BAKKER, JIM 1940- AND BAKKER, TAMMY 1942-
Televagelist team; founders of the ptl network
Beginnings
In 1965 Jim and Tammy Bakker, two young, itinerant evangelists, joined station WYAH in Virginia, Beach, Virginia with a Christian puppet show. It quickly attracted a devoted local audience and also became one of the most successful syndicated programs for Pat Robertson's developing Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). A year later Jim Bakker was allowed to broadcast the Christian talk show of which he had always dreamed, with a format based on the popular The Tonight Show. The 700 Club, as Bakker called it, became the prototype of the developing television ministry. Both the puppet show and The 700 Club were crucial in bringing new stations into the CBN system. It was also on The 700 Club that Bakker learned how effective his pleas for funds could be. When he weepingly asked his viewers to send in money to keep CBN on the air during an early fund-raising campaign, the station was flooded with pledges. Bakker would make financial crises a regular part of his ministry when he later set up on his own.
California
In 1972 Jim and Tammy Bakker left CBN and moved to California, where Jim helped to put together another religious broadcasting system, the Trinity Broadcast Network. There he introduced his talk show with a new name, the PTL Club. Originally the initials stood for "Praise The Lord," but to soften the charismatic implications of that phrase the initials were sometimes said to mean "People That Love," In time Bakker's critics would say they stood for "Pass The Loot."
PTL Network
In 1974 the Bakkers moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, where they set up a new broadcasting system, which they called the PTL Network. PTL quickly syndicated the Bakkers' show, which attracted larger and larger audiences. PTL became one of the leading religious television networks, and the Bakkers became religious celebrities. By 1975 contributions to PTL amounted to over five million dollars, and the amount was rising. Bakker insisted his was the world's fastest-growing ministry.
PTL's Message
The PTL Club reflected the developing nature of Pentecostalism in America. The production costs were high, requiring lavish sets, expensive clothing, and large numbers of volunteers to take pledges and talk with people who called into the program with their issues. Jim Bakker's engaging personality and Tammy's trademark heavy makeup, often spoiled by her tears, earned them devoted followers. Bakker softened the restrictive qualities of early Pentecostalism and suggested that God wanted his followers to be successful and live well. Certainly he and Tammy exemplified this in their own lives.
Competition
Bakker and Robertson seemed to be in competition during the late 1970s. Bakker insisted PTL was larger than CBN because he had more stations in his network, but CBN covered larger markets. PTL quickly followed CBN in leasing access to satellite broadcasting, making simultaneous broadcasting possible, and both expanded their physical facilities with funds generated from viewer donations.
Downfall
But before the end of the decade Bakker began to lay the basis for the financial scandal that would eventually bring down his empire. In 1978 he broke ground for a complex outside Charlotte, in neighboring South Carolina, that became Heritage USA. Bakker wanted this planned community of condominiums, shops, and meeting halls to serve as a combination resort, retreat, and retirement village for Christians, The project quickly drained the contributions that flowed to the ministry. Bakker's pleas for money to avert one financial catastrophe or another became commonplace on his program.
Prison
By 1979 the Bakkers' lavish lifestyle, extravagant projects, financial problems, and suspect pleas for funds to send to missions in Korea and Brazil attracted the attention of The Charlotte Observer, which began a long-term investigation of PTL. At the same time the Federal Communications Commission also started an in-conclusive investigation into the financial activities of the ministry. The investigation culminated in Jim Bakker's conviction in 1988 of overselling timeshares at Heritage USA.
Sources:
Jim Bakker, Move That Mountain (Charlotte, N.C.: PTL Network, 1975);
Larry Martz with Ginny Carroll, Ministry of Greed: The Inside Story of the Televangelists and Their Holy Wars (New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988);
Charles E. Shepard, Forgiven: The Rise and Fall of Jim Bakker and the PTL Ministry (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989).
