BRANSON, Mo. -- Televangelist Jim Bakker, who was convicted of wire fraud and served five years in prison, is planning another TV ministry.
Bakker said he already has commitments from stations in several cities to broadcast his new show, according to The Associated Press. The hourlong show should begin taping this fall in a Branson, Mo., restaurant, Bakker said. His wife, Lori Graham Bakker, will co-host.
"We serve a God of the second chance," said Bakker, a 62-year-old former Assemblies of God minister. "We're about restoration. We're not coming to say, ‘Be like us.' "
Bakker first hit the airwaves in the 1970s with his PTL Ministries. He resigned from PTL in 1987 after admitting to an affair. Soon after, Bakker and other PTL officials were implicated in a fraud scheme linked to the sale of memberships in his Heritage USA theme park in Fort Mill, S.C.
Bakker's first wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, divorced him while he was in prison.
