Word: blackmailed
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...operator of a TV ministry, university and medical center in Tulsa, had broadcast that God would "call Oral Roberts home" unless by March 31 believers came up with $4.5 million for missionary work. Many Christians, including some Roberts followers, were scandalized by what they perceived to be implicit spiritual blackmail. The Bakker-Roberts furor raised questions about the future of TV evangelism, a fast-growing, klieg-lighted mode of Christian proselytizing -- and fund raising. Counting radio, the gospel broadcasters' total receipts probably approach $2 billion a year. To critics as well as concerned believers, the industry often seems more concerned...
...Leaders of the 2.1 million-member Assemblies of God emerged from a caucus at Springfield, Mo., headquarters to pronounce that there had been no takeover plot and no blackmail, but an apparent "moral failure," which Bakker had covered up. The church investigation is continuing...
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...
...news conference, "Please, please, release my husband." The Jihad group said it was willing to do so only in exchange for some 100 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Officials in Washington and Jerusalem reiterated their objections to any such deal on the grounds that it would be submitting to blackmail. Thus, despite the optimism generated by the release of two Saudi Arabian hostages two weeks ago, the fates of Steen and 22 other foreign captives still in Lebanon remained as unresolved as ever...
...built over 13 years, came to an end last week. With trembling voice, the televangelist confessed to the Charlotte Observer that he had been < "wickedly manipulated by treacherous former friends" who had "conspired to betray me into a sexual encounter." Following that involvement, Bakker said, he had "succumbed to blackmail" to protect his family and organization. After the news broke, Bakker resigned as head of PTL, handing control of his troubled operation to fellow TV Preacher Jerry Falwell...