PTL Satellite Network
Encyclopedia
The PTL Television Network -- often referred to as simply PTL -- was a global evangelical Christian television network
based in Fort Mill, South Carolina
, founded by Jim
and Tammy Faye Bakker in 1974. PTL Satellite Network was dedicated in April of 1977. During PTL's fourteen year history, the Bakkers, as hosts of the network's flagship talk show, The PTL Club
, became two of the most recognizable and highly-rated televangelists in the United States
. However, the PTL ministry would collapse in 1987, after a former church secretary, Jessica Hahn
, accused the evangelist of rape, and later financial scandals purported that the couple had used the non-profit PTL's donations to fund an opulent personal lifestyle. Bakker would be sent to prison for embezzlement
in 1989.
After PTL declared bankruptcy, the cable network was sold in 1989 to Morris Cerullo
World Evangelism of San Diego, California
and came to be known as The Inspiration Network
, now headquartered at new facilities that were recently constructed in nearby Indian Land, South Carolina
. The Inspiration Network operates as a separate and distinct entity chaired by Morris Cerullo's son David.
in Minneapolis, Minnesota
. Tammy Faye worked in a boutique for a time while Jim found work in a restaurant inside a department store in Minneapolis. They were married on April 1, 1961, and left the Bible College to become itinerant
evangelists.
In 1966, the Bakkers began working at Pat Robertson
's Christian Broadcasting Network
in Virginia Beach, Virginia
, which at the time barely reached an audience of thousands. The Bakkers would make great contributions to CBN as a nationally recognized television ministry. The couple hosted The Jim and Tammy Show, a variety program hosted by the Bakkers and several puppet
characters. The program was aimed at young children, whom they entertained with comic routines with the puppets, as well as airings of "Davey and Goliath
", a claymation Bible
-story series. Due to the success of The Jim and Tammy Show, Robertson made Bakker the host of a new prime-time talk show called The 700 Club
, which would gradually become CBN's flagship program, and become syndicated on numerous cable channels and network affiliates.
In the early 1970s, the Bakkers left CBN and traveled, holding telethons at Christian TV stations. In Charlotte, North Carolina, the Bakkers set up Trinity Broadcasting Network with TV executives Sandy and Martha Wheeler, who began airing a local version of Praise the Lord on WRET, Channel 36, owned by Ted Turner at the time. The Bakkers moved to California
, teaming with their former youth pastors Paul
and Jan Crouch, to create the Praise the Lord show for the Crouches' new Trinity Broadcasting Network in California. However, the relationship only lasted about eight months due to a falling-out between Jim Bakker and Paul Crouch, causing the Bakkers to leave this ministry as well. Trinity Broadcasting Systems was based in Charlotte, NC and the California entity was named Trinity Broadcasting Network
, which would grow to become the world's largest faith-based network in later years. Before leaving and moving east, the Bakkers managed to retain the rights to use the initials "PTL". What began as a local TV broadcast in Charlotte changed when several members of the Bakker's staff in California moved to Charlotte in February of 1974 and with the local staff built Trinity Broadcasting Systems into what became known as the PTL Television Network. The parent company changed its name to Heritage Village Church & Missionary Fellowship in 1976–77. The purchase of the Heritage USA properties in Fort Mill, SC began at that time. The PTL Satellite Network uplinked from Heritage Village on Park Road in Charlotte until December 1986. The Heritage Village Property was sold and satellite and video tape editing operations moved to Heritage USA.
newspaper, eventually leading to criminal charges against Jim Bakker. From 1984 to 1987, Bakker and his PTL associates sold $1,000 "lifetime memberships", which entitled buyers to a three-night stay annually at a luxury hotel at Heritage USA
. According to the prosecution at Bakker's later fraud trial, tens of thousands of memberships had been sold, but only one 500-room hotel was ever completed. Bakker "sold" more "exclusive partnerships" than could be accommodated, while raising more than twice the money needed to build the actual hotel. A good deal of the money went into Heritage USA
's operating expenses, and Bakker kept $3.4 million in bonuses for himself. The $279,000 payoff for the silence of Jessica Hahn
, a woman who was mistakenly supposed to be a Bakker staff member, was paid by Tammy Faye's later husband, Roe Messner. Hahn was actually a one-time acquaintance of Bakker, set up by a "friend" in 1980.
Bakker, who apparently made all of the financial decisions for the PTL organization, allegedly kept two sets of books
to conceal the accounting irregularities. Reporters from The Charlotte Observer, led by Charles Shepard, investigated and published a series of articles regarding the PTL organization's finances.
On March 19, 1987, following the revelation of a payoff to Jessica Hahn to keep secret her allegation that Bakker had raped her, Bakker resigned from PTL
. Bakker acknowledges he met Hahn at a hotel room in Clearwater Beach, Florida, but denies raping her. Following Bakker's resignation as PTL head, he was succeeded in late March, 1987, by Jerry Falwell
. Later that summer, as donations sharply declined in the wake of Bakker's resignation and the end of the Bakkers' popular PTL Club TV show, Falwell raised $20 million to help keep the Heritage USA Theme Park
solvent, including a well-publicized waterslide plunge there. Falwell called Bakker a liar, an embezzler, a sexual deviant, and "the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity
in 2,000 years of church history." In 1988, Falwell said that the Bakker scandal had "strengthened broadcast evangelism and made Christianity stronger, more mature and more committed". Bakker's son, Jay, wrote in 2001 that the Bakkers felt betrayed by Falwell, who they thought, at the time of Bakker's resignation, intended to help in Bakker's eventual restoration as head of the PTL ministry organization.
and one count of conspiracy. In 1989, after a five-week trial which began on August 28 in Charlotte
, the jury found him guilty on all 24 counts, and Judge Robert Potter sentenced him to 45 years in federal prison
and a $500,000 fine.
He served time in the Federal Medical Center, Rochester
in Rochester, Minnesota
, sharing a cell with activist Lyndon LaRouche
and skydiver Roger Nelson
.
In early 1991, a federal appeals court upheld Bakker's conviction on the fraud and conspiracy charges, but voided Bakker's 45-year sentence, as well as the $500,000 fine, and ordered that a new sentencing hearing be held.
Jim and Tammy Bakker were divorced on March 13, 1992. On November 16, 1992, a sentence reduction hearing was held and Bakker's sentence was reduced to eight years.
In August 1993, Bakker was transferred to a minimum security federal prison in Jesup, Georgia
, and was subsequently granted parole
in July 1994, after serving almost five years of his sentence. Bakker's son, Jay, spearheaded a letter-writing campaign to the parole board on his father's behalf, urging leniency.
His Federal Bureau of Prisons
(BOP) number was 07407-058, and he was released from BOP custody on December 1, 1994.
On July 23, 1996, a North Carolina
jury threw out a class action suit brought on behalf of more than 160,000 onetime supporters who contributed as much as $7,000 each to Bakker's coffers in the 1980s.
The Charlotte Observer reported that the Internal Revenue Service
still holds Bakker and Roe Messner
, Tammy Faye's husband from 1993 until her death in 2007, liable for personal income taxes owed from the 1980s when they were building the PTL empire, taxes assessed after the IRS revoked the PTL ministry's nonprofit status. Tammy Faye Messner's new husband said that the original tax amount was about $500,000, with penalties and interest accounting for the rest. Notices stating the IRS liens list still identify "James O. and Tamara F. Bakker" as owing $6,000,000, liens on which Jim Bakker still pays.
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
based in Fort Mill, South Carolina
Fort Mill, South Carolina
Fort Mill is a fast-growing suburban town in both York and Lancaster counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina, and a suburb of the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Rock Hill...
, founded by Jim
Jim Bakker
James Orsen "Jim" Bakker is an American televangelist, a former Assemblies of God minister, and a former host of The PTL Club, a popular evangelical Christian television program.A sex scandal led to his resignation from the ministry...
and Tammy Faye Bakker in 1974. PTL Satellite Network was dedicated in April of 1977. During PTL's fourteen year history, the Bakkers, as hosts of the network's flagship talk show, The PTL Club
The PTL Club
The PTL Club , later called The Jim and Tammy Show, and in its last days PTL Today and Heritage Today, was a Christian television program first hosted by evangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, which ran from 1974 to 1989...
, became two of the most recognizable and highly-rated televangelists in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. However, the PTL ministry would collapse in 1987, after a former church secretary, Jessica Hahn
Jessica Hahn
Jessica Hahn is an American model and actress. She is best known for a sex scandal involving televangelist Jim Bakker while she was employed as a church secretary.-Jim Bakker scandal:...
, accused the evangelist of rape, and later financial scandals purported that the couple had used the non-profit PTL's donations to fund an opulent personal lifestyle. Bakker would be sent to prison for embezzlement
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
in 1989.
After PTL declared bankruptcy, the cable network was sold in 1989 to Morris Cerullo
Morris Cerullo
Morris Cerullo is an American pentecostal televangelist.-Early life and ministry:Cerullo, whose evangelistic ministry is based in San Diego, California, was born in Passaic, New Jersey to a Russo Jewish/Italian family. His parents died in an automobile accident when he was only two years old...
World Evangelism of San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
and came to be known as The Inspiration Network
The Inspiration Network (INSP)
The Inspiration Network, also known as INSP, is a religious and family programming based television network headquartered in Indian Land, South Carolina, near Charlotte. It is the flagship network of parent company The Inspiration Networks, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Inspiration...
, now headquartered at new facilities that were recently constructed in nearby Indian Land, South Carolina
Indian Land, South Carolina
Indian Land is a fast-growing suburb in the northern neck of Lancaster County, South Carolina, United States. It lies just south of Ballantyne in southern Charlotte and east of Fort Mill. It is a major suburb of both Rock Hill and Charlotte. Its proximity to Ballantyne has enabled Indian Land to...
. The Inspiration Network operates as a separate and distinct entity chaired by Morris Cerullo's son David.
Background
In 1960, Jim Bakker met Tammy Faye LaValley while both were students at North Central UniversityNorth Central University
North Central University is a coeducational, undergraduate, primarily residential college owned and operated by 11 Assemblies of God districts of the upper Midwest. It is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA...
in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. Tammy Faye worked in a boutique for a time while Jim found work in a restaurant inside a department store in Minneapolis. They were married on April 1, 1961, and left the Bible College to become itinerant
Itinerant
An itinerant is a person who travels from place to place with no fixed home. The term comes from the late 16th century: from late Latin itinerant , from the verb itinerari, from Latin iter, itiner ....
evangelists.
In 1966, the Bakkers began working at Pat Robertson
Pat Robertson
Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson is a media mogul, television evangelist, ex-Baptist minister and businessman who is politically aligned with the Christian Right in the United States....
's Christian Broadcasting Network
Christian Broadcasting Network
The Christian Broadcasting Network, or CBN, is a fundamentalist Christian television broadcasting network in the United States. Its headquarters and main studios are in Virginia Beach, Virginia.-Background:...
in Virginia Beach, Virginia
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Virginia Beach is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay...
, which at the time barely reached an audience of thousands. The Bakkers would make great contributions to CBN as a nationally recognized television ministry. The couple hosted The Jim and Tammy Show, a variety program hosted by the Bakkers and several puppet
Puppet
A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre....
characters. The program was aimed at young children, whom they entertained with comic routines with the puppets, as well as airings of "Davey and Goliath
Davey and Goliath
Davey and Goliath is a 1960s stop-motion animated children's Christian television series. The programs, produced by the Lutheran Church in America , were produced by Art Clokey after the success of his Gumby series.Each 15-minute episode features the adventures of Davey Hansen and his "talking"...
", a claymation Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
-story series. Due to the success of The Jim and Tammy Show, Robertson made Bakker the host of a new prime-time talk show called The 700 Club
The 700 Club
The 700 Club is the flagship news talk show of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing in syndication throughout the United States and Canada. In production since 1966, it is currently hosted by Pat Robertson, Terry Meeuwsen, Kristi Watts, and Gordon P. Robertson, two of whom will host on any...
, which would gradually become CBN's flagship program, and become syndicated on numerous cable channels and network affiliates.
