Jim Bakker, who along with his first wife Tammy Faye built an evangelical empire around the hugely successful “The PTL Club” TV show, only to lose it all over a sex scandal and financial crimes, has died. He was 86.

Bakker died Monday, his second wife, Lori Bakker, said in a statement. His cause of death was not immediately clear.

“He was a pioneer of Christian television, but to me, he was my husband, my best friend, and the man I was honored to walk beside through so many seasons of life and ministry,” she said.

The pair lived near the Missouri entertainment town of Branson and filmed their TV show “The Jim Bakker Show” there since it launched in 2003. Bakker suffered a stroke in 2020.

But it was another evangelical program that made Jim and his first wife Tammy Faye Bakker cultural icons — so much so that they were often skewered in the 1980s and 1990s by late-night comedians and parodied on “Saturday Night Live.” A theatrical movie on their lives, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” was released in September 2021.

At its peak in the mid-1980s, the Bakkers’ ministry included not only the TV show drawing up to 13 million nightly viewers but also the Christian-based Heritage USA theme park and hotel in Fort Mill, South Carolina.

Bakker got his start as a traveling preacher

Bakker was born in Muskegon, Michigan, and attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, where he met Tammy Faye. They married in 1961 and dropped out of college to start their own traveling ministry — he preached, she sang and played the accordion as they crossed the country visiting churches and tent revivals.

They caught the attention of televangelist Pat Robertson, and in 1965 launched a children’s show on Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network. By 1966, he was hosting “The 700 Club,” a Christian talk show.

Bakker left CBN in 1972 and two years later formed the PTL Satellite Network. “The PTL Club” — PTL stands for “Praise the Lord” — became its signature show.

When it hit its heyday in the 1980s, “The PTL Club” was drawing millions of viewers — and bringing in millions of dollars annually from followers.

The show featured chats with guests and Christian entertainers. Bakker offered upbeat sermons and Tammy Faye — charismatic and always wearing her trademark heavy mascara — sang. Most episodes were taped at their sprawling complex just south of Charlotte, North Carolina.

The couple was so famous that they were often parodied by TV comedians for their lavish lifestyle and Tammy Faye’s abundant makeup.

Sex scandal and financial crimes damage his empire

In March 1987, their empire began to crack when Bakker admitted to a sexual encounter with church clerk Jessica Hahn. Bakker was forced to resign from his own empire, turning over operations to pastor and broadcaster Jerry Falwell.

Tammy Faye stuck by Bakker, often with tears running down her mascara, even as many saw his downfall as a fitting symbol of the greed and hypocrisy of the 1980s.

Things only got worse.

In 1988, Bakker was indicted for mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy after an investigation of PTL’s finances. He was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in federal prison, though the sentence was later reduced to eight years.

At a news conference after Bakker was found guilty, Tammy Faye stood in front of the microphones and sang the hymn, “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand.”

Their marriage crumbled and Tammy Faye divorced Bakker in 1992, just short of their 31st anniversary, while he was still in prison. She later married Roe Messner, a building contractor whose projects included the Heritage USA theme park. Messner was convicted of bankruptcy fraud in 1995 and spent about two years in prison.

Tammy Faye died of colon cancer in 2007.

Bakker was released on parole in 1994. He married his second wife, Lori, in 1998. The couple launched “The Jim Bakker Show” on the PTL Satellite Network five years later.

In June 2021, Bakker and his Morningside Church Productions Inc. settled a lawsuit accusing him of falsely claiming the health supplement Silver Solution could cure COVID-19. The settlement called for $156,000 in refunds to people who paid money or gave contributions to obtain the product in the early days of the pandemic.

The lawsuit said Bakker and a guest made the cure claim during 11 episodes in February and March of 2020.

Bakker and Tammy Faye had two children. He and his second wife adopted five children in 2002.

A shooting outside Eden Prairie High School’s homecoming football game Friday night set off a round of concern about Somali gang activity — and pushback from the Somali community.

Eden Prairie Police say a 17- and 18-year-old were injured in the shooting in the high school’s parking lot. Police said both are of Somali descent.

Some local residents and political leaders, including U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, followed the news with criticism of what they called Somali gang violence – and some, with broader criticism directed at the Somali community.

Somali leaders say that’s dangerous rhetoric.

Yusra Mohamud is a community organizer in the Twin Cities. She works with other community leaders who she says are worried about violence in the Somali community, too, and working on strategies to keep kids out of gangs.

But, she said, “we need to be careful not to let legitimate concerns about violence become permission to generalize about Somali people.”

