Jim Bakker Scandals Explained as Televangelist Dies at 86

Jim Bakker, the televangelist who built a multimillion-dollar Christian broadcasting empire before it collapsed in scandal, has died at the age of 86.

Bakker's second wife, Lori, announced his death on Facebook Monday evening. She did not confirm his cause of death.

"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," Lori said.

Bakker rose to fame in the 1970s as the host of The PTL Club, alongside his first wife Tammy Faye. The Christian TV show became the centrepiece of an evangelical media empire that included the PTL satellite network and the Heritage USA Christian theme park.

By 1987, his ministry was engulfed in scandal following the revelation that PTL (Praise the Lord) had paid church secretary Jessica Hahn to keep quiet about a sexual encounter with Bakker, followed by revelations of financial misconduct at the ministry.

He was later convicted on 24 counts of mail and wire fraud and conspiracy, and was sentenced to 45 years in prison. His sentence was eventually reduced and he only ended up serving five years in prison.

Bakker's downfall began in 1987 with a revelation that he had a sexual encounter with Hahn, a 21-year-old church secretary, seven years earlier.

Hahn alleged that Bakker had sexually assaulted her in a hotel room. Bakker admitted to the encounter but disputed her account, saying it was consensual.

The incident had been kept quiet after Bakker used PTL funds to pay Hahn about $265,000 in installments.

Bakker later said that he had been “set up” and “wickedly manipulated by treacherous former friends and then-colleagues who victimized me with the aid of a female confederate,” alleging a plot by those seeking to advance their positions within the ministry.

Following the scandal, Bakker resigned from PTL, and turned over operations of his empire to fellow televangelist Jerry Falwell.

Though Bakker intended Falwell’s leadership of PTL to be temporary, Falwell barred him from returning to the ministry, and it ultimately went bankrupt.

Falwell later called Bakker "the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history."

The sex scandal was followed by separate revelations of financial misconduct by PTL.

Bakker was accused of defrauding donors through the ministry's fundraising system, which sold $1,000 “lifetime partnerships” that promised donors annual vacations at Heritage USA that could not all be provided.

Despite thousands of memberships being sold, generating $158 million, PTL did not have enough lodging to fulfill the promises, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors alleged that Bakker siphoned off $3.7 million to support his lavish lifestyle, including buying vacation homes, luxury cars, Rolex watches, an air-conditioned dog house for his pet dogs, and a face lift.

By then many were joking that PTL was short for “Pass the Loot.”

At his 1989 trial, prosecutors described Bakker as the "most brazen, accomplished conman."

He was found guilty on all counts, sentenced to 45 years in federal prison and given a $500,000 fine. An appeals court upheld the conviction but voided the sentence and fine. He was later sentenced to a reduced sentence of eight years, of which he served nearly five.

Bakker and Tammy Faye divorced in 1992 while he was serving his prison sentence.

He went on to marry Lori, and began broadcasting The Jim Bakker Show in 2003, which he continued until his death.

While the cause of his death has not been revealed, the televangelist had previously suffered a stroke in 2020.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Robinson and Tony Phillips.