Jimmy Swaggart

Jimmy Swaggart (born March 15, 1935 in Ferriday, Louisiana) is a Christian preacher and pioneer of televangelism who reached the height of his popularity in the 1980s. During the 1970s, Swaggart established a lucrative ministry under the Assemblies of God, which in the 1980s was estimated to make over $150 million per year. Swaggart is perhaps best known for his highly publicized prostitution scandal in 1988.

When the PTL scandal destroyed fellow Assemblies of God minister Jim Bakker, Swaggart publicly denounced Bakker's scandal (not Bakker personally) as "a cancer on the body of Christ." Shortly afterward, Swaggart faced his own sex scandal as a private investigator, hired by a rival evangelist Marvin Gorman, documented a series of meetings with prostitutes. (Gorman himself had been fired from the Assemblies of God ministry after Swaggart had reported that Gorman was having an adulterous affair.)

In 1987, Swaggart was involved with a prostitute at a Metairie, Louisiana, hotel called the Travel Inn on Airline Highway, when Gorman and some associates flattened the tires on Swaggart's car, went and got cameras, and took photographs of Swaggart exiting the hotel with the prostitute. Gorman confronted Swaggart and told him he would have to come clean. Swaggart said he would but refused to do so.

Only after much wrangling did Gorman take copies of the photographs to the Assemblies of God headquarters in Springfield, Missouri. The Assemblies of God, being fully aware of the monetary loss that would result from revoking Swaggart's ministerial credentials, nonetheless imposed upon him the mandatory two year rehabilitation time required of all A/G ministers who fall into sexual sin. This meant Swaggart could not minister in any capacity for two years, while undergoing treatment and counseling. Swaggart rejected this, though he had agreed this was a good policy for Gorman.

The story broke on February 20, 1988, four months after Swaggart had promised to confess his sin. On February 21, 1988, on his television show taped in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Swaggart tearfully confessed that he was guilty of an unspecified sin and made comparisons to himself and King David. Because he would not submit to the authoritative discipline and rehabilitative policies of the Assemblies of God, his ordination was revoked. As a result, Swaggart spent a considerable amount of time, in church and on television, blasting the Assemblies of God for its "unforgiving" stances. Swaggart lost much of his audience after these events. Swaggart subsequently blamed his problems on "demons" and claimed that controversial evangelist Oral Roberts had "cast out the demons" over the phone, thus assuring Swaggart was now free of moral defect. (source: The Agony of Deceit by Mike Horton)

While Swaggart may have frequented other seedy hotels in areas such as Baton Rouge and Lake Charles, the location of the infamous photograph was in Metairie. There are erroneous reports of this hotel being in Lake Charles or Baton Rouge.

On October 11, 1991, in Indio, California, police stopped Swaggart for driving on the wrong side of the road. In the car with him was yet another prostitute, named Rosemary Garcia. No sex-related charges were filed in that incident.

In 2002, the heirs of Pentecostal Bible teacher Finis Jennings Dake filed a plagiarism suit against Swaggart for failing to gain their permission before publishing some of Dake's materials. That lawsuit is pending at present.

He now claims to have "made his life right with God" and preaches a message called "the Cross" which says that the only way to Heaven is through the death of Jesus. He opposes such movements as G12 Vision and the Purpose Driven Life.

In mid-September 2004, Swaggart, in a politically charged sermon, said that he would kill gay men:

"I'm trying to find the correct name for it … this utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men marrying men. … I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I'm gonna be blunt and plain; if one ever looks at me like that, I'm gonna kill him and tell God he died."

Gay rights groups quickly demanded that other right-wing religious leaders at the service, including James Dobson and Tony Perkins, repudiate his comment.

Swaggart is also the cousin of rock legend Jerry Lee Lewis and country musician Mickey Gilley. All three of them played the piano.

--taken from Wikipedia.org

Selected Books

• The Expositor's Study Bible KJVersion/Concordance
• The Expositor's Study Bible - Giant Print
• God's plan for the ages: A study of the dispensational and prophetic plan of God
• Jimmy Swaggart Bible Commentary: Revelation
• 25 great years, 25 anointed sermons
• The Expositor's Word For Every Day (A Daily Devotional) - Black Bonded Leather
• The Holy Spirit from Genesis to Revelation: A study of the third member of the Godhead, the Triune God, Who He is and what He does
• Jimmy Swaggart Bible Commentary 23 Volume Set - Genesis, Romans, Hebrews, Daniel, Ephesians, I II II John Jude, James I Peter II Peter, I Thessalonians II Thessalonians, Colossians, Philippians, Galatians, I Corinthians, II Corrinthians, Acts, Etc...
• To Cross a River
• To Cross a River

Official Website - www.jsm.org

Additional Resources

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