She said politicians and law enforcement leaders erode trust from the Somali community when they make those generalizations.

“People feel very unsafe. They feel they feel scared for their children. I know the youth as well feel very unsafe,” Mohamud said. “People are very uncomfortable during this time, and the political climate — it's very heated.”

She pointed to last winter’s surge of federal agents to the Twin Cities, which the federal government initially claimed was meant to root out fraud by Somali people in the state.

Other Somali leaders echoed that, while acknowledging gang violence is a problem. Imam Hassan Jama of the Al-Hikma Islamic Center called it a gun violence issue in a post on social media.

“Youth violence has long been one of our highest priorities, and we have been gathering and working on it together,” he said.

In a statement posted to his social media Monday, Eden Prairie Mayor Ron Case said he wants to see more work to address gang violence.

“I am calling for the creation of a dedicated regional task force to address gang activity among East African youth — bringing together state, county and local law enforcement, prosecutors, schools, social services, youth-service organizations and, importantly, Somali community leaders,” Case wrote.

He also called for support for Eden Prairie’s Somali community on the whole, and said he appreciated ongoing work on youth violence by Somali leaders.

Other city leaders call for end to violence and caution about stereotyping

On Monday, Edina Mayor Jim Hovland spoke at a public meeting on two shootings that also involved young Somalis. In July, police were called to Yancey Park to respond to a shots fired call. Police said no one was injured, but the gunfire struck a nearby home.

And in September, a group of teens and young adults playing basketball at a church were fired upon.

Hovland said Somali families are worried their children will be stereotyped or targeted.

“We will not tolerate gun violence in our community, and we will not tolerate innocent people being judged by their race, ethnicity, or national origin, the city is concerned about conduct, not ethnicity, not country of origin, not religion,” he said.

Hovland says there is no evidence that Edina students or other Edina youth were involved in the incidents.

Eden Prairie resumes football game cut short by shots fired

Eden Prairie High School resumed classes Monday, and the football team returned to the field after school to finish out the game against Minnetonka. There were just over 10 minutes left on the clock Friday when the shooting happened, which the teams played out on Monday.

Parents and students filled the stands, and cheerleaders returned to the track. The mood was excited — despite the additional staff and security on site.

Alyssa Cappelli is a parent of one of the football players. She came to watch the last ten minutes of the game after being evacuated from the stadium Friday, and said she’s not worried about safety going forward.

“We have amazing staff. We have amazing security teams. It was handled so swiftly and so brilliantly,” Cappelli said.

The investigation into the shooting is ongoing. Both of the people injured are expected to survive.

At Costumes Plus in Maplewood, Amber Tilly welcomes customers in a pink wig, bandana and punk-inspired costume. While her name tag says “Joan” — a la “Jett” — she said customers call her “Silly Miss Tilly.” As a staff member of 14 years, she knows the trends.

“You know the one hunters that come out from the night, the K-pop demon hunters?” she said with a sigh. “We survived last year. We'll survive again this year. We've got a good selection, but it’s starting to slim down. Those kids love those K-pops.”

When it comes to Halloween costume trends among Minnesotans, Costumes Plus knows better than most — it’s a treasure trove of costumes that’s been serving the Twin Cities for over 30 years. From anime to Ghostface from “Scream” to toilet costumes, they have it all. Tilly prefers what she called “obscure” trends. She points to a head of lettuce costume.

“The whole pandemic we had with the lettuce recall,” she said with a laugh.

Costumes Plus co-owner and buyer Dian Lowe can already spot some of this year’s trends.

“Spider-Man is really big, you know. And now, with Dolly's passing — Dolly Parton — we're getting a lot of requests for wigs in for that,” Lowe said.

Lowe starts looking at costume orders in January with national roadshows that predict trends for costume shops all over the country. But she also caters to what the people who come into the shop want.

“There's also the trends on TikTok,” Lowe said. “Last year, the Lorax was huge, and it came late to us, so we scrambled and bought a whole bunch of orange morph suits. So we'll see what it is this year.”

Lowe said since Costumes Plus is an independent shop, it’s easier to push last-minute costume orders. Meanwhile, larger retailers like HalloweenCostumes.com plan years in advance.

“Our licensors like to tell us developments that they're working on, so then we can kind of get the jump on, OK, this is going to be something that's going to happen in 2027,” said Caitlin Ballin, photo and video manager of HalloweenCostumes.com.

Ballin said in October, the major online retailer sells between 28,000 and 60,000 costumes a day. Headquartered in Mankato, HalloweenCostumes.com ships nationally and internationally.

