Jim Bakker, the televangelist who built and then lost a religious broadcasting empire, died Monday at age 86. His wife, Lori Bakker, announced his death; his cause of death has not been released. He had suffered a stroke in 2020.
“It is with a broken heart that I share that my beloved husband, Jim Bakker, went home to be with the Lord this evening,” Lori Bakker said in a statement. “For 66 years, Jim gave his life to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 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.”
“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,” she added.
Bakker was born in Muskegon, Michigan, and attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, where he met his first wife, Tammy Faye. They married in 1961, dropped out of school and started a traveling ministry, with Bakker preaching while Tammy Faye sang and played the accordion at churches and tent revivals across the country.
In the 1960s Bakker joined the Christian Broadcasting Network under Pat Robertson, where he developed one of the first daily Christian kids’ shows, “Come On Over,” and later became the first host of “The 700 Club.” He left CBN in 1972 and two years later formed the PTL Satellite Network, whose signature program, “The PTL Club” — PTL standing for “Praise the Lord” — drew millions of viewers and millions of dollars annually during its 1980s peak, according to The Associated Press. The ministry also ran the Heritage USA theme park and hotel in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
Bakker’s empire collapsed in March 1987 after he admitted to a sexual encounter with church clerk Jessica Hahn and was forced to hand control of PTL to pastor Jerry Falwell. In 1988 he was indicted on mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy charges tied to an investigation of PTL’s finances. He was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in federal prison, later reduced to eight years. At a news conference after the verdict, Tammy Faye sang the hymn “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand,” the AP reported.
Tammy Faye divorced Bakker in 1992 while he was still imprisoned. She later married building contractor Roe Messner, who had worked on the Heritage USA park and who himself served about two years in prison after a 1995 bankruptcy fraud conviction. Tammy Faye died of colon cancer in 2007.
Bakker was released on parole in 1995 and married Lori in 1998. Five years later the couple launched “The Jim Bakker Show” on the PTL Satellite Network, a daily broadcast the show’s website describes as featuring “prophetic and Biblical revelations.”
Bakker and Tammy Faye had two children; he and Lori adopted five more in 2002.
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 required $156,000 in refunds to people who paid for or donated to obtain the product early in the pandemic.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
