Episode 241: The Gospel for Sale: Jim Bakker, the Prosperity Gospel, and the Business of Selling God's Blessings

C-Suite for Christ Podcast · Oct 28, 2026 · 1h 15m

Jim Bakker died on October 5, 2026, at 86. Paul M. Neuberger uses his death not to mock a man whose fall from grace became a national scandal, but to ask a harder question: why did the theology that built Bakker’s empire survive him?

This episode traces the PTL Club from its peak, an estimated 13 million nightly viewers and a sprawling Christian resort called Heritage USA, through the 1987 scandal involving church secretary Jessica Hahn, the discovery of a ministry drowning in debt despite enormous fundraising, and Bakker’s eventual conviction on 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy. But the…