By 1986, PTL used 2,500 individuals all over the world and was taking in $129 million in yearly income, according to John Wigger‘s The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Evangelical Empire Their Christian- themed resort, Heritage U.S.A., was the third-most-visited tourist attraction in the U.S. that year, behind just Disneyland and Disney World, and the PTL Network reached 14 million houses. The Bakkers supposedly owned several houses, 2 Rolls Royces, a 55- foot houseboat and a personal jet.
On March 19, 1987, Jim resigned from PTL after church secretary Jessica Hahn declared that the pastor had actually sexually attacked her in December1980 Jim firmly insisted the encounter was consensual and he was never ever charged with a criminal offense, however he confessed to paying Hahn $265,000 from the church’s funds to remain peaceful. An examination into the ministry’s financial resources discovered that Jim had actually likewise been offering so-called “lifetime memberships” to their Heritage Grand hotel– to more individuals than there were spaces– for $1,000 a pop. Moreover, PTL could not represent $92 million in income.
Already at work introducing a brand-new TV-driven ministry in Orlando, Fla., Tammy Faye informed a press reporter ahead of Jim’s trial on scams charges, “If our case is tried on truth, we will win. I’m asking God that everyone will simply tell the truth… I’m praying for all the men who are lying.”
“Not only is Jim on trial, people,” she stated on her program, “but the church we know is on trial. Everything that has to do with Christian television is on trial when Jim walks into that courtroom.”
In 1989, Jim, who pleaded innocent, was founded guilty of 24 counts of wire scams, mail scams and conspiracy to dedicate scams and sentenced to 45 years in jail. He served 5, his sentence minimized on appeal, and upon his release penned the autobiography I Was Wrong, in which he exposed that, when he was 11, he was molested by a male member of his household’s church, leaving him really puzzled about his sexuality. In 1998 he wed Lori Beth Graham, they have 5 kids together, and he commands Morningside ministry in Blue Eye, Mo.
