Jim Bakker, the televangelist whose empire of Christian television and theme parks collapsed into fraud convictions and sex scandals, has died at 86, his widow announced Monday.
Lori Bakker, 62, broke the news on “The Jim Bakker Show” Facebook page, writing that her husband “went home to be with the Lord this evening.” The couple had been married since 1998, the same year he began working at the Los Angeles Dream Center after serving five years of a 45-year federal prison sentence.
“For 66 years, Jim gave his life to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” she wrote. “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.”
The Bakkers had adopted five siblings from inner-city Phoenix in 2002, according to his biography, and launched “The Jim Bakker Show” the following year from their Morningside Church base. Lori Graham had been ministering in Phoenix before meeting the ex-convict preacher at the Dream Center.
Born in Muskegon, Michigan, Bakker traced his calling to an early belief that he was summoned to “make Jesus real” to the world. He attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, where he met Tammy Faye LaValley, a fellow student who would become his first wife and on-air partner.
The pair married in 1961, abandoned their studies, and spent years on the road as traveling evangelists — Bakker preaching, Tammy Faye singing and playing accordion at churches and tent revivals nationwide. Bakker felt “divinely inspired” to harness television for ministry, joining Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network in the 1960s and becoming the first host of “The 700 Club.”
After eight years at CBN, he launched television ministries across the country before settling in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1974, he and Tammy Faye debuted “The PTL Club,” which ran until 1987 and spawned a multimillion-dollar operation: the PTL Satellite Network and Heritage USA, a South Carolina theme park that drew millions before its 1989 closure.
The empire imploded that same year when a $279,000 hush-money payment to church secretary Jessica Hahn surfaced. Hahn had accused Bakker of raping her in 1980; Bakker admitted to sex with her but insisted it was consensual. He resigned from PTL — Praise the Lord — and Jerry Falwell seized control of the crumbling ministry while federal investigators closed in on the Bakkers’ multiple homes, private jet, and Rolls-Royces.
Convicted on 24 counts of fraud, Bakker entered prison in 1989 and was paroled in 1994. Tammy Faye divorced him in 1992 after 31 years and two children together; she died of cancer in 2007.
Even in his seventies, Bakker remained a magnet for controversy. In 2021, he and Morningside Church Productions paid $156,000 for falsely claiming a colloidal silver supplement could cure COVID-19.
“Jim loved people deeply,” Lori Bakker’s statement continued. “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 concluded: “Our family is grieving and we ask for your prayers and privacy during this time. Jim finished his race with faith. His voice, his vision, and his legacy will never be forgotten.”
Bakker leaves behind Lori and nine children.
