television evangelist

In 1982 he reached a much wider audience when he moved to the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., home base of the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, the television evangelist.

Another target was the US television evangelist Peter Popoff, who was hugely popular in the mid-1980s for his so-called faith-healing activities.

A daring thief and self-promoter, an author, a prison missionary and television evangelist, he created his own myths and let the news media and Hollywood embellish them.

Murphy ministered to thousands of inmates over decades, became a television evangelist and appeared with celebrities at prayer breakfasts, once with President Ronald Reagan.

In 1987, when television evangelist Jim Bakker was forced to resign from his PTL ministry after revelations of his affair with Jessica Hahn, a former church secretary, ABC’s “Nightline” announced that it would broadcast the first interview with Hahn.