I Was Wrong: the Untold Story of the Shocking Journey from PTL Power to Prison and Beyond, by Jim Bakker (HC, 1996, 647 pages, $3.50)
"Now for the very first time, Jim Bakker tells his own story- the glory days as a televangelist, the hostile takeover, the emotional breakdown. How he got to prison, his experiences behind bars, and what he learned."
Jim Bakker writes in the first chapter, "I had always believed that God loved me. He had literally granted me every desire of my heart, and I believed that His favor was upon me... [Now] I felt as though God had turned His back on me. Rejected and alone in the back seat of the squad car, questions ripped through my heart and mind. Was God punishing me for my sins?... Was I the evil person that the prosecutors in my trial and the media had presented to the world..."
I remember hearing of the scandal. I thought it had something to do with sex. Actually the crimes for which Bakker was convicted of were mail and wire fraud. If you sell lots of memberships to attend a luxury hotel, there first has to be enough rooms for them to stay in. Advertise through the mail, when the rooms did not exist, and you have committed the federal crime of fraud. Oh, then there was an allegation of rape, kept quiet with funds from PTL. Still, it was the crimes of fraud that sent Bakker to prison for 45 years, later lowered to 8 years. So, after only 5 years in prison, Bakker was paroled to start a new life, without the PTL, his riches or his wife.
Look for this book in the bio. section.
