It’s a story that started at Central Bible College in Minneapolis, grew in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and finally exploded nationally from its headquarters that were based in Charlotte and the metro area town of Fort Mill, South Carolina. It’s a story of family: the Bakkers.
Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker built a televangelist’s dream empire at the PTL Club (initially headquartered in Charlotte on Park Road). Their programming was broadcast from 1974 to 1989, and their level of success eventually led to the establishment of Heritage USA, an evangelical Christian-based theme park and residential area located just south of Charlotte in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
In 1988, Bakker was indicted on 24 counts of conspiracy, mail and wire fraud. He was convicted in 1989 and served five years of his eight-year sentence in a federal prison. The couple divorced while he was in prison.
Tammy Faye died in 2007. Jim died on October 5, 2026.
The Bakkers had two children, Tammy Sue “Sissy” Bakker and her brother, Jamie Charles “Jay” Bakker. In better times, the entire Bakker family would appear on “The PTL Club” series together.
Both children distanced themselves from their father as adults.
Jay, disillusioned with his father’s version of Christianity, aligned himself with a progressive vision of the faith, co-founding Revolution Church. After stints in Phoenix and Atlanta, he eventually moved to New York to serve as pastor of the Big Apple’s branch of Revolution. He then moved in 2013 to the Minneapolis branch.
Jay now lives in Seattle and oversees the online incarnation of Revolution. He has been fully affirming of LGBTQ+ individuals during his ministry. When asked in an interview for Religion Dispatches what his message was for the LGBTQ+ community, Bakker said, “You’re loved just the way you are. People might turn on you, and Christians might turn on you, but that’s not Jesus … Know that you’re accepted, no matter what anybody says; accept that you’re accepted, because that is transformative.”
Tammy Sue, on the other hand, followed in her mother’s footsteps as a singer. She continued to work with her father’s ministry in Missouri until she left in 2022. In a statement released on October 8, she said that she “quietly left” her father’s ministry “because the message that was being delivered was not” hers. “I have spent the years since estranged from my father.”
Her father, Jim, did not preach about homosexuality as vehemently as did his counterparts, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. However, he did apparently share the conservative views of fundamentalist Christianity. In 2022, he publicly supported “Don’t Say Gay” legislation and intimated that Christian pastors were being killed because they were supporting anti-gay efforts.
Jim Bakker admitted to having an affair with a church secretary in 1980. However, he was also accused by several people, including Jerry Falwell, of engaging in numerous same-sex affairs. Bakker consistently denied those allegations.
Apparently, in Tammy Sue’s view, her father, whether through his preaching or denial of homosexual allegations, bore significant blame for the spiritual, emotional and sometimes physical harm suffered by many in the LGBTQ+ community. She also seems to view him as responsible for significant financial harm in general.
In the October 8 press release, she said, “I want to publicly apologize, from the depths of my soul, to anyone who has been hurt by the church or my family’s ministry over the last 60 years. I know that millions of lives were positively changed by PTL, and for that I’m grateful. I have also read the letters and comments — and have been told in person many times — that so many gave their last dime to that ministry.”
Tammy Sue went on to say that she was heartbroken by the detrimental impact of the church on “millions of people suffering, being rejected by their families, living with depression, being kicked out of their family homes, feeling like outcasts, dealing with suicidal ideation, or dying by suicide.”
Issued three days after her father’s death, Bakker says in the press release that rather than sending flowers or gifts, she is “encouraging you today, from my heart, to donate your funds or your time to your local LGBTQIA+ community.”
Doing so, she said, might “possibly save someone’s life.”
“It’s time to stop judging,” Bakker said. “To stop hating. To unconditionally wrap your arms around your brothers and sisters and say, ‘I love you just the way you are.’”
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