Jimmy Swaggart, who was among the most successful televangelists in the U.S. in the 1980s, died Tuesday (July 1) at the age of 90. He died at Baton Rouge (Louisiana) General Medical Center two weeks after suffering a cardiac event on June 15, according to a statement from Megan Kelly, a family spokesperson.
Over the course of his career, Swaggart wrote nearly 50 books and dozens of study guides and commentaries on the Bible.
He also recorded numerous albums. His 1980 album Worship received a Grammy nomination for best gospel performance, traditional. Swaggart placed four albums on Billboard’s Top Christian Albums chart in the mid-1980s: Living Waters (No. 12 in 1984), Jesus Just the Mention of Your Name (No. 32 in 1984), Sweet Anointing (No. 22 in 1985) and It’s Beginning to Rain (No. 13 in 1986).
But Swaggart was not a fan of Christian rock music. In 1987, he co-authored Religious Rock n Roll: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing with Robert Paul Lamb, in which he argued that the rise of the Contemporary Christian Music is as an extension of “worldly” entertainment interests.
Jimmy Lee Swaggart was born on March 15, 1935, in Ferriday, a small town in northeastern Louisiana. Swaggart had two cousins who made it big in music: rock ’n’ roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis (who was also born in Ferriday) and country music star Mickey Gilley. They were known locally as The Ferriday Three. Lewis, who was in the first class of artists inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and Gilley, who amassed 17 No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, both died in 2022 – Gilley in May at age 86; Lewis in October at age 87.
A fire-and-brimstone Pentecostal preacher, Swaggart began full-time evangelistic work in 1955. In 1960, he began recording gospel music albums and transmitting on Christian radio stations. In 1961, he was ordained by the Assemblies of God. A year later, he began his radio ministry.
In 1971, Swaggart began transmitting a weekly, 30-minute telecast over local TV stations in Baton Rouge. Two years later, he proposed to television producers in Nashville a program including a music segment, a short sermon and time for talking about current ministry projects. Within weeks, The Jimmy Swaggart Telecast was being broadcast around the U.S.
By 1984, Swaggart had overtaken Robert Schuller and Oral Roberts as America’s top televangelist. The Jimmy Swaggart Telecast reached nearly 2 million viewers a week on 500 stations. Swaggart’s monthly magazine, The Evangelist, was distributed to more than 800,000 households.
By 1985, his ministry was reportedly bringing in approximately $120 million a year from collections, magazine sales and merchandise sales.
A bitter rivalry among the top televangelists of the era led to ruin. Swaggart took the first swing when he accused Jim Bakker of having an affair with church secretary Jessica Hahn. On April 6, 1987, Swaggart and Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker appeared on the cover of TIME magazine with the cover line “Unholy Row: TV Preacher Jimmy Swaggart and the Besieged Bakkers.” Swaggart acknowledged that he had passed along rumors of Jim Bakker’s illicit behavior to officials of the Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal denomination in which both were clergy.
Swaggart also went after New Orleans preacher Marvin Gorman, accusing him of having multiple affairs. Gorman fought back, suing Swaggart for defamation and ultimately settling out of court for $1.8 million. Suspicious that Swaggart was an adulterer, Gorman asked his son to tail Swaggart one night. The son found Swaggart at a motel in New Orleans and took photos of the preacher checking into a room with a prostitute. On Feb. 16, 1988, Gorman handed the photos over to the Assemblies of God, which ordered Swaggart suspended for three months.
Five days later, Swaggart tearfully delivered what came to be known as “I have sinned” speech on live television, an image that has become iconic.
The national presbytery of the Assemblies of God defrocked Swaggart, removing his credentials and ministerial license. Swaggart countered by becoming an independent and non-denominational Pentecostal minister, establishing Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, based at the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge.
A second scandal involving another prostitute three years later further diminished Swaggart’s popularity. Even so, Swaggart was senior pastor of Family Worship Center until his death.
Swaggart is survived by his wife of 73 years, Francis (whom he married when he was 17 and she was 15); a son, Donnie; three grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.
