Jim Bakker, televangelist who built a Christian empire and served prison time, dies at 86

Jim Bakker, the televangelist who built one of American Christianity's most lucrative media empires before a fraud conviction and sex scandal stripped it away, died on October 5 at age 86. No cause of death was disclosed.

It is with a broken heart that I share that my beloved husband, Jim Bakker, went home to be with the Lord this evening.— Lori Bakker, wife

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 Bakker, wife

Bakker's story is one of the most dramatic in American religious life: a preacher's kid from the Midwest who co-hosted the 700 Club alongside Pat Robertson, then built his own empire from suburban Charlotte, North Carolina, only to watch it collapse under the weight of financial fraud and a paid-off sexual encounter with a church secretary.

He and his first wife, Tammy Faye, met at North Central Bible College in Minneapolis and married in 1961, according to CNN. Their path to television began with puppet shows at a church. Robertson, who had a fledgling TV station in Portsmouth, Virginia, brought Bakker on board. From 1966 to 1973, the Bakkers hosted the 700 Club, which was syndicated nationally. They later co-founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network with Paul and Jan Crouch before leaving to launch their own ministry: PTL — Praise the Lord.

What followed was a genuine phenomenon. PTL's headquarters in Fort Mill, South Carolina, anchored Heritage USA, a Christian theme park that by 1986 was drawing more than 6 million visitors a year — ranking it third nationally behind only Walt Disney World and Disneyland, according to CNN. At its peak, PTL brought in more than $128 million annually and was carried on 1,300 cable systems with 12 million subscribers.

As I look back, you know, I had a tiger by the tail. The budgets kept getting bigger and bigger, and it got to the point where it was either, you know, raise the money or go broke. And so, you kept raising the money.— Jim Bakker

The empire collapsed publicly on March 19, 1987, when Bakker resigned from PTL after it emerged he had paid church secretary Jessica Hahn to keep quiet about a sexual encounter. Hahn received a one-time $115,000 payment and monthly interest payments from a $150,000 trust fund, according to CNN. PTL filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection the following month.

In December 1988, Bakker was indicted for fraud and conspiring to defraud churchgoers of $158 million. In 1989, he was convicted on 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy and sentenced to 45 years in prison. The sentence was later reduced to eight years; he was paroled in December 1994, having served just under five years.

I wanted people to believe in my dream, and my dream became more important than the people. When the dream of Christian community becomes more important than the community, that's when it's a sin.— Jim Bakker

Bakker's fall had a cultural afterlife that stretched well beyond the pews. He and fellow disgraced televangelist Jimmy Swaggart — who had been caught up in his own sexual infidelity controversy — had been vocal critics of rock and metal music, calling it evil and satanic. The rock world answered back.

Ozzy Osbourne took direct aim at both men on his 1988 track 'Miracle Man,' released as the scandals were still unfolding and both preachers had made tearful public pleas to their congregations.

They were always putting my records down and saying I was the Antichrist, and it turned out they weren't so holy after all.— Ozzy Osbourne

Iron Maiden went further on their 1990 album No Prayer for the Dying. The single 'Holy Smoke' was a broadside against TV preachers, with frontman Bruce Dickinson making the target explicit.

This is about TV preachers and all the various lies they tell. I just had this big image of all those ovens in the death camps with the preachers' feet sticking out, and holy smoke going up.— Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden frontman

Genesis and Black Sabbath in their Ronnie James Dio era were also among the artists whose work was inspired by Bakker and the televangelist scandals, according to Vice.

After his release from prison, Bakker returned to ministry. He met Lori Graham while working at the Dream Center of Los Angeles and married her in 1998, according to his official biography as reported by CNN. He eventually resumed televised preaching with the Jim Bakker Show.

I'm put back together by my faith in Jesus Christ. He forgives eve—— Jim Bakker

Tammy Faye divorced Bakker while he was in prison and later married Roe Messner. She died in 2007 at 65 from inoperable cancer that had spread to her lungs, according to CNN. The couple's story was later dramatized in the 2021 film The Eyes of Tammy Faye, with Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield in the lead roles.

Bakker is survived by his wife Lori.

Why it matters — Bakker's life traced the full arc of American televangelism — its mass appeal, its financial excesses, and its capacity for reinvention — and his scandals reverberated far enough to shape mainstream rock music.

Reported by nytimes.com, cnn.com, reuters.com, vice.com