( Mental Floss ) -- With South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford dominating the news , let 's look back at a five other so-called virtuous figures who became embroiled in sex scandals -- and this list just scratches the surface . Jim Bakker admitted to cheating on his wife Tammy Faye Bakker . 1 . Aimee Semple McPherson . By the mid-1920s , evangelist McPherson was packing them in at her Angelus Temple in Los Angeles , preaching hope and warning against the sinful life . But in 1926 , she disappeared while swimming at a local beach . She turned up a month later with a fantastic story about being kidnapped and taken to Mexico . Unfortunately , the evidence said otherwise : It appeared Aimee had been shacked up with a married man . The evangelist was charged with perjury , but she stuck to her story and was eventually acquitted . Her popularity waned after the scandal , but you got ta hand it to her for chutzpah : instead of apologizing to her confused flock , McPherson bobbed her hair , bought some short skirts , and began dancing and drinking in public . 2 . Jim Bakker . Simple people with a simple dream , Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker started out hosting a children 's religious puppet show . By the mid-1970s , however , the fabulous Bakker duo had become the toast of televangelism . They pulled in millions of dollars in contributions to their PTL ( Praise the Lord ) ministry , and even built a sort of fundamentalist Disneyland called Heritage USA in South Carolina . Mental Floss : Proposing the presidential way . But Jim had a couple of dirty little secrets . He had paid a former church secretary named Jessica Hahn to keep quiet about a sexual encounter they had in 1980 . But when the scandal broke in 1987 , questions began to be raised about Bakker 's financial dealings . In 1989 , he was sentenced to 45 years in prison for fleecing his flock of $ 158 million . In the end he only served five , and moved forward with his life , eventually opening a new ministry in a restaurant in Branson , Missouri . Mental Floss : 10 great love affairs in history . 3 . Jimmy Swaggart . Swaggart was one of Jim Bakker 's fiercest critics when the Bakker scandal broke , telling an interviewer he himself had never even kissed a woman other than his wife . Maybe not . But the bombastic and fantastically successful television preacher -- and cousin to rock-and-roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis -- was doing something with that prostitute in a cheap New Orleans hotel room in early 1988 . Swaggart 's tearful , televised confession kept his $ 12-million-a-year , 10,000-employee religious empire together -- until he got caught with his pants down again . That 's right , Jimmy Swaggart was linked to ( brace yourself ! ) another hooker in 1991 . A couple of lost lawsuits , an IRS tax lien , and that was the end of the line for Jimmy Swaggart . Well , not exactly . He 's still hurling rhetorical fire and brimstone on TV , radio and online , albeit on a much smaller scale . Mental Floss : 10 aphrodisiacs around the world . 4 . Amrit Desai . A onetime art student , Amrit Desai came to the United States from India in 1960 . He began giving yoga lessons on the side and ended up training several thousand people , who in turn became yoga instructors around the country . With his followers calling him `` guru dev , '' or `` beloved teacher , '' one of the things Desai taught at the yoga center he founded in Massachusetts in 1972 was that celibacy was spiritually mandatory for unmarried people . Desai even took a vow of celibacy himself in 1974 , despite being married with children . No wonder it was something of a shock ( perhaps greatest to his wife ) when in 1994 , the beloved teacher admitted to having affairs with three of his followers . The scandal forced Desai to resign his $ 150,000-a-year post . He eventually moved to Florida , but kept up the yoga . 5 . Paul R. Shanley . In the 1970s , Shanley was known as `` the hippie priest '' ; he was a Roman Catholic clergyman whose specialty was ministering to kids struggling with their sexual identity . By 2002 , however , Shanley was a central figure in the greatest scandal ever to hit the Catholic Church in the United States . Shanley was accused of molesting more than two dozen boys over a 35-year span . Subsequent investigations into other allegations in the Boston archdiocese resulted in the Church paying $ 85 million in 2003 to 552 people who claimed to have been abused by priests . It also triggered similar probes , and similar results , in other areas of the country . In 2005 , at the age of 74 , Shanley was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison . For more mental_floss articles , visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright , Mental Floss LLC . All rights reserved .
Some famous virtuous figures have fallen after getting caught misbehaving . Comment: Preacher Jimmy Swaggart 's fortunes fell after being linked to prostitutes .