from the Assemblies of God church, which was and remains headquartered in Springfield. Church officials cited "conduct unbecoming to a minister" in making their decision, according to previous News-Leader reporting.

Two years later, Bakker was convicted in federal court of 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy. Later on, some of those convictions were overturned. Bakker ended up serving five years of his original 45-year sentence.

Some observers, including a pair of Washington Post opinion writers who followed the case, said that it appeared that for years before the scandal became public, the Reagan administration was "less than eager to take a hard look" at Bakker's activities because Bakker's viewers and Reagan's political base constituted overlapping groups of voters.

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WhileBakker was in prison, his childhood sweetheart and wife of 30 years, Tammy Faye, divorced him and married his best friend. Tammy Faye died in 2007 at her home near Kansas City.

Bakker has since remarried.

In 1996, after he served his prison term, Bakker told ABC's Barbara Walters, "I don't have the need to be on television."

But in 2003, he began broadcasting again from the Missouri Ozarks.

Edmee Rodriguez/News-Leader

In May, Bakker's show received national attention after Bakker claimed that the Ozark mountains in southwest Missouri would be the safest place to be should an apocalyptic disaster occur.

Bakker told his viewers May 1, "You're not going to live in downtown Chicago and survive the coming day ... Where are you going to go when the world's on fire? Where are you