Jim Bakker, the US televangelist who built the influential PTL Club ministry before its collapse amid a sex scandal and financial crimes, has died aged 86.
Bakker died on Monday, his second wife, Lori Bakker, said in a statement. His cause of death was not immediately clear.
The couple lived near Branson, Missouri, where they filmed The Jim Bakker Show from its launch in 2003. Bakker suffered a stroke in 2020.
“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 said.
Jim Bakker and the rise of the PTL Club
Bakker and his first wife, Tammy Faye, became cultural figures through The PTL Club, a Christian television programme that reached up to 13 million viewers a night at its height in the mid-1980s.
The ministry also included Heritage USA, a Christian-themed park and hotel complex in Fort Mill, South Carolina. The couple’s lavish lifestyle made them frequent targets of late-night comedians and Saturday Night Live, while Tammy Faye became known for her heavy mascara.
The PTL Club, with PTL standing for “Praise the Lord”, combined guest interviews and Christian entertainment with Bakker’s sermons. Tammy Faye sang on the programme, which was recorded largely at the ministry’s sprawling complex south of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Bakker was born in Muskegon, Michigan, and met Tammy Faye while studying at North Central Bible College in Minneapolis. They married in 1961 before leaving college to begin a travelling ministry, with Bakker preaching and Tammy Faye singing and playing the accordion at churches and tent revivals.
The pair attracted the attention of televangelist Pat Robertson and launched a children’s programme on his Christian Broadcasting Network in 1965. The following year, Bakker became host of The 700 Club.
He left the network in 1972 and formed the PTL Satellite Network two years later. The PTL Club subsequently grew into a major evangelical operation, drawing millions of viewers and substantial financial support from followers.
The Bakkers’ story was later dramatised in the 2021 film The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
