PTL Satellite Network

==Scandals==
PTL's fund raising activities between 1984 and 1987 underwent scrutiny by ''[[The Charlotte Observer]]'', eventually leading to criminal charges against 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 and raised more than twice the money that was needed to build the actual hotel. Much 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]], who was mistakenly supposed to be a Bakker staff member, was paid by Tammy Faye's later husband, [[Roe Messner]]. Hahn was actually a onetime acquaintance of Bakker set up by a "friend" in 1980.<ref name=Time12-1988 /> 
 
Bakker, who apparently made all of the financial decisions for PTL, allegedly kept [[two sets of books]] to conceal the accounting irregularities. Reporters from the ''Observer'', led by Charles Shepard, investigated and published a series of articles on the PTL organization's finances.<ref>{{cite magazine | first=Richard N.| last=Ostling | title=Enterprising Evangelism | date=August 3, 1987| url =http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,965155,00.html | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070212091610/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0%2C8816%2C965155%2C00.html | url-status =dead | archive-date =February 12, 2007 | magazine =Time | access-date = 2007-01-27 }}</ref>

On March 19, 1987, following the revelation of a payoff to Hahn to keep secret her allegation that Bakker had [[rape]]d her, Bakker resigned from PTL.<ref name=Time12-1988>{{cite magazine | last=Ostling|first=Richard N. |author-link=Richard N. Ostling | title=Jim Bakker's Crumbling World | date=1988-12-19 | magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time magazine]] |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,956551,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060820142543/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,956551,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 20, 2006 | access-date=2007-12-05 }}</ref> Bakker acknowledges that he had a sexual encounter with Hahn at a hotel room in [[Clearwater Beach]], [[Florida]], but denies raping her. Following Bakker's resignation as head of PTL, he was succeeded in late March 1987 by [[Jerry Falwell]].<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Ostling|first=Richard N. |author-link=Richard N. Ostling|title=Taking Command at Fort Mill| magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time magazine]]|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,964322-1,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090308110637/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,964322-1,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 8, 2009|date=1987-05-11|access-date=2008-11-09}}</ref> Later that summer, as donations sharply declined in the wake of Bakker's resignation and the end of ''The PTL Club'', Falwell raised $20 million to help keep Heritage USA solvent, including a well-publicized waterslide plunge there.<ref>{{cite magazine | url=http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,965543,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050212141215/http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,965543,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=February 12, 2005 | title=American Notes: Fund Raising | magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] | date=1987-09-21 | access-date=2007-11-29}}</ref> Falwell called Bakker a liar, an [[embezzlement|embezzler]], a sexual deviant, and "the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history."<ref name=timesonline>[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2120961.ece Tammy Faye Bakker - Obituary]</ref> In 1988, Falwell said that the Bakker scandal had "strengthened broadcast evangelism and made Christianity stronger, more mature and more committed."<ref>{{cite news | title=Preacher Scandals Strengthen TV Evangelism, Falwell Says | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | date=1988-03-19 |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/73577139.html?dids=73577139:73577139&FMT=ABS&FMTS | access-date=2007-12-05 }}</ref> Bakker's son, Jay, wrote in 2001 that the Bakkers felt betrayed by Falwell, who they thought during Bakker's resignation had intended to help in Bakker's eventual restoration as head of PTL.<ref name=Jay />{{rp|33&ndash;37}}