March 19, 1987: The Jim Bakker PTL Scandal

March 19, 1987: Jim Bakker resigns in disgrace as head of The PTL Club, both the organization and the TV show of the same name.

Jim and his wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, had been in the ministry with the Assemblies of God denomination since the early 1960s, prior to joining Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) in 1965. In 1973, he built on his success there by founding the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and started The PTL Club (the initials standing for "Praise The Lord") in 1974.

They broadcast out of Charlotte, North Carolina, hometown of the world's most famous Protestant evangelist, Billy Graham. Living across the State Line in suburban Fort Mill, South Carolina, they built a Christian theme park there, Heritage USA. Jim's preaching of "prosperity gospel" led some people to joke that "PTL" actually stood for "Pass The Loot."

For years, there seemed to be little about Bakker that stood out from other televangelists, other than Tammy Faye getting emotional over big contributions to PTL, and her mounds of makeup running as she cried.

But on March 19, 1987, Bakker resigned as head of PTL, and turned over control of his assets to the country's leading Assemblies of God minister, Jerry Falwell. He did so because of the revelation that, in 1980, he and his former co-host, John Wesley Fletcher, both of them 40 years old, had drugged and raped Jessica Hahn, then a 21-year-old secretary for PTL, in a hotel room in Clearwater, Florida, and then paid her $279,000 in hush money.

Bakker eventually said the sex was consensual, but that every other charge was true. Selling out to Falwell, famous for his group, which he rather inaccurately named "The Moral Majority," didn't work, as contributions to PTL dried up, and operations, including Heritage USA, shut down before the year was out.

Bakker was indicted, and convicted on 24 counts, mostly of fraud, and was sentenced to 45 years in prison. He served 6, including time at the federal prison in Rochester, Minnesota, where he shared a cell with political charlatan Lyndon LaRouche. He later remarried, wrote a memoir titled I Was Wrong, and seemed to be on the path to redemption.

Until Barack Obama came along. That seemed to send him back over the edge, and he became an end-times preacher, a Tea Partier and a Trumpanzee. He has lived into his 80s, and is unrecognizable. It looks like he wears more makeup than Tammy Faye ever did.

No, that's not "snake oil."

But it was sold as a COVID preventative.

It didn't work.

Tammy Faye, considered a sympathetic figure by some, but complicit by others, also remarried, and became an advocate for gay rights and AIDS victims, something her ex-husband would not have done. She died in 2007, after a long battle with cancer.

Their son, Jay Bakker, became a very different kind of minister, with tattoos and piercings and preaching to a multicultural congregation in Minneapolis, including officiating at gay weddings and serving rainbow-colored communion bread. He looked beyond "prosperity gospel" and saw the real Jesus.

Jessica Hahn became an actress, had a relationship with comedian Sam Kinison, and had a longer-term one with TV producer Ron Leavitt that lasted until his death.

*

March 19, 1987 was a Thursday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 5 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Indiana Pacers, 111-105 in overtime at Madison Square Garden. Gerald Wilkins scored 34 points for the Knicks.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 110-106 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 114-97 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Michael Jordan scored 40 points.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 125-124 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* And the Dallas Mavericks beat the Sacramento Kings, 105-104 at the original Arco Arena in Sacramento.

And there were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Minnesota North Stars, 6-2 at the Boston Garden.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* And, in hockey's "Battle of Alberta," the Calgary Flames beat their arch-rivals, the Edmonton Oilers, 5-4 at the Saddledome in Calgary.