Former PTL owners Jim and Tammy Bakker got a dose of Scripture with their bankruptcy verdict last month. According to an Associated Press report, Federal Bankruptcy Judge Rufus Reynolds quoted 1 Timothy 6:10 to help explain why he ordered the Bakkers and a former top aide to repay $7.7 million to PTL.
“James Bakker either overlooked or ignored parts of the Bible, including 1 Timothy 6:10,” the judge said, going on to quote the passage: “For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
Reynolds’s judgment, filed November 10 in the Federal Bankruptcy Court in Columbia, South Carolina, marks the first time any court has ruled that Bakker or other PTL leaders used PTL donors’ money improperly.
PTL sued the Bakkers and its former vice-president, David Taggart, for $52 million in February, alleging they mismanaged the ministry by taking large sums of donated money for personal use from 1984 to 1987 while PTL could not pay its bills. In the suit’s trial in September and October, PTL dropped its claim to all but $7.7 million.
According to the order, Bakker must pay PTL $4.9 million, his wife must repay $677,397, and Taggart must put slightly more than $1 million back into the ministry.
Reynolds said expenditures under the Bakker administration were “unbelievable” and a waste of PTL money. He also accused the administrators of “gross mismanagement” and “total disregard for reality.” He said Bakker and Taggart “approached the management of the corporation with reckless indifference to the financial consequences of their acts.”
Attorney Ryan Hovis, representing the Bakkers, said Bakker was “obviously disappointed,” and would appeal the ruling.
PTL is under the administration of the bankruptcy court. Earlier this fall, Canadian financier David Mernick successfully submitted a bid to purchase the ministry (CT, Nov. 18, 1988, p. 60). Completion of the sale of PTL to Mernick is expected by the end of this month. His plans for PTL will be announced at that time.
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