The company identified this year’s overall trend as the return of blockbuster movies. After years of post-pandemic low ticket sales, movie ticket revenue this summer was the highest it’s been since 2013.

They also keep data on what people in each state search for on their site.

For Minnesota customers, Toy Story, Pokémon and Ghostbusters are some of the top searches. But the most consistent Minnesota search over the last three years is actually Care Bears.

“I think they're just really, really nice, cozy costumes,” Ballin said. “They're like onesies. They're easy to put on. They're warm.”

Ballin said the staff are “just a bunch of Halloween nerds” who love making costumes.

“We make sure that each person that is working on the costume is the right person to work on the costume. You wouldn't get a ‘Lord of the Rings’ fan to make a ‘Star Wars’ costume.”

At Costumes Plus, co-owner Luis Berocay has tips for picking a costume. Think about the weather, have fun and be yourself.

“Do your own thing,” Berocay said. “Bunch of accessories. Come up with your own thing.”

That’s what customer Philip Johnson is doing.

“Every year, I do this screening series at my house for my friends of horror movies, and I buy five different costumes for each of the movies I show,” Johnson said. “So today, I got two wigs and a clown costume, a creepy clown costume.”

As for trends, he has his own predictions: “Pirate from ‘Backrooms.’ I could see a lot of Nikki from ‘Obsession’ because that's an easy one. You just have to have a brick, you know. Sorry, spoiler alert,” Johnson said, laughing.

The costume retailers say kids usually go for superheroes, video game characters or popular movies. Inside the store, 6-year-old Vera is looking for a classic.

“A black cat,” she said while holding a fuzzy black spider.

The days until Halloween are ticking down. What are you going to be?

Not every arrest by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement during Operation Metro Surge brought out the crowds in Minnesota.

Some arrests were loud: residents blowing whistles to alert others, taunting masked ICE officers on the streets and chanting support for immigrants.

But in the case of Marjorie Flores and her husband of 15 years, Luis Caiza, there was silence the day ICE came to Maple Grove.

It was Jan. 10 just before 7 a.m. and the temperature was 19 degrees. Flores remembers the roads were iced over; she felt it when she was yanked out of the car by ICE agents.

Flores spoke to MPR News in an interview conducted in Spanish. She said she saw no cars or people nearby that day when it was usually a busy stretch of road. No rapid response teams. No cameras or whistles.

Flores and Caiza, immigrants from Ecuador, were stopped at a red traffic light on their way to work at McDonald’s. Suddenly, a black vehicle appeared, she said. The car blocked them and four ICE officers emerged from the vehicle.

“They got out in a very violent manner with their weapons, they pointed them at us, they broke the car window,” she said. “They didn't say a word; they went straight to violence.”

Flores recalls officers then pulled out Caiza. She described what she said was a “horrifying scene.”

“They threw him to the ground like he was some kind of hardened criminal,” she said. “They put a knee on his back and started kicking and beating him while he was already on the ground.”

She said the officers would lift him up again only to throw him back down.

“I don’t know exactly why they reacted that way. If they wanted to take us in, there was no need for violence.”

Flores said she knew she was next.

She recalled being yanked out of the car and hitting her knee on the door’s frame. It didn’t hurt right away, she said.

Immediately afterward, an agent grabbed her and threw her to the icy ground.

“My elbows got hurt because they handle you so roughly,” Flores said.

The officers had “no compassion at all,” she said. “They are extremely violent. They don't care if you’re a woman or anything; they just grab and throw you.”

After she was shoved to the frozen street, Flores said the agent picked her up again by her collar on the backside of her neck. Then, he’d push again onto the ground.

“It was like handling a doll — standing it up, knocking it down, tearing it apart — that’s exactly how they treated me,” she said.

When she tried to check on her husband, she was face down and her neck movements were limited. She said an the agent had what she described as a rifle, pointed to her head, back and shoulders.

“I was scared if there was one wrong move or something, we’d be killed,” Flores said.

Flores said she prayed to God when she felt what she thinks was a gun touch.. Her husband and their kids — Camila, 18, Sneyder, 13, and Emilio, 10 — were the only people on her mind.

“That was the terrifying part — the fear that they might take me too, and not knowing what would happen to my kids. If they took him as well, who would look after them?” she said. “It was the fear more than anything.”

At one point, she managed to get up on her knees and made her way to the agent. Then, she touched his legs to balance herself and stood on her knee.

She clasped her hands in prayer and then addressed the ICE officer in her accented English: “Three babies in my house.”

