televangelism has a strange history and a big part of that comes from jim baker
alongside his former wife tammy fay jim rose to prominence hosting the seminal christian program
the ptl club at the height of that show's success jim and tammy faye were making enough money they
were able to create their own amusement park heritage usa though numerous controversies in the
80s caused the baker's reign to come to an end jim is still on the air today in a diminished capacity
join facts first as we explore what happened to jim baker after ptl jim baker was born january
2nd 1940 in muskegon michigan as a young adult he attended north central university which is a
notable bible college in minneapolis while there he met a woman named tammy fay lavalley in 1961
they married north central university frowned upon its students getting married so jim and
tammy faye were kicked out of the school after tying the knot they began working in children's
ministries at local churches and eventually caught the attention of televangelist pat robertson
robertson immediately took a liking to jim and tammy faye he hired them to begin working for
his channel the christian broadcasting network or cbn pat hired jim and tammy faye in 1966
at the time his channel was nowhere near the success it was soon to become thanks to the
superstar couple the baker's first contribution to cbn was the children's show come on over
it was a variety program that featured various sketches involving puppets that were performed by
jim and tammy faye after the show became a massive success jim managed to talk pat into giving him
his own talk show reminiscent of late night programs of the time that show was the 700 club
which has long since become cbn's most successful and longest running show jim and tammy faye had
turned cbn into a major success for pat robertson but the couple wanted something of their own in
1974 the couple branched off from cbn to develop the ptl satellite network with the help of local
affiliates this station began broadcasting the baker's own show the ptl club in 1976. the ptl
club was essentially a clone of the 700 club but with more direct emphasis on jim and tammy fay
it was filmed out of a studio jim had built called heritage village as the ptl club became more and
more successful jim expanded heritage village into a full-blown amusement park that was named
heritage usa and it opened in 1978. at the height of the ptl club's success the bakers were rumored
to have been taking in over a million dollars in donations from fans per week however their
success came crashing down in the 80s due to two separate scandals that destroyed jim's reputation
the first of the two scandals that destroyed them involved allegations of sexual misconduct in 1987
jim was accused of behaving inappropriately with a woman named jessica hahn who had worked as a
church secretary jessica alleged that not only had jim molested her under the pretense of hiring her
as a babysitter but she had been molested by other members of his operation too it was revealed jim
had paid jessica a sum of nearly three hundred thousand dollars to keep her allegations to
herself once this was revealed jim was immediately disgraced the televangelist went on to claim he
had engaged in an extramarital affair with jessica but the sex was consensual whether consensual or
not the news proved damning upon the reputation of the supposed christian after the disgrace of
the sexual misconduct allegations and subsequent payoff came to light jim stepped down from his
role on the ptl club he hired the reverend jerry falwell to take over for him for the time being
with the intention of coming back once things had cooled down but things didn't turn out the way he
had been planning jerry eventually cut jim out of the program entirely and the network later filed
for bankruptcy under jerry's control after losing the ptl satellite network the ptl club heritage
usa and his reputation as an honest man it may have seemed like jim baker had hit rock bottom
but things were about to get a good deal worse hey if you're enjoying this video so far
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that the sexual misconduct allegations against jim baker came to life the televangelists became
engaged in another controversy that eventually saw the influential religious leader put behind
bars it came about from annual memberships jim had sold to his followers under false pretenses
from 1984 to 1987 jim sold lifetime memberships to heritage usa that entitled whoever purchased them
to an annual three-night stay at one of several luxury hotels that were supposedly going to be
built on the premises not only was there never a hotel built the entire park was shut down in 1989.
this meant that the people who purchased these one thousand dollar memberships had eventually
paid for just a few trips there were apparently multiple tens of thousands of lifetime memberships
that had been sold to jim's followers in 1988 jim was charged and found guilty on 24 counts related
to fraud and conspiracy and was subsequently sentenced to 45 years in prison and a 500 000
fine but jim appealed he was able to get the case brought before the u.s court of appeals
for the fourth circuit though the court upheld the verdict that jim had been guilty of his crimes
they took issue with the judge's sentencing the judge had made a remark regarding his own personal
faith which gave the courts reason to believe the judge may have imposed excessive punishment upon
jim vindictively as a result of the appeal jim's sentence was reduced from 45 years to eight years
he served only five years of the sentence before being let out on parole thanks to a heartfelt
letter jim's son had written to the parole board he was released in 1994 and promised he would
never return to his fraudulent ways however he still owed the irs around 6 million dollars
jim and tammy had two children during their marriage daughter tammy sue and son jaime jaime
was the one who wrote the letter to the parole board this was despite the fact his parents had
acrimoniously split in 1992 in the wake of the misconduct allegations in 1998 jim remarried
to a woman named lori beth graham lori was a former televangelist herself and the two were
married within 50 days of meeting since becoming married the couple has adopted five children
with the help of lori jim started a new show in 2003 leaving behind his old brand the new show
was simply called the jim baker show along with his new show jim seems to have developed a new
interpretation of theology his new preaching comes with a much heavier emphasis on the apocalypse
instead of simple donations and memberships his new show continues to profit by selling
its audience survivalist supplies these supplies are meant to come in handy during the apocalypse
which jim claims is liable to occur at any moment the jim baker show is still on the
air and jim recently found himself entangled in a completely new web of controversy amidst the
kovid 19 pandemic jim had been selling colloidal silver supplements on his show for some time when
kovit 19 began taking up air time in early 2020 he jumped at the opportunity to claim his colloidal
silver supplements could be used to cure the virus in march of 2020 he was ordered by the attorney
general of new york to stop saying his supplements could cure covet and he was also sent a letter
by the food and drug administration but the most devastating impact came from the attorneys general
of arkansas and missouri who both filed lawsuits against jim for the claims credit card companies
began prohibiting him from receiving transactions and numerous channels began making the decision
to stop airing the jim baker show perhaps from stress jim suffered from a stroke in may
that caused him to step down from his role on the program but he recovered and returned to the show
in july the lawsuits came to their conclusion in june as a result jim was prohibited from making
any more claims about his colloidal silver supplements being able to cure any disease
or condition and the televangelist was forced to pay out settlements totaling 157 thousand dollars
to anyone who had purchased the supplements in question during the time jim had been making the
false claims now it's time to hear from you comment down below to share if you think jim
deserves to still be on tv after all he's done and be sure to give this video a like and subscribe to
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