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Jimmy Swaggart

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Jimmy Lee Swaggart
Born (1935-03-15) March 15, 1935 (age 89)
Ferriday, Louisiana, USA
Occupation(s)Televangelist, preacher, singer, musician, writer
Websitewww.jsm.org

Jimmy Lee Swaggart (born March 15, 1935, in Ferriday, Louisiana) is a non-demominational pastor, teacher, singer, pianist, and televangelist who was involved in a high profile 1988 sex scandal. He has preached to stadiums filled with capacity crowds around the world and pioneered televangelism through his weekly telecast. According to the official website for Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, his 1980's telecast was transmitted to over 3,000 stations and cable systems each week.[1] Swaggart's telecasts were seen by more than 8 million people in the United States and by more than 500 million people worldwide.

Swaggart first started his television ministry in 1975 and it continues today airing nationally and internationally to a potential viewing audience of over 80 million. The weekly "Jimmy Swaggart Telecast" and "A Study in the Word" programs are seen nationwide and abroad on 78 channels in 104 countries as well as live over the internet.

In February 1988, Swaggart stirred controversy after a private investigation found he had solicited a prostitute for sex. Initially Swaggart denied the accusations, but as a media investigation proceeded he acknowledged that some allegations were true. He later apologized for the acts in a televised broadcast.

Early life and ministry

Early life

Jimmy Swaggart was born on March 15, 1935 in Ferriday, Louisiana to Willie Leon (AKA, "Son") and Minnie Belle (Herron) Swaggart. At the age of four, Swaggart lost an infant brother named Donnie to pneumonia. Swaggart and his parents attended a small, 25-member Assemblies of God congregation in Ferriday. At the age of nine, Jimmy began to preach on street corners and lead congregations in singing. On October 10, 1952, at 17 years of age, he married Frances Anderson. Their son Donnie Swaggart was born in 1954. Jimmy Swaggart worked several part-time odd jobs in order to support his young family and also began singing Southern Gospel music at various Baptist and Pentecostal churches.

According to Swaggart's biography, Swaggart, his wife, and his son lived in poverty during the 1950s as he preached throughout rural Louisiana and struggled to survive on thirty dollars a week, often going to bed hungry. Being too poor to own a home, they lived in church basements, pastor's houses and small hotels. Sam Phillips, the record producer who discovered Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Charlie Rich, wanted Swaggart to start a gospel line for Sun Records and to sign him as their first gospel artist. His cousin Jerry Lee Lewis, who had previously signed with Sun Records, was now reportedly making $20,000 per week. Although the offer meant significant income for his struggling family, Swaggart turned him down stating that he was called to preach the gospel.[2]

Ordination and early career

In 1955, Swaggart began full-time evangelistic work, preaching from a flatbed trailer donated to him and began developing a revival-meeting following throughout the American South. Swaggart also began attending Bible college in 1957 and subsequently became a licensed minister through the Assemblies of God in 1959. In 1960, Swaggart began recording gospel music record albums while he was building up another audience via Christian radio stations. In 1961, after graduating Bible college, he was ordained by the Assemblies of God and in 1962, Swaggart began his radio ministry. By 1969, his radio program, “The Camp Meeting Hour,” was being aired over numerous radio stations throughout the American Bible Belt. In the late 1960s, Swaggart founded a what was then a small church named Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The church became district-affiliated with the Assemblies of God. The Family Worship Center grew from barely 40 members in 1970 to over 500 by 1975 and over 1000 by 1980.[citation needed] During the 1970s the church grew from a one room church to a modern, state-of-the-art building with new additions being built every couple years.

In the late 1960s, Swaggart began airing a weekly 30 minute telecast over various local television stations in that city and also purchased a local AM radio station WLUX in Baton Rouge (now WPFC). The station broadcast Christian features stories, preaching and teaching from various fundamentalist and Pentecostal denominations and played a blend of Black Gospel, Southern gospel, and inspirational music. As Contemporary Christian Music became more prevalent, the station avoided it. Swaggart would ultimately sell his radio stations gradually throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

Shifting to television

By 1975, Swaggart's television ministry had expanded to even more stations and it was at this time that he decided to use television as his primary preaching medium. In 1978, his weekly telecast was expanded to an hour.

