{"id":83437,"date":"2026-10-06T02:02:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T06:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=83437"},"modified":"2026-10-06T02:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T06:02:09","slug":"televangelist-jim-bakker-dies-at-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/10\/06\/televangelist-jim-bakker-dies-at-86\/","title":{"rendered":"Televangelist Jim Bakker Dies at 86"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jim Bakker, the televangelist who built a multi-million-dollar Christian broadcasting empire before it collapsed under sex and financial fraud scandals, died on October 5, 2026, at the age of 86. His death was confirmed by his wife, Lori Bakker.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rise and Fall of the PTL Empire<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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  • The PTL Network:<\/strong> In the 1970s and 1980s, Bakker and his then-wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, built The PTL Club<\/em> (Praise the Lord) into a major cable television ministry with over 2,000 employees and millions of viewers. They also constructed Heritage USA, a massive Christian theme park in Fort Mill, South Carolina.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Scandals:<\/strong> Bakker\u2019s empire unraveled in 1987 following revelations of a paid cover-up regarding a sexual encounter with church secretary Jessica Hahn. Federal investigations subsequently uncovered extensive financial misuse, including selling more lifetime memberships to Heritage USA than the park could accommodate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Conviction & Imprisonment:<\/strong> In 1989, Bakker was convicted of 24 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy. He was sentenced to prison and served approximately five years before his release in 1994.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Later Years<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Following his prison sentence, Bakker returned to televangelism and hosted The Jim Bakker Show<\/em> from Branson, Missouri, alongside his second wife, Lori.<\/sup> His later career was marked by the promotion of survivalist gear, end-times prophecy, and various health supplements, which generated further controversy and legal scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/sup><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Jim Bakker, the televangelist who built a multi-million-dollar Christian broadcasting empire before it collapsed under sex and financial fraud scandals, died on October 5, 2026, at the age of 86.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzEwXC9CYWtrZXIud2VicCIsInR4dCI6IlRlbGV2YW5nZWxpc3QgSmltIEJha2tlciBEaWVzIGF0IDg2IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.CxvBqH00f0YF4-BVMFblUrCPmE9YmfzyKZ0vPz0eXhkMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzEwXC9CYWtrZXIud2VicCIsInR4dCI6IlRlbGV2YW5nZWxpc3QgSmltIEJha2tlciBEaWVzIGF0IDg2IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.CxvBqH00f0YF4-BVMFblUrCPmE9YmfzyKZ0vPz0eXhkMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[17813,17812,17808,17816,17815,17810,17811,17809],"class_list":["post-83437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-christian-broadcasting","tag-heritage-usa","tag-jim-bakker","tag-jim-bakker-death","tag-jim-bakker-obituary","tag-ptl-network","tag-tammy-faye-bakker","tag-televangelist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83437"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83441,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83437\/revisions\/83441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}