Jimmy Swaggart, one of the fashionable and enduring of the Nineteen Eighties televangelists, died on July 1, 2025, however his legacy lives.
Together with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, he drew an target market within the hundreds of thousands, accumulated a private fortune and presented a brand new technology of American citizens to a potent combine of faith and politics.
Swaggart used to be an old-time evangelist whose focal point used to be “saving souls.” However he additionally preached on conservative social problems, caution fans concerning the evils of abortion, homosexuality and godless communism.
Swaggart additionally denounced what he referred to as “false cults,” together with Catholicism, Judaism and Mormonism. In truth, his denunciations of alternative religions, in addition to his assaults on rival preachers, made him a extra polarizing determine than his politicized brethren.
As a reporter, I lined Swaggart within the Nineteen Eighties. Now, as a student of American faith, I argue that whilst Swaggart didn’t construct establishments like Falwell’s Ethical Majority or Robertson’s 700 Membership, he helped to unfold right-wing positions on social problems, equivalent to sexual orientation and abortion, and to form the picture of televangelists in pop culture..
Swaggart’s cousins
Born right into a hardscrabble existence in a small Louisiana city, Swaggart grew up along his cousins Jerry Lee Lewis, the long run rockabilly pioneer, and long term nation singer Mickey Gilley.
All 3 beloved tune and making a song. They polished their taking part in on an uncle’s piano and sneaked into African American nightclubs to listen to the jazz and blues forbidden via their oldsters.
Jimmy Swaggart handing over a sermon on the Plants Blanca Stadium in El Salvador.
Cindy Karp/Getty Photographs
Whilst Gilley and Lewis grew to become their musical skill into recording and appearing careers, Swaggart felt referred to as to the ministry. He dropped out of highschool, married at 17, started preaching at 20 and used to be ordained at 26.
He used to be approved via the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination that believes the Holy Spirit endows believers with non secular items that come with talking in tongues and religion therapeutic.
The respect years
Pentecostals had been nicknamed Holy Rollers on account of their tendency to shake, quake and roll at the flooring when feeling the Holy Spirit. Their preachers excelled at rousing audiences’ ardor, and Swaggart commanded the level higher than maximum. He paced, pounced and poured forth sweat whilst begging listeners to show from sin and settle for Jesus.
Beginning small, he drew crowds whilst preaching on a flatbed trailer all the way through the South. His following grew, and in 1969 he opened the Circle of relatives Worship Middle in Baton Rouge.
Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart leaves his place of business complicated in Baton Rouge, L. a.., on Jan. 7, 1977.
AP Picture
By way of 1975, Swaggart’s on-stage aura powered the release of a tv ministry that will succeed in hundreds of thousands inside of a decade. Audience had been captivated via his soulful tunes and fire-and-brimstone sermons. At its top, Swaggart’s display used to be televised in 140 international locations, together with Peru, the Philippines and South Africa.
His ministry additionally was the biggest mail-order trade in Louisiana, promoting books, tapes, T-shirts and biblical memorabilia. Due to the USA$150 million raised once a year from donations and gross sales, Swaggart lived in a luxurious mansion, possessed a personal jet prior to now owned via the Rockefellers, sported a yellow gold antique Rolex and drove a Jaguar.
The downfall
Swaggart disliked pageant and had a historical past of humiliating rival preachers. Cautious of the Rev. Marvin Gorman, a Pentecostal minister whose church additionally used to be in Louisiana, Swaggart accused the person of adultery. Gorman admitted his infidelity and used to be defrocked.
Whilst his lovers had been prepared, the Assemblies of God had stipulations: Swaggart won the usual two-year suspension for sexual immorality. Defying the ruling, Swaggart went again to paintings after 3 months, and the denomination defrocked him.
A parishioner triumph over with grief lies on steps to the altar after Jimmy Swaggart’s confession of sexual indiscretions.
Thomas S. England/Getty Photographs
Swaggart may have succeeded as an unbiased minister, however in 1991 the police stopped his automotive for using at the unsuitable facet of the street. Inside of they discovered the preacher with a prostitute. This time, Swaggart didn’t make an apology. As a substitute, he knowledgeable his congregation, “The Lord told me it’s flat none of your business.”
Later on, Swaggart by no means regained his former status. His mail-order trade dried up, donations fell, and attendance at products and services cratered. However up till his demise, he saved on, in his personal phrases, as an “old-fashioned, Holy Ghost-filled, shouting, weeping, soul-winning, Gospel-preaching preacher.”
Swaggart’s legacy
Swaggart, like different Nineteen Eighties televangelists, introduced right-wing politics into American properties. However in contrast to Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, Swaggart used to be much less eager about successful elections than saving souls. In truth, when Robertson regarded as a presidential run in 1988, Swaggart first of all attempted to dissuade him – then modified his thoughts and supported him.
Swaggart’s requires a go back to conservative Christian norms continue to exist – now not simply in Sunday sermons but additionally in as of late’s international of tradwives, abortion restrictions and calls to repeal homosexual marriage. His tune lives on, too. The day earlier than he died, the Southern Gospel Track Affiliation Corridor of Repute inducted him as a member.
However his legacy additionally survives in pop culture. Lately, each truth tv and scripted collection have starred preachers formed within the symbol of Swaggart and his friends. Maximum exaggerate his worst traits for surprise and comedic impact.
“Preachers of L.A.,” a 2013 truth display that profiled six Los Angeles pastors, featured blinged-out ministers whose sermons combined hip-hop with the Bible. The fictitious “Greenleaf” adopted the scandals of a longer circle of relatives’s Memphis megachurch, whilst “The Righteous Gemstones,” a dismal spoof of Southern preachers, grew to become a circle of relatives ministry right into a website for intercourse, homicide and moneymaking.
However those imitations can’t fit the truth. Swaggart used to be a larger-than-life minister whose tale – from small-town wannabe to disgraced pastor, to preaching to people who would pay attention – had all of it: intercourse, politics, tune and faith.
For many who desire a style of the actual factor, The King of Honky Tonk Heaven lives on. You’ll be able to see his previous products and services and Bible research streaming day by day on his community.