In 1980, Swaggart began a daily weekday telecast featuring Bible study and music and the weekend hour-long telecast would feature a sermon from either the Family Worship Center or a traveling crusade. In the early 1980s, he expanded his crusades into major cities nationwide. By 1983, Swaggart had become the most popular television preacher in the United States.[citation needed] More than 250 television stations broadcast his program and “The Jimmy Swaggart Telecast” was regularly watched by two million households.[citation needed]

Controversies, scandals and criticisms

File:Swaggart confession screenshot.png
Swaggart's confession where he declared to his congregation on television, "I have sinned against you, my Lord," became an iconic image of the 1980s[3]

In 1988, Swaggart was implicated in a sex scandal involving a prostitute that resulted initially in his suspension and ultimately Swaggart was defrocked and removed from the ministry by the Assemblies of God. Three years later, Swaggart was again implicated in a sex scandal involving a prostitute. As a result, Swaggart's current ministries are non-denominational and not affiliated with Assemblies of God.

1988 scandal - background

Swaggart's exposure came as retailiation for an incident in 1986 when Swaggart exposed New Orleans based, fellow Assemblies of God minister Marvin Gorman. Gorman had been accused of having several affairs. Once exposed, Gorman was defrocked from the Assemblies of God and his ministry all but ended.

As a retaliatory move, Marvin Gorman hired his son Randy Gorman, and his son in law Garland Biblo, to stake out the Travel Inn on Airline Highway in New Orleans. A camera with a telephoto lens was placed in the window of room 12 and was draped with a black cloth. When Swaggart arrived, he reportedly went into room 7. Randy Gorman and Garland Bilbo let the air out of Swaggart's tires and called Marvin Gorman whose church was located nearby. The two had taken photos of Swaggart outside of room 7 with Debra Murphree, a known prostitute. Gorman showed up at the Travel Inn a short while later and asked Swaggart what he was doing there. According to, "Swaggart: The Unauthorized Biography of an American Evangelist" by Ann Rowe Seaman, Gorman secured a promise from Swaggart that he would publicly apologize to Gorman and start the process of Gorman's reinstatement to the Assemblies of God. Gorman offered to remain silent if Jimmy would state publicly that he lied about Gorman's affairs. Gorman waited almost a year, then hand delivered a note to Jimmy Swaggart informing him his time was up. Swaggart did not respond. On Tuesday February 16, 1988, Gorman contacted James Hamil one of the 13 man Executive Presbytery of the Assemblies of God. Hamill in turn called Raymond Carlson, the Assemblies Superintendent. He summoned Hamill and Gorman to fly to Springfield and arranged for an emergency meeting of the presbyters. Carlson was shown photos of several men coming in and going out of room 7 at the Travel Inn Motel in New Orleans. This was done in order to establish the fact that the room was being used for prostitution. One of the men seen leaving room 7 was Jimmy Swaggart The presbytery leadership of the Assemblies of God, decided that Swaggart should be suspended from broadcasting his television program for three months.

According to the Associated Press as reported in the Saturday February 27, 1988 edition of the Ocala Star-Banner, the prostitute that claimed to have posed nude for Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart failed a lie detector test administered by an expert with 15 years experience with the New York City Police Department. The expert concluded that Murphree had failed to tell the truth on all key questions concerning her statement. The test was administered after Murphree offered to sell the story to the National Enquirer for 100,000. Paul Levy, the Senior Editor for the National Enquirer said that the polygraph examiner had concluded that Murphree was not truthful on six key questions including one in which she was reportedly asked if she had fabricated the story. Levy stated that the Enquirer decieded not to print her story due to the test results, her drug use, and the fact that she had arrest warrants in three States. The February 27, 1988 edition of the Toronto Star reported that Debra Murphree, 28, failed questions about whether she was paid or promised money to "set up" Swaggart, and whether she made up the story in order to make money from it. Both times she answered no, and this was determined by the polygraph examiner to be a lie.

1988 scandal - Swaggart's confession and fallout

On February 21, 1988, without giving the details of his transgressions, Swaggart tearfully spoke to his family, congregation and audience, saying, "I have sinned against you, my Lord, and I would ask that your precious blood would wash and cleanse every stain until it is in the seas of God's forgiveness."[4] On a New Orleans morning news show four days later, Murphree stated that while Swaggart was a regular customer, they had never engaged in sexual intercourse.[5] The clip of Swaggart's confession was played repeatedly on news and tabloid television programs.

The Louisiana prebytery of the Assemblies of God initially suspended Jimmy Swaggart from ministry for three months. The national presbytery of the Assemblies of God soon extended the suspension to their standard two-year suspension for sexual immorality. His return to the pulpit coincided with the end of a three-month suspension originally ordered by the Assemblies. Believing that Swaggart was not genuinely repentant in not submitting to their authority, the hierarchy of the Assemblies of God immediately defrocked Swaggart, removing his credentials and ministerial license. It was then that Swaggart decided he would be an independent, non-denominational Pentecostal minister and the Family Worship Center would become non-denominational.

