A Friend in Good and in Bad Times

Contributed by Rev. Martin Dale

Some years ago, I attended a conference called “Spring Harvest at Work” in Sheffield (in November 1998).

And what was memorable for me was that the conference organizers sprang a surprise interviewee on us – Jim Bakker- an outcast in the Evangelical community.

Indeed he was such an outcast that they didn’t even dare advertise that he was going to be interviewed until the day itself.

Let me just give you a little of the background to Jim Bakker’s story:

From 1987 to 1990, the ministry of television evangelists (popularly referred to in the press as “televangelists) was brought into disrepute by the revelation of a string of frauds, mismanagement of funds and infidelities.

The first scandal to break and probably the most infamous - was that of Jim and Tammy Bakker followed by the fall of Jimmy Swaggart.

In 1986, the income of Baaker’s ministry was $129 million.

But then Jim Bakker had an affair with the church secretary Jessica Hahn in 1980 and resigned in 1987, when it came to light that he had paid her about $265,000 in blackmail money over the affair.

With his resignation, Bakker asked Jerry Falwell to take over and, when Falwell began examining the accounts, he discovered that the Bakkers had been illegally taking large amounts of money from the ministry fund.

Falwell called the US Inland Revenue Service in and when they investigated the accounts they discovered that the couple had diverted $4.8 million for personal use.

Jim Bakker was indicted for fraud in 1988, was given a 45 year prison sentence and fined $500,000.

When the scandal broke, Bakker's Christian friends quickly deserted him.

He became an outcast in the Christian world.

And when he was sentenced, his wife Tammy Faye left him too and then divorced him.

That evening at “Spring Harvest at Work”, Jim Bakker told us a little known story of his time in prison:

Six months into his sentence, he was surprised one afternoon when the prison governor called him into his office. Bakker had a visitor: Billy Graham.

When Graham came in, Bakker asked him why he had come to visit because he knew that any association with Bakker would tarnish Graham's reputation.

Billy Graham replied that Bakker was his friend in good and in bad times and now when things were bad, he would stand by his side.

And Billy Graham was true to his word.

Bakker's sentence was eventually reduced, on appeal, to ten years and when he came out of prison on parole, he had nowhere to stay.

So the Grahams invited him to stay with them.

On the Sunday following Baaker's release, Ruth Graham took him to church with her.

Disregarding what people would think about her, she stood up in church and introduced Jim Bakker to the congregation as her friend, Jim Bakker.