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Christian Media Taught Us How to Respect with Jim Bakker

Christian Media Taught Us How to Respect with Jim Bakker

Last updated on: October 8, 2026 at 10:47 am by Shawn Paul Wood

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Christian Media Taught Us How to Respect with Jim Bakker 2026-10-08T10:47:00-05:00 Shawn Paul Wood

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“Welp, Jim Bakker is dead!”

Now what?

When news broke Oct. 6 that televangelist Jim Bakker had died the previous day at 86, social media had its fun with some seemingly obligatory niceties and trolling ballyhoo. Mainstream media had no problem kicking a little dirt on a dead man, either. Did you see some of the headlines?

The New York Post called him a “scandal-scarred televangelist.”
The Washington Post went with “disgraced televangelist who went to prison.”
CBS News said Bakker “fell into disgrace.”
While USA Today introduced him as a “televangelist disgraced by sex and financial scandals.”

Christian media didn’t exactly hide the family embarrassment, but they did something interesting in the process:

Charisma simply identified Jim Bakker as a televangelist and PTL founder
Religion News Service noted that he was “once imprisoned for scandal.”
Christianity Today may have offered the most interesting contrast, calling him a “pioneering televangelist later caught in crimes.”

Everyone reported the same dead man. They didn’t all introduce him the same way. Read this, despite what you think this is about. It’ll hit close to home!

BUT FIRST: Headlines hit the Body of Christ every week, and somebody has to dissect them with a real understanding of faith, instead of only a hot take from a news talk show. Subscribe to our free newsletter for a straight biblical answer to why each story actually matters to your faith. That’s what hits close to home!

Which Jim Bakker Makes The Headline?

A side-by-side of a young Jim Bakker during his PTL days and an old Jim Bakker during his smaller persona in Florida

A Tale of Two Jims? (Image Credit : Judy Walker/Shutterstock)

Let’s not pretend “disgraced” came from nowhere. Just look at that featured image…Bakker is standing in front of the “Heritage USA” Christian theme park. If you know that story, you can already feel the disgust, shame, or “Why, God, why” blowback. Go grab some Tums and read the rest.

Jim Bakker’s sexual encounter with church secretary Jessica Hahn became public in 1987, although Hahn alleged sexual assault and Bakker maintained the encounter was consensual. He resigned from PTL, and the scrutiny soon moved from sex to money. In 1989, Bakker was convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges related to PTL fundraising. His 45-year sentence was later overturned, and he eventually served nearly five years in federal prison.

Those facts belong in an obituary about Jim Bakker. So do some others.

Before becoming one of the most infamous names in televangelism, Bakker helped Pat Robertson develop The 700 Club, worked alongside Paul and Jan Crouch in the early days of what became TBN, and eventually built PTL into a broadcasting powerhouse. His program borrowed from late-night television—desk, couch, band, guests and conversation—at a time when religious television largely meant pointing a camera toward a pulpit.

Then came something even more consequential. In 1978, PTL launched a private satellite network a year before ESPN. At its peak, The PTL Club reached millions of homes, while Heritage USA attracted six million visitors in 1986.

None of those accomplishments excuses what followed. They do explain why Christianity Today could accurately use the word “pioneering” in the same headline that contained the word “crimes”.

Maybe the interesting part isn’t which description of Jim Bakker is true. It’s why we think we have to choose only one.

When The Adjective Becomes The Verdict

That’s what kept pulling me back to those headlines. The Christian publications weren’t sanitizing Bakker’s life. Christianity Today recounts the sexual scandal, fraud, prison sentence, and later Silver Solution controversy. Religion News Service similarly covered his fall, the ministry he built, and the life he lived after prison.

Cover of Jim Bakker's book and confession "I Was Wrong"

(Image Credit: Hawking Books)

Bakker even supplied his own indictment. He titled his 1996 autobiography I Was Wrong, repudiating the prosperity theology he once preached. In later interviews, Bakker described copying the words of Jesus from the Gospels while incarcerated and coming to believe his pursuit of wealth had distorted his faith. His post-prison ministry eventually produced controversies of its own, making any neat redemption narrative difficult to write.

That’s what good journalism is supposed to do with a complicated life: report the complication. For example, calling Jim Bakker “disgraced” isn’t false. Neither is calling him “pioneering.”

One records the wreckage he caused; the other recognizes something he contributed. The difference I noticed in much of the Christian coverage wasn’t an unwillingness to report the former. It was a willingness to leave room for the latter.

That sounds suspiciously like something Christians are supposed to understand.

Paul tells believers to “give to everyone what you owe them,” including respect and honor.
Peter makes the circle even wider when he instructs Christians to “show proper respect to everyone.”

Scripture doesn’t say everyone deserves our admiration. It says something much more difficult about how we treat them.

The Headline We Write About Each Other

A neon sign reading "not so guilty" with the word so in parentheses

Guilty or Innocent? We are not the greatest judge of what’s real. (Image Credit: @theblowup via Unsplash)

Honor doesn’t require historical amnesia. The Bible, which tells Christians to honor people, also warns against calling evil good and good evil. There is nothing dishonorable about reporting Jim Bakker’s conviction or acknowledging the people hurt by his actions.

Grace isn’t pretending accountability never happened, and respect doesn’t require restoring someone to a position or trust that was forfeited.

What Christian media demonstrated in much of its coverage was simpler. It told the truth without insisting that the ugliest truth had to become the man’s name. That’s when this story started feeling less like a media critique and more like a church story.

We write headlines about people all the time—we just don’t publish them.

Someone becomes the pastor who fell, the woman who had the affair, the man with the addiction, the family member whose politics became unbearable, the friend who betrayed us, or the person who left our church under circumstances everybody still whispers about. Sometimes every word of our private headline is factually correct. The question is whether it tells the whole story.

Christian media didn’t give Jim Bakker a pass. It gave him proportion. His crimes remained crimes. His failures remained failures. His contributions to Christian broadcasting remained contributions, too. Perhaps that’s what biblical honor looks like when somebody has given us plenty of reasons to withhold it.

Judgment ultimately belongs to God. Our job is considerably smaller: tell the truth, refuse to call evil good, and give honor where honor is due.

Christian media taught us something about respect when Jim Bakker died. Maybe the church should read the headlines.

General Christian

Religious Events

About Shawn Paul Wood

Jim Bakker is dead. Now, what is your first thought? Many believers will rush directly to PTL, Tammy Faye, scandal or prison. Did anyone think about Jesus? It's difficult, but then again, it's tough to see Jesus in most people. Yet, we're taught to do just that. Here's how the Christian media taught us about respect. You can read more about the author here.

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