1991 scandal

On October 11, 1991, Swaggart was found, for the second time, in the company of a prostitute, Rosemary Garcia,[6] when he was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol in Indio, California, for driving on the wrong side of the road. According to Garcia, Swaggart stopped to proposition her on the side of the road. When the patrolman asked Garcia why she was with Swaggart, she replied, "He asked me for sex. I mean, that's why he stopped me. That's what I do. I'm a prostitute."[7][8] Rather than confessing to his congregation, Swaggart told those at Family Worship Center that "The Lord told me it's flat none of your business."[9][10][11] His son Donnie then announced to the stunned audience that his father would be temporarily stepping down as head of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries for "a time of healing and counseling."

Criticism of Christian rock and metal music

Swaggart wrote a book criticizing the Christian rock and metal movements titled Religious Rock n' Roll – A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing in 1987. The book criticized the scene for using heavy metal music to preach the gospel of Christianity, calling rock music the music of the devil. Ironically, it was Swaggart who helped convert Michael Sweet and Robert Sweet, two of the founding members of the band Stryper.[12][13] Also criticized by Swaggart were Larry Norman (the "father of Christian rock"), Petra, Mylon LeFevre, Steve Taylor and other notable Christian rock and metal bands.[14]

In 1986, Swaggart called rock music "the new pornography."[15]

Ministries

Music Ministry

Since he recorded his first album, the center of Swaggart's ministry has been his music. [citation needed] His first album, Some Golden Daybreak, was created to be an album he could give people at his early revivals. Swaggart's wife, Frances, began encouraging him to contact radio stations. As Swaggart's songs began to be aired on radio, the public responsed. Disc jockey Chuck Cossin is credited with playing the first Jimmy Swaggart recording on WMUZ in Detroit.[citation needed]

In 1974 Swaggart was voted Favorite Gospel Music Artist for the album Singing News. In 1977 Record World magazine honored him as Male Vocalist of the Year. In that same year Swaggart was a Dove Award finalist in three categories: Male Vocalist of the Year, TV Program of the Year, and Instrumentalist of the Year. Again in 1978 Swaggart became a Dove finalist as Instrumentalist of the Year. And in 1980 a Dove Award finalist in four Categories: Children's Album of the Year for "Color Me a Story," Instrumentalist of the Year, Year's best Traditional Album for "Homeward Bound," and Best Gospel Album of the Year for "Worship," The secular Grammy Awards nominated Swaggart's album "Live from Nashville" for Best Gospel Album in 1976. And again in 1980, Swaggart's album, "Worship", became a Grammy finalist.

In the spring of 1958 Sam Phillips (the producer who discovered Elvis Presley) had sent for the small town piano-playing preacher to come to Memphis. He wanted to sign Swaggart as the first gospel artist on the Sun Records label. However, preferring to stick to his roots in Christian ministry, the Swaggart turned him down. Jimmy Swaggart has sold over 15 million albums during the lifetime of the ministry.

Swaggart also originated Sonlife Radio on the uncommercialized FM band. Unlike his previous stations, this would be commercial free and would not sell time to outside ministries and the preaching and teaching would all be produced "in house". The music was to be inspirational and Southern Gospel.

Television Ministry

In 1973, Swaggart wanted to create a television program which would include a fairly large music segment, a short sermon, and time for talking about about current ministry projects. After two faltering attempts to tape the half-hour program in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana, Swaggart went to producers in Nashville, Tennessee with his proposal. They accepted and within weeks the Jimmy Swaggart Telecast was being broadcast into television markets around the Unted States. In 1979, the program was converted to be an hour long program and the telecast was taken directly from Swaggart's area-wide crusades, using segments videotaped in services all over the world.

In 1981 Jimmy Swaggart began a daily television program titled A Study in the Word. In the 1980s the program was aired on over 160 channels throughout the U.S., Canada and abroad. aThhe program is still seen today on over 78 stations in 104 countries.[citation needed] From the beginning, the primary cable channels the program was aired on were CBN Cable (now ABC Family), TBN, and PTL (now Inspiration Network.

Swaggart's television and radio division, STARCOM (Swaggart Television and Radio Communications), was spearheaded and run by Shirley Cooke, an early follower and supporter of Swaggart's crusades and ministry.

World Evangelism Bible College

In the fall of 1984, WEBC opened its doors. The Bible college began as a means of preparing young men and women for in-depth ministry and is still considered a vital extension of Jimmy Swaggart's World Wide Ministry. WEBC offers three types of academic programs designed to meet a variety of needs: (1) Intensive short term programs, (2) Associate of Arts degree programs, and (3) a four year Bachelor's Degree programs.

