THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 5, 1996 TAG: 9610050369
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE LENGTH: 52 lines
After five years in prison for bilking his followers out of millions of dollars, Jim Bakker is learning to live without his ministry, the fancy cars and houses, and Tammy Faye.
``I really, really am lonely. I miss Tammy Faye,'' Bakker said in an interview with Barbara Walters on ABC's ``20-20'' Friday.
Most of the interview and his new book, ``I Was Wrong,'' focus on Bakker's life in federal prison and his relationship with Tammy Faye Messner, his former wife and PTL co-host.
Bakker, 56, says his lowest point in prison came when he found out that Tammy was divorcing him to marry his best friend, Roe Messner.
``My wife of more than 30 years was leaving me,'' he writes. ``I wept . . . and wept . . . and wept.''
A federal jury in Charlotte convicted Bakker in 1989 of conspiracy and wire and mail fraud for selling more than 150,000 ``lifetime partnerships'' to the now-defunct ministry's Heritage USA theme park in Fort Mill, S.C.
Prosecutors said the partnerships - which typically went for $1,000 apiece and offered a free hotel room three nights a year for life - were a form of time-share that were illegally oversold, with Bakker living off the proceeds.
While he still denies he ever sold time-shares, Bakker blames himself for living an extravagant lifestyle.
``It was wrong as a minister of the gospel, I believe, to live that way,'' Bakker said in the interview, taped at his modest brick farmhouse in Hendersonville. ``Back then, I felt it was fine and justifiable.''
Bakker also talks about being sexually molested by a man when he was 11 years old and about questioning his sexuality in prison. He said a prison therapist assured him he was not homosexual.
In the book, he writes of the sexual encounter with Jessica Hahn - which led to his 1987 downfall at PTL: ``I knew it was wrong. My conscience screamed at me every step of the way. But I stupidly determined to make my wife jealous.''
Hahn said Friday the television appearance was an attempt by Bakker to revive his image and ultimately get back in business as a television evangelist.
``What he'll do is ask for everyone's apology, say he was wrong, say the devil made him do it, rebuild the mailing list, rebuild his church,'' Hahn said. ``And we will have Barbara Walters and `20-20' to thank for that.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Jim Bakker has served five years for bilking his followers of
millions. by CNB