The American TV evangelist Jim Bakker has died at the age of 86. He became known in the 1970s and 80s when he presented the program The PTL-Club, an abbreviation for Praise The Lord. Later, he became embroiled in controversy due to bribing churchgoers and false medical claims.
His wife, Lori Bakker, announced the death via Facebook. "With a broken heart I share that my beloved husband, Jim Bakker, went to the Lord tonight," she writes. The cause of death of the TV preacher has not been disclosed.
Bakker gained fame with his ex-wife, Tammy Faye, who died in 2007. They met at North Central Bible College in Minneapolis and married in 1961. The couple performed puppet theater together in a church, after which they were asked to perform it on TV. Subsequently, the Bakkers presented the Christian program The 700 Club between 1966 and 1973.
Later they started their own television channel: The Inspiration Network. Here they launched the Christian talk show The PTL-Club. At its peak, the program generated more than 128 million dollars per year and was broadcast via 1300 cable networks with 12 million subscribers.
Fraud and conspiracy
Behind the scenes, cracks slowly appeared in the story of the happy couple presenting the show together. Bakker resigned in 1987 after his affair with secretary Jessica Hahn came to light. To keep quiet about it, he paid her a one-time sum of 115,000 dollars, followed by monthly payments.
A year later, Bakker was charged with fraud and conspiracy to defraud churchgoers of 158 million dollars. In 1989, he was found guilty by a jury. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison. While he was in prison, Tammy Faye Bakker divorced him. Their life story was filmed as The Eyes of Tammy Faye with Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield.
In 1992, his prison sentence was reduced to eight years. Two years later, Bakker was released on parole after serving nearly five years of his sentence.
Remarried
After his release, he met Lori Graham in the 1990s at the Dream Center in Los Angeles, an organization focused on disadvantaged youth. They married that same year.
Bakker slowly returned to the stage. From 2003, he presented the program The Jim Bakker Show with his new wife.
But again he became embroiled in controversy. In 2020, he praised silver supplements as a cure for corona. The New York Attorney General ordered the TV evangelist to stop making false medical claims. Several TV channels removed Bakker's program from their schedules.
Later, Bakker reached a settlement in the case. He was no longer allowed to claim that silver solution helped against any disease or condition. People who had previously purchased it received compensation.