“P” is for PTL Club

“P” is for PTL Club. Based first in Charlotte, North Carolina, and then Fort Mill, South Carolina, the PTL Club (launched in 1974) was one of the most successful ventures in televangelism for much of the 1970s and 1980s. PTL stood for both “Praise the Lord” and “People that Love.” Jim Bakker and his wife Tammy Faye used the popular program as a springboard to develop a Pentecostally oriented resort, theme park, shopping mall, cable network, and entertainment center called Heritage USA in Fort Mill. The complex drew more than five million visitors annually by the mid-1980s. When a sex scandal involving Bakker erupted in 1986 and 1987, he resigned in disgrace. Bakker went to prison and his wife divorced him. He turned over the PTL Club and Heritage USA to Jerry Falwell who remained at the helm only briefly.