Flag burning; Homosexuality and gay rights;Hustler
Magazine v. Falwell;Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson;
O’Connor, Sandra Day; Pornography; Racial dis-
crimination; Rehnquist, William H.;Roberts v. United
States Jaycees;Thompson v. Oklahoma;Webster v. Repro-
ductive Health Services; Women’s rights.
Swaggart, Jimmy
Identification Pentecostal minister and
televangelist
Born March 15, 1935; Ferriday, Louisiana
A popular televangelist known for his dramatic, “spirit-
filled” preaching style, Swaggart left public ministr y dur-
ing the late 1980’s in the wake of news of his reported in-
volvement with a prostitute. Swaggart tearfully confessed
his sins to his followers in a memorable videotaped sermon.
Jimmy Swaggart began building his Assemblies of
God ministry in the 1960’s after refusing a gospel
music recording deal from Sun Records, the home
label of Swaggart’s cousin Jerry Lee Lewis. Instead of
pursuing a recording career, Swaggart chose to use
his musical talents to inspire conversions to Chris-
tianity. Over the next several years, he built an em-
pire that eventually included television and radio
ministries and the Jimmy Swaggart Bible College
near his church in Baton Rouge. At the height of
Swaggart’s career in the mid-1980’s, the Jimmy Swag-
gart Ministries posted incomes of $140 million per
year. However, in 1988—just a year after Jim Bakker,
another Assemblies of God minister, confessed to
his own financial and sexual indiscretions—it was
revealed that Swaggart had solicited the services
of prostitutes, and that the trysts featured sexual
practices that many of his followers thought to be
depraved. Rumors persisted that it was Swaggart’s
preaching rival, Marvin Gorman of New Orleans,
who had tracked and recorded his liaisons and then
used his surveillance to undo the more popular
Swaggart.
After his sexual practices were made public, Swag-
gart on February 21, 1988, preached a tearful ser-
mon to his loyal followers—a group that wasdwin-
dling every day. The sermon was broadcast, excerpted,
and analyzed nationwide. Swaggart retained his
standing as an ordained minister under the General
Presbytery of the Assemblies of God until May of
1988, when he was expelled for violating that group’s
injunction on public preaching during a term of sus-
pension. Though he lost his media empire, Swaggart
continued to preach at what became the Family
Workshop Center in Baton Rouge.
Impact More than any other figure, Jimmy Swag-
gart became associated with the ups and downs of
televangelism in the 1980’s. At the height of his ca-
reer, he attracted an extremely large following—and
equally sizable donation revenues—with his emo-
tional and passionate preaching style. His downfall,
with its related tales of ministry rivalry and sexual es-
capades, was a public blow to an industry always in
search of greater credibility and respect.
Further Reading
Balmer, Randall. “Still Wrestling with the Devil: A
Visit with Jimmy Swaggart Ten Years After His
Fall.”Christianity Today, March 2, 1998, 31.
Seaman, Ann Rowe.Swaggart: The Unauthorized Biog-936 Swaggart, Jimmy The Eighties in America
A scandal-ridden Jimmy Swaggart addresses the press in April,
1988.(AP/Wide World Photos)