Jim Bakker's net worth, age, children, wife, theme park, prison, products, today
The story of Jim Bakker’s net worth is one of grass to grace and a fall from grace to grass. Nowadays, the once-popular televangelist is trying to preach and sell his way back to paradise. Indeed, it is a tale of how one of America’s famous pastors found himself at the receiving end of an unholy battle.
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Jim Bakker's net worth and celebrity status in the American Christian sphere started from sincere religious belief. The prosperity-preaching pastor and his wife, Tammy Faye, were the power couple of televangelism in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition, Jim Bakker was a visionary fundraising specialist, and he used that talent to pursue various Christian dreams.
Who is Jim Bakker?
Fully known as James Orsen Bakker, Jim is an American televangelist and convicted fraudster. The televangelist was born on the 2nd of January, 1940, to Raleigh and Furnia Bakker. Jim Bakker's age is 81 years.
He hosted The PTL Club television program with his then-wife, Tammy Faye, between 1974 and 1987, and developed Heritage USA, a now-defunct Christian theme park in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
How did Jim Bakker become successful?
The televangelist's success story started from the church. He was studying at North Central University in Minneapolis. The school is a private Christian college, and it was where he met his first wife, Tammy Faye. The duo later became the Christain version of Bonnie and Clyde.
In 1966, the couple started working in a Christian broadcasting network owned by Pat Robertson. Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye worked in the children department, and their contribution was successful. Bakker got a promotion to host the primetime show. After that, he worked on a couple of other Christian shows until he decided to start a private show with his supportive wife.
The Jim Bakker show premiered in 1976, and they called it the PTL club. The PTL was an acronym for Praise the Lord or People that Love. The club show aired on his PTL satellite network with other Christian shows.
Interestingly, they made a lot of money from the show through donations from their viewers. Unfortunately, the financial success of their talk show made the televangelist delve into other Christian entrepreneurship ventures, which became the beginning of his fall from grace.
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Jim Bakker's 2021 net worth
Bakker's net worth is estimated at $500,000. However, this pales in comparison to his wealth in the 1980s. His wealth is an accumulation of several business endeavours; some of which are discussed below:
Jim Bakker’s books
Some of Bakker's books include:
- I was Wrong
- The Refuge
- Move that mountain
- Time Has Come: How to Prepare Now for Epic Events Agra’s
- Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse
Jim Bakker's theme park
In 1978, the televangelist established an amusement park called the Heritage USA. It was the Christian version of Disneyland and Disney World, although it sat on 2,300 acres of land.
More so, the park had a train that carried guests around on their visit. Then, a water park, Billy Graham’s house, and various replicas of Jesus’ activities in Jerusalem made the Heritage park the dream vacation spot for most Christians at the time before it stopped operations toward the end of the 1980s.
Products
Jim sells practical products like generators, toilet buckets, papers, flashlights, etc.
Jim Bakker's wife and children
Jim has been married twice. He first married Tammy Faye in 1961. Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker's children are Tammy Sue and Jay Charles. However, they divorced while Jim was in prison before she died from cancer in 2007.
Jim Bakker got married to a female televangelist, Lori Graham, in 1998, four years after his release from prison. Lori's House by Jim Bakker is an initiative for pregnant women who have difficulty deciding whether to keep a pregnancy or abort it.
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Jim Bakker's prison sentence
What happened to Jim Bakker? It all started with his wife’s drug addiction and then a sexual scandal involving Jim and a former church secretary, Jessica Hahn. Then, after probing Jim’s finances, they found out Bakker had defrauded his followers of millions of dollars through his Heritage USA ventures that included a never completed hotel.
Jim promised those who donated $1,000 would spend three free nights in the hotel yearly. Afterwards, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison, which were later reduced to eight years after an appeal. He was paroled in 1994; so, he spent only about five years in prison.
Is Jim Bakker still alive?
Yes, Jim Bakker is alive today. He suffered and recovered from a stroke in 2020. However, Jim Bakker's controversies include a lawsuit filed against him by the Missouri government. He advertised a drug that claimed to cure coronavirus on his show and was asked to refund the $156,000 he collected.
Jim Bakker has not given up on his faith despite the tribulations and crimes that have smeared his Christain career. On the contrary, he continues to bring people into the Lord's fold amidst various scepticism about his tactics and the truth of his antecedents.
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