Forgiven: The Rise and Fall of Jim Bakker and the PTL Ministry

Charles E. Shepard's investigative reporting of television evangelist Jim Bakker and his Praise The Lord/People That Love ministry won for The Charlotte Observer the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for meritorious public service.

Written in a flat, low-keyed reportorial style, this lengthy account of televangelist Jim Bakker and his PTL ministry is a devastating, behind-the-scenes portrayal of deceit, mismanagement and greed. Shepard is the Charlotte Observer journalist whose exposes forced Bakker's resignation in 1987 and helped thwart his return to power; he won a Pulitzer Prize for his reportage. Aided by scores of interviews, he follows Bakker from his Muskegon, Mich., boyhood, through his histrionics as a TV evangelist working for Pat Robertson to his masterminding of PTL as it grew into a $180-million corporation. Bakker and Tammy Faye posed as a model couple, but off the set their marriage was deeply troubled, according to Shepard. He views Bakker as a pathological narcissist and a cynical manipulator. Readers seeking gossipy details about the Jessica Hahn scandal, Bakker's alleged homosexual activities and his internecine feud with Jerry Falwell will not be disappointed. Above all, this bizarre saga attests to the dominant influence of TV on American life. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"Follow the money" is an investigative journalist's credo, and Charlotte Observer reporter Shepard, on the beat of Jim Bakker's PTL ministry, found a lot of it: Bakker had managed to raise over $500 million on his TV show. Shepard's reporting of PTL's misused finances--the money-guzzling Heritage Park complex, the payoff to Jessica Hahn--won him the 1988 Pulitzer Prize. In this book, Shepard discusses Bakker's rise to popularity, the peculiarly American phenomenon of Christian broadcasting, and Bakker's equally flawed rival, Jimmy Swaggart. Unfortunately, Shepard sometimes overloads on detail and hesitates to make analysis; more of the latter on Bakker, wife Tammy Faye, and the PTL flock--whom Shepared says were for the most part sincere--would have been welcome. Still, this is an admirably researched job, and the first on the Bakker scandal. Recommended.
- Judy Quinn, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.