Televangelist Jim Bakker asks viewers for cash to avoid bankruptcy [View all]

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Televangelist Jim Bakker said he’s been cut off by credit card companies after he was accused of selling a fake coronavirus cure and asked viewers to send cash or checks or he may have to file for bankruptcy. “You can’t use credit cards if you do give to our ministry at this time because there’s a situation,” Bakker said on his show this week.

Bakker was criticized for selling his “Silver Solution” as a cure for COVID-19 in February and the state of Missouri sued the televangelist last month, accusing him of lying to consumers, The Kansas City Star reports. New York’s attorney general also sent a cease and desist letter to Bakker demanding he stop marketing the fake cure.

Now, Bakker and his wife and co-host Lori Bakker say their ministry, based outside Branson, Missouri, could face bankruptcy. “SOS, save our station, save our ship, help us stay on the air,” he said this week. “We’re asking people to give an offering, and we need a miracle.”

“We need money to say on the air. I am just saying it bluntly,” he said. Bakker and his wife asked for people to buy their books or send in donations. “They’re already bleeding us to death, and now we’re going to have to pay lawyers that will bleed you to death,” Bakker said.

Bakker said he pulled the “Silver Solution” from his website and is not marketing it on his show anymore. Jim Bakker was also convicted on federal fraud charges in 1989 and served five years in prison, according to The Star.

https://www.kansascity.com/news/coronavirus/article242225266.html