Jim Bakker, a television evangelist who lost his popular and prosperous ministry in a sex scandal in the 1980s and then lost his freedom for five years, imprisoned for violating federal laws with his combination of God and Mammon, died Monday. He was 86 years old. His wife, Lori Bakker, announced the death in a statement on Mr. Bakker’s official Instagram account. She did not cite a cause or say where he died. Bakker suffered what was described as a minor stroke in 2020. In the 1970s and 1980s, Bakker and his first wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, rose to fame and wealth by preaching the prosperity gospel, the notion that those who embraced genuine Christian faith would reap material rewards. Their pulpit was the PTL television ministry, which stands for Praise the Lord and the People You Love, and their calling was a combination of sermons, songs and tears. Both had a predilection for crying in public. Tammy Bakker cried on air so often that she made sure her thickly applied mascara was waterproof. The Bakkers attracted up to 13 million viewers per day and generated annual revenues of up to $129 million. On a 2,500-acre tract of land in Fort Mill, S.C., they created and sold shares in Heritage USA, a sort of Christian Disneyland, with water slides and skating to accompany prayer and Bible study. Bakker (pronounced Baker) was a gifted speaker who made no apologies for getting it right in the name of the Lord. “Excess and success go hand in hand,” he said in 1985. “Anyone who is successful has to be excessive.”
