Jim Bakker Dead At 86 — The Little-Known Legal Fight That Cut His 45-Year Sentence To 8
By Jack
Jim Bakker, the televangelist who built one of the biggest Christian television empires in America before scandal and prison brought it crashing down, has died at 86.
His wife, Lori Bakker, announced that he died Monday evening. A cause of death was not immediately disclosed.
Fox News reported the news early Tuesday:
Bakker’s story is often compressed into a few familiar words: PTL, Tammy Faye, sex scandal, fraud conviction, prison.
But the final prison chapter was far more complicated than most of the quick obituaries will tell you.
It included a 45-year sentence, a federal appeals court’s finding that the sentencing judge crossed a constitutional line, a new eight-year sentence, and a little-known legal campaign involving Drake University law professor James Albert.
The Associated Press reported that Bakker’s wife described him as a pioneer of Christian television, her husband and her best friend through many seasons of life and ministry. She said he had devoted 66 years to preaching the Gospel and remained focused on that work in his final days.
Bakker died Monday, October 5, near Branson, Missouri, where he and Lori had produced “The Jim Bakker Show” since 2003. He suffered a stroke in 2020, but his family did not immediately identify a cause of death.
He is survived by Lori and the children in his blended family, which included two children with Tammy Faye and five children adopted with Lori in 2002.
The Bakkers had become household names long before the fall.
Jim and Tammy Faye met at North Central Bible College, married in 1961 and began as traveling evangelists. They later worked with Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network, where Jim hosted “The 700 Club.”
In 1974, Bakker formed the PTL Satellite Network. Its signature program, “The PTL Club,” reached millions of viewers, while the ministry’s Heritage USA complex in South Carolina grew into a Christian resort and theme park.
At the ministry’s peak in the 1980s, the show drew millions of viewers and brought in millions of dollars each year. The Bakkers became cultural celebrities as well as preachers, recognizable enough to be parodied regularly on late-night television.
The New York Times noted the scale of both the rise and the collapse: