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Televangelist Scandals
From 1987 to 1990, a string
of revealed frauds, mismanagement of funds and infidelities
tainted the mission of evangelists with television ministries,
known as televangelists. The first known scandal was Jim
and Tammy Bakker's Praise The Lord (PTL) ministry. In 1986
the ministry's income was $129 million and included a 2300-acre
religious theme park, a hotel, a shopping mall in North
Carolina called Heritage USA, and its own TV station on
1200 channels. After paying church secretary Jessica Hahn
about $265,000 in blackmail money over an affair in 1980,
Jim Bakker resigned in 1987.
After his resignation, Bakker
asked Jerry Falwell to take over PTL. When Falwell began
examinng the accounts, he discovered that the Bakkers were
taking large amounts of money from the ministry fund, including
hundreds of thousands of dollars for salaries for himself
and his wife, insurance, property and other fees. After
the Inland Revenue Service investigated the accounts, they
discovered that the couple had diverted $4.8 million for
personal use. Part of that sum came from $1,000 partnerships
securing three days per year of free lodging at Heritage
USA, a promise that he was unable to keep for about 1500
people a month because of overbooking the hotel. Jim Bakker
was indicted for fraud in 1988 and sentenced to 45 years
in prison and fined $500,000.
The same year that Bakker's
legal troubles began, Moral Majority minister Jimmy Swaggart
confessed to a "sin," which later was said to
involve his use of prostitutes. Two years later he was discovered
in a car with a prostitute and a pile of pornographic messages.
Oral Roberts, leader of Oral
Roberts Evangelical Association, Oral Roberts University
and the City of Faith in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a large medical
center dedicated to the practice of faith-healing, also
saw his ministry collapse in 1988. After closing his medical
center after a lawsuit and debts drained the Association's
budget, Roberts concentrated on the University. In 1987
he offered scholarships for a four-year missionary program
for which he had raised $8 million in 1986 by telling viewers
that "God would take him home" if the money were
not raised. However, in 1988 he discontinued the program,
demanding that the students repay the money at 18 percent
interest.
Jerry Falwell, who inherited
PTL ministries after Bakker's arrest, drove the organization
to its bankruptcy and in 1989 dissolved the Moral Majority,
a ministry that he had founded, as well. His remaining projects
consisted of the Thomas Rock Baptist Church, where he was
senior pastor, and Liberty University, which he had instituted
as well. After funding expansions at the university with
loans, using the university's funds to give away bonds on
"The Old-Time Gospel Hour," and offering numerous
scholarships, Falwell steered the university into a $110
million debt by 1990, after which he saw a significant decrease
in contributions.
The Grahams' Connection
As his fellow evangelists seemed to take their turns
facing justified criticism, Billy Graham maintained his
own integrity and the sincerity of his message. Far from
publicly condemning his peers, Billy spoke of them with
concern, and even visited Jim Bakker in prison. When his
Crusades would generate more offerings than he had anticipated,
both Billy and Ruth gave their share to needy organizations.
As for his own efforts to integrate television into his
ministry, Billy hosted a half-hour weekly program in 1951
but discontinued it a few years later because of the immense
commitment of time it required. Afterwards he telecast his
Crusades but never again tried a weekly program.
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