Word: bakker
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Succeeding weeks brought new disclosures of scandal, including accusations that the Bakkers and their cronies had siphoned huge sums of money from PTL and allegations that Jim had been involved in homosexual activity. Four weeks ago, Bakker was ousted from the ministry by the Assemblies of God, a major Pentecostal denomination. Jim and Tammy fled to their handsome retreat in Palm Springs, Calif., from which Jim sent messages indicating that at some point he hoped to reclaim his domain...
...wonder. At stake in the Bakker-Falwell struggle was an empire consisting of a daily TV show carried on 161 stations; the largest all-day religious cable service, transmitted to 13 million homes; and the gaudy 2,300- acre Heritage USA theme park at Fort Mill, S.C., a kind of Christian Disneyland that last year had more than 6 million visitors. PTL claimed 1986 proceeds of $129 million...
...under control. That meant an exasperating search for missing PTL records and monies, an emergency drive to raise $7 million by May 31 so PTL could keep functioning, and an almost nonstop talk with PTL creditors and inquisitive federal agents. Besides all that, a group of Bakker sympathizers was trying to undermine Falwell's leadership...
...Nightline appearances, Bakker offered a new interpretation of the key events that led to Falwell's takeover of PTL. Bakker's version: in the crucial meeting at a Palm Springs hotel on March 17, Falwell precipitated Bakker's resignation with the threat that Swaggart was plotting a "hostile takeover" of PTL. Said Bakker: "I did not choose Jerry Falwell to take my ministry." Bakker noted that Falwell said he would be a "caretaker" to prevent the takeover while Richard Dortch, one of several Bakker aides who were later to be sacked by Falwell for mismanagement, would remain in charge. Subsequently...
...Tammy Bakker said she had advised her husband, "Something isn't right here. Don't do it, Jim." She asserted that Lawyer Norman Roy Grutman, hired by PTL, pledged that members of Falwell's newly constituted PTL board would submit resignation letters in advance. Supposedly Grutman said that "anytime you and Jim want to walk back in, all you have to do is tell the board of directors...