Televangelist Jim Bakker, who built a faith-based empire before resigning amid scandal, dies at 86

Jim Bakker, the charismatic pastor who turned a modest traveling ministry into a nationwide television empire, died on Monday at the age of 86. His second wife, Lori Bakker, announced his passing on the Facebook page of "The Jim Bakker Show," adding that his cause of death has not been disclosed.

Born in Muskegon, Michigan, Bakker entered the televangelism scene in the mid‑1960s through Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network. By 1974 he and his first wife, Tammy Faye, launched "The PTL Club," a nightly show that at its peak attracted up to 13 million viewers and was carried on 1,300 cable systems, reaching roughly 12 million subscribers. The couple’s venture expanded beyond the studio to Heritage USA, a theme park and Grand Hotel in Fort Mill, South Carolina that generated more than $128 million a year for the ministry. Their brand was a cultural touchstone, often lampooned on late‑night comedy shows, yet it also embodied a new model of faith‑based commercialism.

The turning point arrived in March 1987 when Bakker paid a $279,000 hush‑money settlement to church secretary Jessica Hahn, after she alleged a 1980 sexual assault. The payment – reported as $115,000 up‑front with monthly interest from a $150,000 trust – triggered a media firestorm and forced Bakker to resign from PTL.

A federal investigation soon followed. In December 1988 Bakker was indicted on 24 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy, accused of diverting at least $158 million from donors. He was convicted, sentenced to 45 years, and served just over five years before being paroled in 1994. The scandal also ended his 31‑year marriage to Tammy Faye; they divorced in 1992, and she later died of cancer in 2007.

After prison, Bakker rebuilt a modest platform. In 2021 his ministry faced another controversy, paying $156,000 to settle claims that a colloidal‑silver supplement marketed by Morningside Church could cure COVID‑19. The settlement illustrated how, despite a criminal record, Bakker’s operations could still generate lucrative, if legally precarious, revenue streams.

Lori Bakker’s final statement emphasized his enduring devotion: "Jim loved people deeply… Even in his final days, his heart was still for the work of God and for the Gospel to continue reaching the world." The lack of an official cause of death leaves a thin factual gap, but the arc of his life—meteoric rise, public collapse, and a cautious comeback—offers a vivid case study of the power and peril of American televangelism.