Bakker spent four and a half years in prison after being convicted in 1989 \u200bof defrauding followers in a scheme involving holidays at his Christian theme park
The US televangelist Jim Bakker, who built a multimillion-dollar empire and lived \u2060in opulence before being disgraced by a sex scandal, a conviction for defrauding followers and divorce from his television co-host Tammy Faye, has died aged 86.
The death of Bakker, whose journey from the TV pulpit to a prison cell in the 1980s inspired comparisons to the corrupt character of the fictional preacher-huckster Elmer Gantry, was revealed on \u2060social media by his second wife, Lori \u2060Bakker.
\u201cIt is with a broken heart that \u200bI share that my beloved husband, Jim Bakker, went home to be with the Lord this evening,\u201d she wrote on the Facebook and Instagram pages of her husband\u2019s latest television ministry.
She paid tribute to Bakker as a \u201cpioneer of Christian television\u201d. The cause and circumstances of his death were not revealed.
Bakker revived his career \u2060as a television preacher after prison with a new wife and new television show in 2003, later becoming a staunch supporter of Donald Trump.
Bakker had been among the most popular of the Christian preachers who thrived on US television in the 1980s, achieving fame on the show The PTL Club. PTL stood \u2060for \u201cPraise the Lord\u201d and \u201cPeople That Love\u201d. Detractors, pointing to his unabashed daily exhortations to viewers for donations to his ministry, said PTL should have stood for \u201cpass the loot\u201d.
Bakker spent four and a half years in prison after being convicted in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1989 \u200bof defrauding followers in a scheme involving holidays at his Heritage USA Christian theme park and resort.
Prosecutors painted \u200chim as a selfish and petty conman driven by greed \u200cand lust for power. \u201cThose of us who do have a religion are sick of being saps for money-grubbing preachers and priests,\u201d Judge Robert Potter told Bakker before sentencing him.
Bakker had quit the PTL ministry in 1987 after \u200crevelations of a 1980 sexual encounter with Jessica Hahn, a former church secretary who later posed nude in Playboy magazine, and a subsequent $265,000 payoff with ministry funds to gain her silence. Bakker was later defrocked.
Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, his first wife, had started with a small TV ministry and eventually created a multimillion-dollar operation with 2,000 employees and the 2,300-acre (930-hectare) Heritage USA complex in Fort Mill, South Carolina. At its peak, the PTL ministry drew 13 million viewers on 200 TV stations and raked in $129m a year.
With his working-class upbringing, the affable Bakker related well to common folk. He did not deliver fire-and-brimstone sermons like other televangelists, instead offering a friendly Christian message \u2013 although it was larded with requests for money donations.
Tammy Faye was more much more flamboyant, with her enthusiastic singing and penchant for tears that left her heavy makeup smeared on her face.
Bakker was convicted after a \u200csix-week trial in federal court on all 24 fraud and conspiracy charges brought against him. Prosecutors said he defrauded followers of $158m by selling promises of lifetime annual vacations that he could not provide. They said he siphoned $3.7m to bankroll a lavish lifestyle that included several homes, luxury cars, mink coats, diamonds, servants \u2013 and an air-conditioned dog house.
The judge ordered Bakker to serve 45 years \u200bin prison but the sentence was later reduced. \u201cI have sinned,\u201d Bakker told the court. \u201cI have made mistakes. But never in my life did I intend to defraud anyone.\u201d
Bakker\u2019s chief aide Richard Dortch served 18 months of an eight-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to reduced charges in exchange for testifying against Bakker.
Tammy Faye was never charged. She stood by Bakker at 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 started his life over after leaving prison in 1994, renouncing the \u201cprosperity gospel\u201d he once preached and writing a book titled I Was Wrong.
\u201cI\u2019ve had a second chance at life. And I have a beautiful wife who loves me,\u201d Bakker told CNN \u2060in 2000, referring to his second wife, Lori, whom he married in 1998.
They started a TV ministry together in 2003. In 2008, they began taping The Jim \u200bBakker Show at a 600-acre development called Morningside near the tourism city of Branson, Missouri. It \u200bbore similarities to Heritage USA. Bakker once again pleaded with his followers \u200bfor donations.
In 2020, he drew the ire of state and federal officials for selling a false treatment for Covid-19 during the pandemic.
Bakker said in 2017 that Christians would \u200blaunch a civil war if Trump were to be \u200cimpeached. Trump later became the first US \u200bpresident to be impeached twice.<\/p>\n