In the early 1970s, the Bakkers left CBN and traveled, holding telethons at Christian TV stations. In Charlotte, North Carolina, the Bakkers set up Trinity Broadcasting Network with TV executives Sandy and Martha Wheeler, who began airing a local version of Praise the Lord on WRET, Channel 36, owned by Ted Turner at the time. The Bakkers moved to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, teaming with their former youth pastors Paul
Paul Crouch
Paul Franklin Crouch is a religious broadcaster and, along with his wife Jan, co-founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network .-Biography:...
and Jan Crouch, to create the Praise the Lord show for the Crouches' new Trinity Broadcasting Network in California. However, the relationship only lasted about eight months due to a falling-out between Jim Bakker and Paul Crouch, causing the Bakkers to leave this ministry as well. Trinity Broadcasting Systems was based in Charlotte, NC and the California entity was named Trinity Broadcasting Network
Trinity Broadcasting Network
The Trinity Broadcasting Network is a major American Christian television network. TBN is based in Costa Mesa, California, with auxiliary studio facilities in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New...
, which would grow to become the world's largest faith-based network in later years. Before leaving and moving east, the Bakkers managed to retain the rights to use the initials "PTL". What began as a local TV broadcast in Charlotte changed when several members of the Bakker's staff in California moved to Charlotte in February of 1974 and with the local staff built Trinity Broadcasting Systems into what became known as the PTL Television Network. The parent company changed its name to Heritage Village Church & Missionary Fellowship in 1976–77. The purchase of the Heritage USA properties in Fort Mill, SC began at that time. The PTL Satellite Network uplinked from Heritage Village on Park Road in Charlotte until December 1986. The Heritage Village Property was sold and satellite and video tape editing operations moved to Heritage USA.
Scandals
PTL's fund raising activities between 1984–1987 underwent scrutiny by The Charlotte ObserverThe Charlotte Observer
The Charlotte Observer, serving Charlotte, North Carolina and its metro area, is the largest newspaper, in terms of circulation, in North Carolina and South Carolina...
newspaper, eventually leading to criminal charges against Jim Bakker. From 1984 to 1987, Bakker and his PTL associates sold $1,000 "lifetime memberships", which entitled buyers to a three-night stay annually at a luxury hotel at Heritage USA
Heritage USA
Heritage USA was a Christian theme park, water park, and residential complex built in Fort Mill, South Carolina, USA, by PTL Club founders televangelist Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker Messner...
. According to the prosecution at Bakker's later fraud trial, tens of thousands of memberships had been sold, but only one 500-room hotel was ever completed. Bakker "sold" more "exclusive partnerships" than could be accommodated, while raising more than twice the money needed to build the actual hotel. A good deal of the money went into Heritage USA
Heritage USA
Heritage USA was a Christian theme park, water park, and residential complex built in Fort Mill, South Carolina, USA, by PTL Club founders televangelist Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker Messner...
's operating expenses, and Bakker kept $3.4 million in bonuses for himself. The $279,000 payoff for the silence of Jessica Hahn
Jessica Hahn
Jessica Hahn is an American model and actress. She is best known for a sex scandal involving televangelist Jim Bakker while she was employed as a church secretary.-Jim Bakker scandal:...
, a woman who was mistakenly supposed to be a Bakker staff member, was paid by Tammy Faye's later husband, Roe Messner. Hahn was actually a one-time acquaintance of Bakker, set up by a "friend" in 1980.
Bakker, who apparently made all of the financial decisions for the PTL organization, allegedly kept two sets of books
Two sets of books
The concept of "two sets of books" refers to the practice of attempting to hide or disguise certain transactions from outsiders by having a set of fraudulent books for official use and another, the real set, for personal records....
to conceal the accounting irregularities. Reporters from The Charlotte Observer, led by Charles Shepard, investigated and published a series of articles regarding the PTL organization's finances.
On March 19, 1987, following the revelation of a payoff to Jessica Hahn to keep secret her allegation that Bakker had raped her, Bakker resigned from PTL
PTL
PTL may refer to:* The PTL Club, a defunct television program* PTL Satellite Network, a defunct Christian cable network on which The PTL Club was shown* Praise The Lord, a television program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network...
. Bakker acknowledges he met Hahn at a hotel room in Clearwater Beach, Florida, but denies raping her. Following Bakker's resignation as PTL head, he was succeeded in late March, 1987, by Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell
Jerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator from the United States. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
. Later that summer, as donations sharply declined in the wake of Bakker's resignation and the end of the Bakkers' popular PTL Club TV show, Falwell raised $20 million to help keep the Heritage USA Theme Park
Heritage USA
Heritage USA was a Christian theme park, water park, and residential complex built in Fort Mill, South Carolina, USA, by PTL Club founders televangelist Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker Messner...
solvent, including a well-publicized waterslide plunge there. Falwell called Bakker a liar, an embezzler, a sexual deviant, and "the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
in 2,000 years of church history." In 1988, Falwell said that the Bakker scandal had "strengthened broadcast evangelism and made Christianity stronger, more mature and more committed". Bakker's son, Jay, wrote in 2001 that the Bakkers felt betrayed by Falwell, who they thought, at the time of Bakker's resignation, intended to help in Bakker's eventual restoration as head of the PTL ministry organization.