Print

Swaggart is the author of several Christian works offered through his ministry, as well as an autobiography To Cross a River and a personal account of the 1988 scandal The Cup Which My Father Hath Given Me: A Biblical Revelation of Personal Spiritual Warfare. He is the author of the "Expositor's Study Bible," 13 Study Guides and 30 Commentaries on the Bible.

Current ministry

Once a worldwide multi-million-dollar ministry, Jimmy Swaggart Ministries today mainly comprises The Jimmy Swaggart Telecast,[16] radio and television programs called A Study in the Word, (SonLife Radio Network),[17], and a website, JSM.org. Swaggart's wife, Frances, has a radio program called "Frances and Friends" heard daily on the SonLife Radio Network.[18] His son, Donnie Swaggart, preaches at the Family Worship Center and also preaches in churches across the US and abroad.[19] Jimmy's grandson, Gabriel, is a preacher, and leads the Family Worship Center youth ministry, Crossfire.[20] Sonlife radio is heard in 22 states[21]

Family

Swaggart is married to Frances (née Anderson) Swaggart and has one son, Donnie Swaggart. He has three grandchildren, Jennifer, Gabriel and Matthew Swaggart, and two great-grandchildren, Samantha and Ryder Swaggart. Swaggart's wife works with him in ministry and also hosts her own SonLife Radio program, "Frances and Friends". His son serves with Swaggart and also travels at home and abroad preaching. Donnie's oldest son, Gabriel, serves the ministry as pastor of Crossfire Youth Ministries. ,[22]

  • The Swaggart sex scandal was heavily satirized by musician Frank Zappa in a three-song medley referred to by band members as the "Texas Motel Medley", consisting of three songs by the Beatles with the lyrics changed to reflect the events. While the Texas Motel Medley itself was never released due to copyright concerns, several references to the incident can be heard on the live albums The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life and Broadway the Hard Way. The latter album's track "What Kind of Girl?" also deals with these events.
  • One of the most famous samples in industrial music is Swaggart thundering "No sex until marriage!", as heard on the Front 242 track "Welcome to Paradise" -- released, ironically, in 1988, the year his first sex scandal broke.
  • Swaggart is referenced in the Cinderella song "Shelter Me". In the video for the song, Swaggart is depicted bursting out of a closet surrounded by skeletons, and also sobbing behind a flaming pulpit.
  • Ozzy Osbourne's song "Miracle Man", on the 1988 album No Rest For The Wicked, is about the Swaggart's 1988 prostitution scandal and the general hypocrisy, in Osbourne's eyes, of "televangelists". In the video for the song, Zakk Wylde wears a mask with the likeness of Swaggart and Ozzy cavorts with swine, his pants around his ankles, carrying around a large staff decorated with a dollar sign. Within the song, Jimmy Swaggart is referred as "our Jimmy Sinner" many times by Ozzy.

See also

References

  1. ^ Official Jimmy Swaggart Ministries website (www.jsm.org)
  2. ^ Jimmy Swaggart, To Cross a River, Logos International, 1977
  3. ^ Fessing up:The Art of the Public Grovel: Sexual Sin and Public Confession in America. Christian Century, Jan 13, 2009
  4. ^ Swaggart, Jimmy. "Reverend Jimmy Swaggart: Apology Sermon". americanrhetoric.com. Retrieved 2007-01-25.
  5. ^ "Jimmy Swaggart@Everything2.com".
  6. ^ "Swaggart Plans to Step Down". The New York Times. October 15, 1991. Retrieved 2007-01-25.
  7. ^ Swaggart Plans to Step Down New York Times
  8. ^ The Newsletter of The North Texas Skeptics
  9. ^ American Notes ScandalsTime
  10. ^ The arrogance of power Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
  11. ^ BBC ON THIS DAY | 21 | 1988: TV evangelist quits over sex scandal
  12. ^ "History of Christian Rock/Metal part 1". Rock for the King (in Portuguese). Ope Publishing. Retrieved 2007-12-19.
  13. ^ "History of Christian Rock/Metal part 2". Rock for the King (in Portuguese). Ope Publishing. Retrieved 2007-12-19.
  14. ^ A Guide to Petra: Petra Retirement Tribute Page - post your thoughts on Petra's retirement announcement
  15. ^ Rap, Rock, and Censorship by Mathieu Deflem
  16. ^ "Jimmy Swaggart Ministries — TV Programming". Retrieved 2007-01-28.
  17. ^ "Jimmy Swaggart Ministries — SonLife Radio". Retrieved 2007-02-22.
  18. ^ "Frances and Friends".
  19. ^ "Donnie Swaggart".
  20. ^ "CrossFire".
  21. ^ "SonLife station list".
  22. ^ "Jimmy Swaggart Ministries — About Jimmy Swaggart". Retrieved 2009-09-18.
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