Televangelist Jim Bakker, who was at the heart of one of the most notorious religious scandals of the 1980s, says he’s in desperate need of cash right now.
And if he doesn’t get $1 million, he will lose everything and be homeless.
“If everyone that watches this program will give $1,000, we’ll be able to pay our bills and stay on the air,” he said on his show Tuesday. “Otherwise we got about another, maybe a month.”
He said it’s not just his show that’s on the line.
“If they foreclose on this ministry, they will take my house too, so I’ll be on the street,” he said.
Bakker claimed he hasn’t taken a salary himself and has no money of his own.
“We have a big debt,” he said, adding that an unnamed “they” has “taken millions of dollars from us.”
One of the show’s co-hosts indicated the financial problems began in 2020, when Bakker was in trouble with a number of authorities for hawking “Silver Solution” during the COVID-19 pandemic. In one case, he reached a settlement with the Missouri attorney general that included restitution of $156,000.
Bakker at the time also used the threat of an impending bankruptcy to raise funds.
He said on Tuesday that those who give him money will reap other benefits.
“I guarantee you God’s going to do something,” he said, later adding: “God’s gonna bless you as you give, because when you give, you’re gonna receive.”
Bakker spent the 1980s turning his ministry into an empire that included a TV network and a resort. But it all came crashing down on him as he resigned amid a sex scandal and fraud allegations, the latter of which landed him in prison for four years.
In more recent years, Bakker has fashioned himself as something of a doomsday prophet ― saying on Tuesday, for example, that we’re in the “end times” ― and has been selling food buckets and other “prepper” items on his show and website.
The 85-year-old has also had some health issues, including a series of strokes in 2020 and a hospitalization last year.
