered with requests for monetary donations.

Tammy Faye was much more flamboyant, with her enthusiastic singing and penchant for tears that left her heavy makeup smeared across her face.

Bakker was convicted after a six-week trial in federal court on all 24 fraud and conspiracy charges against him. Prosecutors said he defrauded his supporters of $158 million by selling them promises of annual vacations for life that he could not deliver. They said he siphoned off $3.7 million to fund a lavish lifestyle that included multiple homes, luxury cars, mink coats, diamonds, servants – and an air-conditioned dog kennel.

The judge ordered Bakker to serve 45 years in prison, but the sentence was later reduced. “I have sinned,” Bakker told the court. “I’ve made mistakes. But never in my life have I intended to defraud anyone.”

Bakker’s top aide, Richard Dortch, served 18 months of an eight-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to reduced charges in exchange for his testimony against Bakker.

Tammy Faye was never charged. She supported Bakker during the trial, even singing to reporters after his conviction, but divorced him in 1992 while he was in prison. She died of cancer in 2007.

Bakker restarted his life after leaving prison in 1994, renouncing the “prosperity gospel” he once preached and writing a book called I Was Wrong.

“I got a second chance at life. And I have a beautiful wife who loves me,” Bakker told CNN in 2000, referring to his second wife, Lori, whom he married in 1998.

They started a television ministry together in 2003. In 2008, they began taping The Jim Bakker Show at a 600-acre resort called Morningside, near the tourist town of Branson, Missouri. It had similarities to Heritage USA. Bakker once again implored his supporters to make donations.

In 2020, he drew the ire of state and federal officials for selling a fake Covid-19 treatment during the pandemic.

Bakker said in 2017 that Christians would start a civil war if Trump was “impeached.” Trump later became the first US president to be impeached twice.