Latest news with #JimBakker
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Televangelist Jim Bakker Says He Needs A Million Bucks Or 'I'll Be Out On The Street'
Televangelist Jim Bakker, who was at the heart of one of most notorious religious scandals of the 1980s, says he's in desperate need of cash right now. And if he doesn't get $1 million, he will lose everything and be homeless. 'If everyone that watches this program will give $1,000, we'll be able to pay our bills and stay on the air,' he said on his show on Tuesday. 'Otherwise we got about another maybe a month.' He said it's not just his show that's on the line. 'If they foreclose on this ministry, they will take my house too, so I'll be on the street,' he said. Bakker claimed he hasn't taken a salary himself and has no money of his own. 'We have a big debt,' he said, saying an unnamed 'they' has 'taken millions of dollars from us.' One of the show's cohosts indicated the financial problems began in 2020, when Bakker was in trouble with a number of authorities for hawking 'Silver Solution' during the COVID-19 pandemic. In one case, he reached a settlement with the Missouri attorney general that included restitution of $156,000. Bakker at the time also used the threat of an impending bankruptcy to raise funds. He said on Tuesday that those who give him money will reap other benefits. 'I guarantee you God's going to do something,' he said, later adding: 'God's gonna bless you as you give, because when you give, you're gonna receive.' Bakker spent the 1980s turning his ministry into an empire that included a TV network and a resort. But it all came crashing down on him as he resigned amid a sex scandal and fraud allegations, the latter of which landed him in prison for four years. In more recent years, Bakker has fashioned himself as something of a doomsday prophet ― saying on Tuesday, for example, that we're in the 'end times' ― and sells food buckets and other 'prepper' items on his show and website. The 85-year-old has also had some health issues including a series of strokes in 2020 and a hospitalization last year.
Wall Street Journal
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
Roe Messner, a Prolific Church Builder and Husband of Tammy Faye Bakker, Dies at 89
In the 1980s, the televangelist Jim Bakker was riding a sensational wave of fame, religious fervor and cash, bringing in more than $100 million in revenue annually as the founder and face, along with his wife Tammy Faye, of 'The PTL Club' television show and PTL Satellite Network. As Bakker's ministry grew, his dreams got more grandiose, culminating in the construction of a theme park called Heritage USA—a kind of sprawling Christian Disneyland outside Charlotte, N.C., featuring a luxury hotel, shopping district and water park. ('We're the first Christians to ever have a wave pool!' Bakker exclaimed.) To bring that dream to life, he enlisted Roe Messner, a church builder with a sterling reputation for getting things done.
Boston Globe
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Today in History: March 19, Bush announces Iraq invasion
In 1945, during World War II, more than 800 service members were killed when a Japanese dive bomber attacked the carrier USS Franklin near Japan. In 1953, the 25th Academy Awards ceremony was the first to be televised; 'The Greatest Show on Earth' would win the Oscar for Best Picture. Advertisement In 1965, archeologist E. Lee Spence discovered the wreckage of the SS Georgiana, a Confederate ship that had sunk near Charleston, S.C., exactly 102 years earlier. In 1966, Texas Western (now the University of Texas at El Paso) became the first team to start five Black players in the NCAA basketball tournament's championship game; they defeated top-ranked Kentucky in the final, 72-65. In 1987, televangelist Jim Bakker resigned as chairman of his PTL ministry organization amid a sex and money scandal involving Jessica Hahn, a former church secretary. In 1995, 17 months after announcing his retirement from basketball, Michael Jordan returned to play in the NBA with his former team, the Chicago Bulls. (He would go on to win three more NBA championships alongside the three he and the Bulls had already won.) In 2003, in a televised address, President George W. Bush announced that coalition forces had begun an invasion of Iraq. (Bush would declare victory just over five weeks later in his 'Mission Accomplished' speech.)
