Bakkers’ $1.6-Million PTL Salaries Cut Off by Falwell

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, remaining firmly in command of the scandal-racked PTL religious empire, Tuesday cut off the $1.6 million in salaries for the ministry’s fallen leaders, Jim and Tammy Bakker, and removed the Rev. Richard Dortch, Bakker’s right-hand man, from all PTL leadership.

At the same time, Falwell acknowledged that PTL money--not Bakker’s personal funds--had been used to hush a sexual tryst that Bakker has admitted.

“I’m convinced that these dark days (for PTL) can be turned around,” Falwell said at a press conference after a tense meeting of the board that he appointed last month to take charge of PTL.

But Falwell made it clear that any attempt by Bakker to regain control would not be tolerated.

During a meeting in the Bakkers’ Palm Springs home on March 17, Bakker suddenly asked Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority, to take charge of the $172-million-a-year PTL ministry. Bakker confessed to Falwell that he had had an adulterous sexual encounter in 1980.

Falwell said that Bakker, who was not present at Tuesday’s four-hour board meeting in the PTL’s Heritage Grand Hotel, had written him last week, threatening “a holy war” if Falwell interfered with Bakker’s return to power.

“We have no intention of stepping aside,” Falwell said. “Bakker’s ministry here has ceased.”

(Tammy Bakker emerged Tuesday from the Bakkers’ Spanish-style home in Palm Springs and spoke briefly with reporters who had gathered outside the guarded residence. “We are very sad right now,” she said, fighting back tears. “Jim will be back soon . . . and will explain our side of what happened.” She refused to disclose the whereabouts of her husband on Tuesday.)

PTL attorney Norman Roy Grutman confirmed at the packed press conference Tuesday that PTL money was involved in the $265,000 fund set up to keep church secretary Jessica Hahn quiet about her sexual encounter with Bakker.

Because she talked to the press, Grutman said, “in our view she violated that agreement . . . and perhaps she’ll have to return what (money) she received.”

Hahn was to receive the interest from a $150,000 trust fund over a 20-year period, according to the agreement.

(A tearful and angry Hahn denied Tuesday that she had violated the terms of the settlement that called for her to remain silent about the sexual tryst. “I have done everything I’ve been asked to do. I’ve kept quiet. I have not been hostile to Jim Bakker or the ministry. I have not even commented about Jim Bakker,” Hahn told reporters assembled outside her Long Island home.)

Falwell said Kansas building contractor Roe Messner, who is currently owed $14.7 million by PTL for unpaid construction bills at the 2,300-acre Heritage USA complex here, had “made a judgmental error” by consenting to Dortch’s request to channel the $265,000 payment to a California attorney representing Hahn. The transfer was accomplished by including the expenditure on an invoice from Messner’s company to PTL, sources said.

New Sex Charges

Rumors of an imminent Bakker comeback prompted Chattanooga television evangelist John Ankerberg to make public new charges last weekend alleging that Bakker had used prostitutes and engaged in homosexual acts and that high-level PTL leaders had indulged in wife-swapping.

Bakker, in a statement from his Palm Springs home, later denied the charges.

Falwell said the board had discussed the charges of sexual improprieties at the Tuesday meeting but would not make the findings public.

“It is not our role to get into these personal issues,” Falwell said.

But he promised that there will be “no cover-up” and that many of the people who have made the allegations will be interviewed by board members.

“For spiritual reasons, I am offering any person who is accused the privilege of sitting down to face . . . their accusers one by one,” Falwell explained.

Regarding Dortch, Falwell said the board thought it best that he resign. No immediate replacement for Dortch, who has been host of the daily PTL television program since Bakker’s resignation, has been named, Falwell said.

But Falwell, acknowledging that there will be “a more balanced approach” in the future to the program’s often emotional, charismatic flavor, said he will personally host the show for several days.

No Permanent Role

“But I have no intention of permanently sitting in that seat,” he added.

Falwell seemed to have support for his leadership from the nearly 1,000 members of the PTL staff who turned out Tuesday afternoon for a hastily called meeting after the press conference.

The employees gave the independent Baptist leader a standing ovation when he entered the room and applauded again when he said: “I love every one of you. I don’t have a hit list; I’m not mad at anyone. I believe God led us to assume this responsibility at this hour.”

The staff members also applauded when Falwell spoke of a “need to enter a new era of accountability--to repent, confess and seek revival. . . .”

“Out of what is ashes can come beauty,” he said.

Typical of staff reaction was a comment by the Rev. Dan Johnson, an Assemblies of God minister who until several weeks ago was director of PTL’s pastoral ministries.

“I favor Jerry Falwell’s principles. I think he’s going to make it work,” Johnson said.

He added that he quit the PTL when he learned that Bakker had received $1.6 million last year in salary and bonuses and Dortch was paid more than $350,000.

Falwell, who receives no salary from the PTL, introduced the PTL staff to other members of the new board, as well as to several key administrative leaders he has put in charge of PTL operations.

Fund-Raising Question

PTL attorney Grutman said “a voluntary moratorium” would be in effect until the legal status of PTL’s sale of “lifetime partnerships” could be clarified.

At issue is whether Bakker and Dortch improperly registered a major fund-raising campaign with the state of South Carolina in which tens of thousands of people paid at least $1,000 each for the lifetime right to spend four days and three nights each year at the Heritage Grand Hotel or Tower here.

The program brought in $115 million, Falwell said, but the payments may not be fully tax deductible because the donors paid for a service in addition to donating to a nonprofit religious organization.

“We are committed that none of the lifetime partners will lose a dime,” Falwell said. “We are optimistic but cautiously so.”

If the courts forced PTL to return $1,000 to each donor, the organization would be pushed into bankruptcy, conceded Falwell, who said PTL debts currently are about $50 million.

Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service is considering revoking the PTL’s tax-exempt status for 1981-83 because a “substantial portion” of its earnings benefitted Bakker, his relatives and other PTL officers, according to published reports.

If PTL were to lose its tax-exempt status, contributors could not deduct gifts to the ministry on their tax returns, and PTL would have to file back tax returns and perhaps pay back taxes.

Falwell also disclosed that evangelist Rex Humbard, 68, had asked to resign from the new eight-member PTL board.

“I’m just a little bit older than you are, and I’m not going to ride that horse,” Falwell quoted Humbard as saying.

Humbard was known to be sympathetic toward Bakker’s return to the helm of PTL. Humbard declined to speak to reporters here.

Times staff writer Louis Sahagun in Palm Springs also contributed to this story.