Word: bakker
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Shortly thereafter Swaggart alerted Assemblies of God leaders to the impending scandal. Then, on March 19, Bakker beat the Observer to the punch. He confessed to the newspaper his adultery and the payment of "blackmail," quit PTL, and to the surprise of his followers handed control over to Jerry Falwell...
...York City lawyer who, incredibly, had represented Penthouse magazine against Falwell when the evangelist sued to prevent distribution of an issue containing an interview with him. In an additional twist, Grutman had also once been Falwell's lawyer in a libel case against Hustler. Now working for Bakker, Grutman declared that an unnamed evangelist had mounted an unfriendly "takeover" bid for PTL and threatened that if this preacher did not back off, "we're going to be compelled to show that there is smellier laundry in his hamper than the laundry he thought was in Rev. Bakker's." A mysterious...
Denying that there was any plot or that he coveted control of PTL, Swaggart said that in early March he and Ankerberg, along with Falwell and other televangelists, decided to send a letter to Bakker asking him to tell the truth and repent. Swaggart later wrote Ankerberg a letter asking that his name be kept off the letter. Apparently that letter leaked to Bakker, who interpreted it as a "takeover" bid by his rival...
Joining the attacks was Bakker's friend Oral Roberts, who warned without mentioning Swaggart by name that "Satan has put something in your heart that you're better than anybody else." At a Tennessee nightclub Swaggart's cousin, Rock 'n' Roller Jerry Lee Lewis, leaped to the defense: "Jimmy Swaggart don't have to lie about nothing." After some tensions, Falwell agreed that Swaggart had "no designs...
Important questions hover over new PTL President Dortch, who may face action by the Assemblies of God for his part in the Bakker scandal. According to Roper, Dortch was more deeply involved than Bakker in arranging the payments to Hahn. Falwell offered no enlightenment last week on whether the $265,000 hush money had come from contributions to PTL ministries, but he said an audit committee would go to work on it. That word came at a PTL headquarters press conference, at which Falwell handed out financial reports showing that PTL revenues exceeded expenses by $19.8 million in the year...