Vast Complex Near Palm Springs : Bakkers Return to Desert With Dazzling New Plans

Disgraced, humiliated and broke, evangelist Jim Bakker and his wife, Tammy, loaded their furniture, appliances and the contents of Tammy’s voluminous closet into a moving van six months ago and left their hacienda here for a new life in Tennessee.

There, in a house on a heavily wooded hillside, Bakker said he planned to sort out his mounting legal problems and write a book about his life.

But they didn’t stay long in the quieter and more modest environs of Gatlinburg, Tenn.

The Bakkers are back in this posh resort and talking big--about building a desert complex east of here consisting of a hotel, golf courses and religious theme park. The dream, were it to materialize, and many are skeptical that it will, would rival the $172-million PTL-Heritage USA complex the Bakkers were forced to leave a year ago.

From a rent-free Palm Springs bungalow with a doughnut-shaped swimming pool in the yard, the Bakkers have been soliciting support and funds for projects ranging from the “inspirational city”--to be called Heritage Springs International--to a revival of the “Jim and Tammy” television show. Already in the works is an autobiography and an NBC Movie of the Week titled “Fall From Grace.”

To some critics, the controversial couple’s latest endeavors have an eerie resemblance to those of their past.

“I would say it is certainly audacious if not outrageous,” said Ben Armstrong, executive director of New Jersey-based National Religious Broadcasters.

“For him to come back without first addressing the legal problems would seem to me to be very inappropriate,” said Armstrong, whose organization includes about 75% of the nation’s television preachers.

But in an interview at his home, Bakker said he is not deterred by such criticism. “It’s my calling to do what I’ve been doing for the past 25 years,” he said.

Built Vast Ministry

In that time, the Bakkers nurtured a vast television ministry built with millions of dollars in donations from followers. Bakker abruptly resigned as head of the PTL organization after acknowledging that he had sex with a Long Island woman, Jessica Hahn, in 1980, and paying her money to keep it quiet.

The scandal brought the world of television evangelism to public attention as never before. In the most recent twist, one of Bakker’s chief accusers, the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, last week was forced to step down from the pulpit in his own sex scandal.

“If I can’t get back up, then this Gospel is not true,” Bakker said. “If I can’t be forgiven of anything and go on, and if I can’t be restored, then this Bible doesn’t work.”

To Bakker, “getting back up” means re-establishing himself as a top television preacher and leader of a grandiose community built by and for “those who believe in us.”

“The Bible says that heaven has streets of gold . . . and Jesus said, ‘My will be done on earth as it is in heaven,’ ” he said.

Lost ‘Sense of Reality’

To Jeffrey Hadden, a University of Virginia expert on television evangelists, the Bakkers’ plans suggest that they “have lost any sense of reality and insight into what happened to them and their world.”

“I am very skeptical that they can put together the financing (for Heritage Springs), that there will be any significant viewership (of a “Jim and Tammy” show),” Hadden said.

Yet, Hadden did not rule out the possible success of a “tongue-in-cheek” production. “To my taste it would be pathetic and bizarre, but it could take on a type of ‘camp’ possibility,” he said. “After all, Batman and Robin were outrageous but they were popular for a long time.”

Now, people from the Coachella Valley to the Carolinas are wondering whether the Bakkers can pull off their monumental plans. It would seem an almost impossible task considering the criminal allegations and lawsuits they are facing.

“He has more lives than a cat,” observed Riverside County Supervisor Patricia Larson, who has her own doubts about the man others in this desert area have called “The Michelangelo of religious fund raisers.”

Public Relations Expert

“Now, I don’t see how he could ever raise the money because of the negative publicity he has had,” Larson said. “On the other hand, he’s some public relations guy.”

Bakker also has friends, including realtors, developers and even television studio owners, all of whom said in interviews that they are eager to help.

Still, there are formidable hurdles in the path of any Bakker comeback.

A federal grand jury is reviewing evidence of possible tax evasion and fraud. As they await possible indictments, the Bakkers have been hit with lawsuits seeking millions of dollars allegedly squandered and misused while they headed PTL-Heritage USA.

The Bakkers received $1.6 million in salaries and bonuses in 1986, and $640,000 in the first three months of 1987, according to PTL records that emerged after Jim Bakker’s resignation. The Assemblies of God church removed Bakker’s ministerial credentials for the encounter with Hahn and for alleged “bisexual activities.” He has since obtained new ministerial credentials from Faith Christian Fellowship International, a Tulsa, Okla., denomination founded in 1977. To obtain these credentials, Bakker said he had “several lengthy discussions with church officials,” filed an application and paid a paper-work fee, usually $25.

Filed for Bankruptcy

PTL, which filed in bankruptcy court in November for protection from creditors who were owed more than $60 million, is seeking $52 million from the Bakkers and certain other former PTL leaders in a lawsuit accusing them of mismanagement and personal enrichment. In addition, the IRS has filed a claim against PTL for $55.7 million in back taxes.

Meanwhile, Bakker’s 81-year-old parents reportedly were preparing to file for unemployment compensation in Fort Mill, S.C., after being fired by the current leadership of PTL. “Jim cannot help,” said Raleigh Bakker, who worked as a “greeter” in the lobby of Heritage USA’s Grand Hotel. “If I was still working I would have to help him. He’s hard up.”

