Falwell Cuts Off Bakkers’ $1.6-Million-a-Year Salary : Loyalists Swept Off PTL Board

Jerry Falwell, responding to threats of a “holy war” by disgraced PTL leader Jim Bakker, swept Bakker loyalists off the evangelical empire’s board of directors today and cut off the $1.6-million-a-year salary the ministry was still paying Bakker and his wife.

Falwell also cut off $265,000 trust fund payments to Jessica Hahn, the church secretary whose brief dalliance with Bakker in a Florida hotel seven years ago led to his downfall.

The Moral Majority leader, a fundamentalist Baptist who took over the reins of the evangelical PTL ministry at Bakker’s own behest five weeks ago, had insisted that he would fight no “holy wars” with Bakker.

Other Preachers Gone

But when the board meeting of almost four hours was over, PTL President Richard Dortch, Bakker’s right-hand man, and evangelist Rex Humbard, the only other board member with ties to Bakker, were gone.

Falwell told a news conference that the board had discussed the salary “for Rev. Bakker and Mrs. Bakker and determined that from this point no further remuneration, salaries or bonuses would be paid.”

“Counsel was directed to meet with Bakker representatives concerning Reverend Bakker’s future entitlement to book, record and tape royalties from his work, and fairness will prevail,” Falwell said.

Public Charges Hurled

Falwell’s moves came four days after Bakker said he was ready to wage a “holy war” to reclaim his PTL empire. That led another evangelist, John Ankerberg, to go public with charges that Bakker not only had the adulterous affair with Hahn but also had sex with prostitutes and homosexuals.

Falwell said the board did not reach a conclusion on the sex charges against Bakker.

“The board today is not sidestepping the issue (of Bakker’s sex life),” he said. “We simply feel we are not adequately informed as a total board.”

Dortch, who had been linked to the Hahn payoff, apparently slipped out of the meeting room and into the hotel garage, where he was whisked away by car. Humbard, 68, walked out the front door of the hotel, snapping that he was “too old” for such battles.

Resignation Urged

“It was the feeling of the board today also that under the circumstances that Rev. Richard Dortch resign from the board of directors and as president of PTL, and he has effectively stepped down today,” Falwell said.

When it was revealed that the Bakkers had drawn nearly $5 million in salary and bonuses over the last several years, Dortch announced that he would forgo his own $350,000 salary for a year. But Falwell, saying that he would be embarrassed to make more than $100,000, said such figures were appalling.

It was not long after the salary revelations that Falwell said he received the “holy war” telex from Bakker. It was widely expected that Falwell and the board would resign en masse if Bakker tried to come back.

There was no indication that Bakker had left his Palm Springs mansion, where he has been in seclusion since resigning March 19.