Aftermath
Following a 16-month Federal grand jury probe, Bakker was indicted in 1988 on eight counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of wire fraudWire fraud
Mail and wire fraud is a federal crime in the United States. Together, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341, 1343, and 1346 reach any fraudulent scheme or artifice to intentionally deprive another of property or honest services with a nexus to mail or wire communication....
and one count of conspiracy. In 1989, after a five-week trial which began on August 28 in Charlotte
CHARLOTTE
- CHARLOTTE :CHARLOTTE is an American blues-based hard rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1986. Currently, they are signed to indie label, Eonian Records, under which they released their debut cd, Medusa Groove, in 2010. Notable Charlotte songs include 'Siren', 'Little Devils',...
, the jury found him guilty on all 24 counts, and Judge Robert Potter sentenced him to 45 years in federal prison
Federal prison
Federal prisons are run by national governments in countries where subdivisions of the country also operate prisons.In the United States federal prisons are operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In Canada the Correctional Service of Canada operates federal prisons. Prison sentences in these...
and a $500,000 fine.
He served time in the Federal Medical Center, Rochester
Federal Medical Center, Rochester
Federal Medical Center, Rochester is a United States Federal Bureau of Prisons facility in southeast Minnesota which provides specialized and long-term physical and mental health medical care to male offenders...
in Rochester, Minnesota
Rochester, Minnesota
Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on both banks of the Zumbro River, The city has a population of 106,769 according to the 2010 United States Census, making it Minnesota's third-largest city and the largest outside of the...
, sharing a cell with activist Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of a network of political committees, parties, and publications known collectively as the LaRouche movement...
and skydiver Roger Nelson
Roger Nelson (skydiver)
Roger Warren Nelson was a skydiver and founder of Skydive Chicago, the nation's largest skydiver training center.-Freak Brothers:...
.
In early 1991, a federal appeals court upheld Bakker's conviction on the fraud and conspiracy charges, but voided Bakker's 45-year sentence, as well as the $500,000 fine, and ordered that a new sentencing hearing be held.
Jim and Tammy Bakker were divorced on March 13, 1992. On November 16, 1992, a sentence reduction hearing was held and Bakker's sentence was reduced to eight years.
In August 1993, Bakker was transferred to a minimum security federal prison in Jesup, Georgia
Jesup, Georgia
Jesup is a city in Wayne County, Georgia, United States. The population was 9,279 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Wayne County.-Geography:Jesup is located at ....
, and was subsequently granted parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
in July 1994, after serving almost five years of his sentence. Bakker's son, Jay, spearheaded a letter-writing campaign to the parole board on his father's behalf, urging leniency.
His Federal Bureau of Prisons
Federal Bureau of Prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is a federal law enforcement agency subdivision of the United States Department of Justice and is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. The system also handles prisoners who committed acts considered felonies under the District of Columbia's...
(BOP) number was 07407-058, and he was released from BOP custody on December 1, 1994.
On July 23, 1996, a North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
jury threw out a class action suit brought on behalf of more than 160,000 onetime supporters who contributed as much as $7,000 each to Bakker's coffers in the 1980s.
The Charlotte Observer reported that the Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
still holds Bakker and Roe Messner
Roe Messner
Ronald Roe Messner is an American building contractor who has built more than 1,700 churches, including several megachurches....
, Tammy Faye's husband from 1993 until her death in 2007, liable for personal income taxes owed from the 1980s when they were building the PTL empire, taxes assessed after the IRS revoked the PTL ministry's nonprofit status. Tammy Faye Messner's new husband said that the original tax amount was about $500,000, with penalties and interest accounting for the rest. Notices stating the IRS liens list still identify "James O. and Tamara F. Bakker" as owing $6,000,000, liens on which Jim Bakker still pays.