Adds Diane Bouche, who helps teach Sunday school: "I've done things in my past that are worse. It's not for us to judge his personal life," says Judy Washington, a Family Worship Center member from Port Allen, La. Swaggart takes heart from several dozen new members who have begun attending services since 1991. "A lot of people said he should confess his sin like Jimmy Swaggart," says Donnie. Swaggart, his son says, feels vindicated by the troubles of President Clinton. He recently completed his 14th volume, on 2 Corinthians. Swaggart himself spends as many as seven hours a day writing commentaries on every book of the Bible. Swaggart's Bible college is open, but enrollments have declined and the college recently dropped its founder's name.ĭonnie Swaggart handles many of the ministry's operations. Many of the buildings on the 200-acre campus have been leased to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality or to private businesses. Right now, Jimmy Swaggart Ministries resembles nothing so much as a real-estate firm. He liquidated other assets to pay off debts such as the $1.4 million court judgment in Dallas for failing to pay for Bibles. A shortage of financial contributions forced him to close dozens of churches, schools and medical programs overseas, and to lay off hundreds of people in Baton Rouge. He pledged, "Even though it will take many miracles, I believe the latter days of this ministry can be even greater than the former."įollowing through on that promise has proved difficult. In his book, "Satan Hath Desired You," Swaggart called his arrest in California the work of the devil. In 1991, Swaggart lost more followers when he was stopped with a prostitute in Indio, Calif. Gorman won $1.85 million from Swaggart in a defamation suit.
Ten years later, that speech continues to haunt him. Swaggart apologized, famously: "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 forgetfulness, never to be remembered against me." Swaggart received as much money from that single broadcast as he did in three months. After pronouncing divine judgment on televangelists Jim Bakker and Marvin Gorman for their sexual indiscretions, Swaggart was investigated by Gorman, who discovered Swaggart's weakness for prostitutes. "There are men who can't stand prosperity. His 1984 autobiography proclaimed, "There are no skeletons in the Swaggart closet," but recounted a warning from a longtime friend. He mailed 7 million fund-raising letters a day, raised $135 million annually in contributions, and used the money to build schools, churches and his own Bible college, while providing a lavish lifestyle for his family.
#JIMMY SWAGGART PROSTITUTES TV#
The Lord instructed him to begin a TV ministry in 1973.īy 1986, his TV shows reached 510 million people in 145 countries, and his complex in Baton Rouge made him one of the city's largest employers. God, he says, has spoken repeatedly to him since he was 8 years old. Jimmy Lee Swaggart, born poor near the Mississippi River in Ferriday, La., started preaching on the revival circuit in 1958 with his wife, Frances, and a beat-up Plymouth.
At least, Swaggart adds, he has the ability to survive.
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