Jim Bakker

Evangelist / Convict

Name at birth: James Orsen Bakker

Jim Bakker's entanglement in money and sex scandals cost him a lucrative television show, a huge Christian theme park and a 30-year marriage to his ministry partner, Tammy Faye Bakker. The two wed in 1961 while teens at a Minneapolis Bible college and traveled as evangelists who preached, sang, and a put on a puppet show. Perky and charismatic, they rose quickly in the burgeoning field of viewer-funded televangelism, first as stars of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, then as co-founders of Trinity Broadcasting Network. Then came their North Carolina-based Praise the Lord TV show, which grew into a multi-faceted ministry called PTL. By 1978 it included a satellite network with 13 million viewers on 1,200 cable systems, and Heritage USA, a kind of religious Disneyland in Fort Mill, South Carolina, which eventually covered four square miles. Bakker suddenly resigned from PTL in 1987 after admitting having a one-time 1980 sexual encounter with a Long Island church secretary, Jessica Hahn, and making subsequent hush-money payments. He was convicted of fraud in 1989 for over-promising Heritage privileges to more than 152,000 special contributors. Tammy divorced him while he served five years in prison. He then worked in a Los Angeles urban ministry, published the book I Was Wrong, remarried, and in 2006 started a TV show based in Branson, Missouri.

Extra credit: Bakker was the original star of CBN's popular 700 Club talk show, later hosted by Robertson... After the scandals, his standing as a minister was removed by his religious denomination, the Assemblies of God... He and Tammy Faye had a daughter, Tammy Sue (born 1970), and a son, Jamie Charles (1975), now known as Jay, who is also an evangelist.

Other famous evangelists who used television creatively include Billy Graham and Oral Roberts.

Blog posts mentioning Jim Bakker:
Tammy Faye Remembered