Swaggart, Jimmy (1935—)

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Swaggart, Jimmy (1935—)

A leading televangelist of the 1980s, Jimmy Swaggart became an American celebrity whose rise and fall were both comedy and tragedy. A self-trained piano virtuoso, whose hot Gospel stylings were barely distinguishable from the rock 'n' roll standards performed by his cousin, Jerry Lee Lewis, Swaggart might have become a major popular music artist. But he chose preaching, evolving a pulpit manner characterized by physical gyrations, abundant tears, and impassioned Biblical declamations. Scorning as bland sentimentality the positive thinking of other religious opinion makers, he further rejected the ecumenical spirit of Billy Graham. Swaggart chose instead to deliver fire-and-brimstone sermons, always tough on sin, especially that of a sensual nature. Though he first imitated the preaching of the tent evangelists of his Southern youth, he quickly learned the masterful use of media, first radio and later television. Often regarded as the most effective of the televangelists of the 1970s and 1980s, his blend of show-business hucksterism and old-fashioned Holy Ghost revivalism perpetuated a long tradition of American folk evangelism.

Born in 1935 near Ferriday, Louisiana, Jimmy Lee Swaggart was the son of a lay preacher in the charismatic Assemblies of God. Derisively called "holy rollers" in the early years of the century, members of this denomination moved into the middle class after World War II. Their spirit-filled devotional style began to influence the older, mainline churches, both Protestant and Catholic. Young Swaggart started preaching at age six, though he was not "born again" until two years later. Religion remained the major preoccupation of his entire youth. Offered a recording contract, about the time his cousin and best friend Jerry Lee was becoming famous, Swaggart vowed to use his own musical talents only in the service of the Lord. He even advised God to strike him with paralysis should he ever perform "the devil's music."

By the time he was 23, Swaggart was regularly traveling the gospel preaching circuit, along with his wife, Francis, who would remain a full partner throughout his ministry, and their two-year-old son, who would grow up to become his father's lieutenant. Backcountry evangelism, always as much entertainment as religion, put Swaggart's temperament and talent to good use. By 1964, despite success as a traveling preacher, he yearned for more respectability and was properly ordained by the Assemblies of God. He then took his "crusades" into cities. He also inaugurated a Gospel recording career and eventually sold more than 15 million recordings. In 1973 he added a weekly television program.

By the end of the 1980s Swaggart's telecasts and publications were addressing a regular national audience of almost two million. His outreach extended to 53 countries. Like other media preachers, Swaggart sought to anchor his operations; he chose Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as home base, where he built a Family Worship Center to seat 7,500. Perhaps in compensation for his own meager schooling, he readily followed the precedent of other celebrity preachers such as Aimee Semple McPherson and Oral Roberts by founding his own Bible college to train Christian workers for domestic and foreign service.

Politically conservative and openly judgmental, Swaggart made enemies. He could be fierce and even personal in his attacks. Among his targets were Roman Catholics, lukewarm Protestants, social "liberals," and fellow preachers with moral failings. He seemed oblivious to his own vulnerability when in early 1987 he launched the national scandal that came to be known as "Gospelgate." He accused rival televangelist Jim Bakker of adultery. Though the charges were easily substantiated, it did not take long for Swaggart's enemies to publicly expose his own predilections. They revealed that he had engaged in a series of voyeuristic acts with a prostitute in a Louisiana motel.

Owning up to his wrongdoing, labeling it "sin" rather than merely inappropriate behavior, Swaggart gave the premier performance of his life on February 21, 1988, to a capacity audience gathered at his Family Worship Center. His lips quivered as he weepingly apologized to his wife, his son, his daughter-in-law, and the Assemblies of God "which helped bring the gospel to my little beleaguered town, when my family was lost without Jesus." Finally, Swaggart apologized to Jesus Himself and asked to be renewed by His cleansing blood. So powerful was this confession that subsequent public acknowledgements of moral lapses by national figures have come to be known as "doing a Swaggart."

The Assemblies of God eventually defrocked Swaggart as later transgressions surfaced. Even without their blessing, his ministry continued throughout the 1990s, but his force was largely spent, and the impressive evangelistic compound he had built in Louisiana fell into some disrepair. With admissions of wrongdoing and investigations of financial irregularities of several televangelists, the influence of "the electronic church" went into general decline. Religious journals stopped lamenting that the seat in front of the television set was replacing the church pew. But Swaggart's career had become part of his century's unique body of religious lore, and he would be remembered in all his passion and moral ambiguity as a genuine American type.

—Allene Phy-Olsen