He pushed her down one last time as a large pickup truck approached. The agents met up at their car and put Caiza inside. They left her on the street, and the pickup truck driver stopped to help her.

The Department of Homeland Security would not confirm the details of the detainment to MPR News without “necessary specific information.” MPR News provided the date, time and location of the detainment, but did not provide their names before publication to prevent retaliation.

Toxic stress of detainment on families

Family separation can lead to disruptions in children’s lives, which research shows can result in high levels of stress among children. That stress can disrupt their hormones and sometimes increase the risk of infections among children.

“The American Academy of Pediatrics has identified fear of parental deportation and separation as a toxic stress, which adversely affects a child’s development,” said Drishti Pillai, the director of immigration health policy at KFF, a nonprofit organization that focuses on national health issues and U.S. global health policy.

Pillai said family separation can lead to lifelong negative impacts on physical, mental and behavioral health.

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“Over the long term, toxic stress, stress due to family separation, it can manifest as poor coping skills and stress management,” said Drishti Pillai, the director of immigration health policy at KFF, a nonprofit organization that focuses on national health issues and U.S. global health policy.

It may lead to an “unhealthy life, sometimes adoption of risky behaviors, and of course the mental health impacts, depression, post-traumatic stress for not only for the individual who is detained, but for family members who may have witnessed” a detainment arrest.

Pillai said the Caiza Flores family sounds like many she has encountered in her research.

“One of the most immediate and significant effects on families when a family member is detained is the loss of income,” she said.

That can leave them struggling to pay bills, including rent, food, utilities and can take a strain on their health and well-being, she said.

Family separation can also lead to older children sometimes assuming new responsibilities or changing plans such as no longer attending college in order to support the family.

That’s the case for their 18-year-old daughter Camila, who graduated from high school and now works full-time at a local fast-food chain. She’s her mother’s deputy, helping out with her brothers and household costs.

“It makes me very sad for my mom because she’s trying to give us everything, even though we have almost nothing,” she said. “I also feel bad because, sure, I help her, but I feel like I need to do more — I just don't know how … I try to spend time with my brothers, but sometimes I can't because I work so much.”

Keeping the family together despite separation

Flores lives in a four-bedroom rental in Minneapolis with her children. She has withheld the violent details from the boys about the January arrest. She doesn’t want to add to their constant concern for their father.

The brothers are already upset that their “Papa” is not around. When Caiza was first detained, he’d call the boys over FaceTime, but according to Flores, his sons would cry seeing their father with bruises on his face. Flores quickly put an end to the video calls. Now they only talk by phone.

She hasn’t told his parents in Ecuador that he has been detained for nearly 10 months. Caiza’s mother has a heart condition, and his father suffers from Alzheimer’s. His mother doesn’t know that the money they receive every month from their son is actually from Flores.

“They’re elderly, so breaking news like that — telling them their son is detained — could cause their health to deteriorate even further,” she said. “That’s why I have to work the way I do, to make ends meet.”

Almost ten months after that life-altering day, Flores said she has been doing everything possible to keep her family together. She works three jobs, seven days a week, all to make up for the loss of Caiza’s salary.

Her 93-hour work week has resulted in perpetual exhaustion, guilt and almost no quality time with her kids.

“I spend more time at work than at home because, given the situation, if I only had one job, I wouldn't be able to cover the rent or the kids' expenses,” she said.

The couple and their three children left Ecuador in June 2023 and entered the United States the following month to seek asylum under a Biden-era program. The couple received work permits from the government.

No one in the family has a criminal record, according to their attorney and MPR News reporting. But Flores said on the day of the arrest, she and Caiza were treated like criminals. His detention has now reached nearly 10 months. The arrest has brought painful struggles for the family: legal, financial and emotional.

She also said she’s afraid to take their sons out for a drive on Sunday, the only day of the week she is free. Flores said she's tired most of the time because of her busy work schedule. She worries she could fall asleep at the wheel and cause an accident.

“Sometimes no one understands how hard all this is, the weight I’m carrying. I can’t afford the luxury of getting sick — because for me, it really is a luxury,” she said. “If I get sick, I don’t get my paycheck. Of course, it’s not a huge amount, but for me, it’s a lot because now I have enough to cover expenses — or in case they get sick.”

Flores said her children “are always the priority — before me. It’s always going to be them.”

Caiza lost an appeal on his asylum claims last month but will appeal again. A few days after the appeal was lost, Flores received notice from immigration court to appear with the children before a judge this week.