In these circumstances, Bakker has become very concerned about his image. During an interview, he refused to have his picture taken anywhere near the distinctive swimming pool at his home. “It’s a bad image,” he said. “Everybody wants to make me look rich and famous.”

Instead, he prefers to be perceived as a cautious businessman who has learned from past mistakes.

It was ‘businessman Bakker’ who wheeled into the distressed agricultural community of Coachella last month and led an entourage of developers into City Hall.

Unfurls His Plans

Flanked by the builder of Heritage USA, Roe Messner of Wichita, Kan., Bakker unfurled a map overlaid with his own rough sketch of the $2-billion, master-planned community and religious theme park he proposes to build here.

Then, he told key city officials about the “dream” he calls Heritage Springs International. Bakker said it would be a for-profit venture featuring a 1,000-room hotel, a 20,000-seat auditorium, three golf courses and a television studio. Bakker also said the 1,600-acre project would have a Holy Land theme park, according to some who were there.

What is more, he told them, it would generate thousands of jobs for the 13,500 mostly Latino residents of Coachella, which is one of the poorest cities in the state with an annual per capita income of $5,544.

The city officials were dazzled. Mayor Frank Duran would later compare the proposal to “winning the lottery.”

After the 45-minute session ended, the officials assured Bakker and builder Messner that the permit process, including an environmental impact study, could be completed in an unheard-of six months. Then Councilman Chuck Ellis stepped up and asked for Bakker’s autograph.

Bakker promised to return within a few weeks with formal plans to be presented to the City Council. Associates of Bakker said that Messner would design the project but Bakker would not confirm that. Messner, who is one of PTL’s largest creditors in bankruptcy proceedings, did not return The Times’ calls seeking comment.

Harold McNaughton and his son, Dwight, 34, of nearby Indian Wells, own the desert parcel in Coachella on which Bakker has proposed building his dream city. The parcel has been offered on the market for $10 million.

“He’s not carrying around a briefcase full of cash but we feel confident he will produce,” said McNaughton, whose father was a minister until he changed professions 35 years ago to go into real estate.

Bakker declined to identify the “investors and bankers” whom he said have promised the money to buy the property and begin construction on Heritage Springs. That reluctance has led to speculation that he may be, as one Palm Springs official put it, “flying a balloon to see if anyone shoots it down.”

“I don’t have to prove anything,” Bakker said. “I built Heritage USA and helped build the three religious networks on the air today. Those who want to believe will believe.”

Besides, he said, his prospective financial backers were well aware of the risks involved.

With ‘Eyes Wide Open’

“I presume that life is a risk--that is what faith is all about,” Bakker said. “Anyone helping me is going into this with their eyes wide open.”

Bakker and what he called his “bevy of lawyers” have been trying to devise ways that Heritage Springs can avoid federal tax laws governing church organizations.

A first step occurred June 2, 1987, when Bakker incorporated Heritage Springs as a private company and then qualified the entity as a domestic stock corporation, California secretary of state officials said.

If built, the project would operate as a business rather than a church, Bakker said. For example, prospective members may be given the option of purchasing property, or, perhaps, buying shares of the corporation, he said.

“Where in the Bible does it say that a church has to be nonprofit?” said Tammy Bakker, who is well known for her shopping sprees in Palm Springs boutiques.

Little Left to Chance

Michael Clifford, one of Bakker’s advisers on the project, promised that little will be left to chance. “The project would be designed in such a way that if indeed Bakker went to jail it would still cook right along,” he said.

Still to be decided is whether Bakker should solicit funds for the project on a new television program that may be aired sometime in March, said Jim Toms, one of Bakker’s attorneys.

“I’ve encouraged him to go on with as low-key and conservative a budget as possible and see what kind of reception they get,” Toms said. “But a critical decision to be made is whether to solicit funds on the air for the new project.” In any case, he said, the program “would probably sell commercial time.”

Bakker has scouted several potential locations for the television show, including one of two 5,000-square-foot studios at KMIR-TV of Palm Desert, which is an NBC affiliate owned by John and Serpuhe Conte, who are close friends of the Bakkers.

“Maybe I’m naive, but I believe in him,” John Conte said. “So he slipped once for 15 minutes with this gal (Jessica Hahn).”

Agent Paying Their Rent

The Bakkers’ Los Angeles agent, Jeff Franklin, of International Creative Management, has been paying the couple’s rent with advances against potential royalties while lining up moneymaking projects, including the NBC Movie of the Week. Separately, CBS is developing its own movie titled, “God and Greed: The Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker Story.”

It was Franklin who organized an 18-city preaching and singing tour that was scheduled to start Nov. 17 but was scrubbed, in part, for lack of interest. Only a few hundred tickets were sold at about $20 each.

Some critics point to the failed tour as evidence that Bakker’s once gigantic following has all but evaporated. Nonetheless, Bakker said he has no intention of scaling down any of his projects.

“If God’s calling was to do something on a smaller scale, I’d do that,” he said. “I’m going to follow God’s will.”