AP 07/21 0510 PTL-Falwell By STEVE BAKER Associated Press Writer PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. (A

AP 07/21 0510 PTL-Falwell

   By STEVE BAKER Associated Press Writer

   PIGEON  FORGE,  Tenn.  (AP) -- PTL "tax scams" eventually will
lead to audits of television preachers who want  to  prove  their
credibility, the  Rev.  Jerry Falwell predicted on a visit to the
resort area where Jim Bakker lives.

   Falwell preached  to  about  500  people  Monday  night  after
beginning  his  day  in  Washington, where he and other religious
broadcasters discussed tax laws and their  ministries  with  U.S.
Rep. J.J. Pickle, D-Texas.

   Pickle,  chairman  of  the  House  Ways  and  Means  oversight
subcommittee, said he was considering holding public hearings  on
the tax advantages enjoyed by television preachers.

   PTL,  the  television  ministry  founded  by Bakker and led by
Falwell since  March,  is  being  investigated  by  the  Internal
Revenue  Service  and the Justice Department to determine whether
tax-deductible contributions were used improperly.

   "The government simply wants to root out  those  organizations
that  really  are  just  tax  scams,"  Falwell  said  at  a  news
conference. "That really is where PTL was."

   Falwell was joined at the  Washington  meeting  by  the  Revs.
Jimmy Swaggart,  Ben Armstrong and other TV evangelists.  Falwell
said the evangelists contended that religious broadcasters  could
regulate themselves.

   He predicted independent auditors and a clearer accountability
to donors would be part of a new, self-policed industry.

   He  said  PTL's  Heritage  USA complex in Fort Mill, S.C., was
competing unfairly against tax-paying  tourist  attractions,  and
that the tax-exempt ministry should be separated from the running
of hotels and amusement parks.

   "We  think  Internal Revenue will like that and we think we'll
be able to face  competitors  that  we  were  unfairly  competing
with," Falwell said.

   "I  think  the real problem at PTL was prosperity theology ...
that God is a holy slot machine.  You put in $10, you get out $20
... especially if you give it  to  the  person  who's  doing  the
preaching," Falwell said.

   Bakker  arranged  for  Falwell to take over PTL in March in an
effort to avoid what  he  called  a  "hostile  takeover"  of  the
television  ministry  by  people  threatening  to expose a sexual
encounter he admitted to having seven years earlier  with  church
secretary Jessica Hahn.

   Bakker tried to regain control of PTL but has been resisted by
Falwell  and  a  new board that blamed Bakker for what it labeled
extravagances when it sought  Chapter  11  bankruptcy  protection
with debts estimated at $72 million.

   Bakker  and  his  wife,  Tammy  Faye,  have  moved  from South
Carolina to a mountainside home in Gatlinburg within 15 miles  of
where Falwell  spoke.    But  the  Bakkers  have  been  traveling
recently and weren't at home Monday.
   
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