Ex-TV Evangelist Bakker to Remarry

Former television evangelist Jim Bakker, forced by scandal a decade ago to leave the Praise the Lord ministry he ran with his former wife Tammy Faye, is planning to remarry.

Bakker and Lori Beth Graham met while she was addressing a Los Angeles women’s group.

“I fell in love first with her heart, the way she cares for people. Then I fell madly in love with her,” said Bakker. “I am overjoyed that the love was mutual and that Lori Beth has agreed to be my wife.”

Bakker was convicted in 1989 of bilking followers out of $158 million. He served five years in prison and now is a missionary at the 1,000-member Los Angeles International Church, where he works with drug addicts and the homeless.

His ex-wife, now Tammy Faye Messner, divorced him while he was in prison. She is now married to Roe Messner, a former close friend of Bakker.