Jimmy Swaggart
Jimmy Swaggart Lee (born March 15, 1935 in Ferriday , Louisiana ) is an American preacher within the Pentecostal movement and a pioneer of television evangelism. Swaggart is the older cousin of rock 'n' roll musicians Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley . He reached his greatest popularity in the early 1980s , before he almost had to end his career because of several sex scandals.
Childhood and missionary service
Jimmy Swaggart's parents, Sun and Minnie Belle, were devout Baptists . His father was a deacon in their little church. They switched to Pentecostalism in 1943 , for which Jimmy began preaching at the first street evangelism when he was nine years old. In 1952 he married Frances Anderson. You have a son, Donnie, also in the field ministry.
Since 1958, Swaggart has been a full-time evangelist holding revival services throughout the south of the country. In 1961 he was ordained a pastor in the Assemblies of God . Since the 1960s he has been a producer of gospel music and spirituals for over two decades and has also built up a permanent audience through numerous Christian radio stations in the Bible Belt , the center of evangelical Protestantism in the southeastern United States . He also founded the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge , Louisiana, also a member of the Assemblies of God, and featured a weekly television program on various local channels. Radio and television became the two branches of his missionary work in the 1970s, when he bought numerous transmitters and gradually expanded his airtime. He preached mainly in the southern United States, mostly to large audiences, and became one of the most popular television preachers in the country through his evangelism in the metropolises. The TV show The Jimmy Swaggart Telecast reached two million households. The Jimmy Swaggart Ministries until 1984 included the church with over four thousand members, a printer, television and recording studios and the Jimmy Swaggart Bible College (now World Evangelism Bible College & Seminary ).
Even within his movement, Jimmy Swaggart is one of the most conservative pastors by far. While the church to this day approves of going to the cinema and enjoying modern Christian rock and pop music and seeks collaboration with other churches or Christian psychology , Jimmy Swaggart avoids such practices. He was critical of Billy Graham for his willingness to fellowship with the Catholic Church , which he despises. Swaggart opposes a practiced gospel of prosperity , but accepts signs and wonders .
Sex scandal and turning point in Swaggart's career
Today Swaggart is known worldwide primarily for his sex affairs, which have been uncovered since 1986 and because of which the reputation of American television preachers worldwide has been permanently damaged. First, he was accused by Pastor Marvin Gorman of having an affair with a parishioner. The following year, Swaggart, in turn, accused television evangelist Jim Bakker of an extramarital sex affair with Jessica Hahn . He called Bakker a "cancer in the body of Christ" on the Larry King Show , which in 1987 marked the end of his missionary work. Both affairs have never been proven. In retaliation, Gorman hired a private detective on Swaggart. The detective found Swaggart at a motel with a prostitute, Debra Murphree, and took pictures of the meeting. Gorman tried to blackmail Swaggart with the photos, but Swaggart refused to respond. Gorman presented the images to the Church leadership of the Assemblies of God, who then decided that Swaggart's broadcasts should be suspended for three months. This affair was satirically ridiculed by Frank Zappa .
On February 21, 1988, without giving details of his transgressions, Swaggart spoke to his family and church through tears and said publicly, “I have sinned against You, Lord [God], and I ask that Your Precious Blood be given to everyone [sin] may wash and clean the stain until it is forgotten by God and is never again remembered against me. "(" 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 anymore.") On the New Orleans morning news, Murphree stated four days later that she had never had sexual intercourse with Swaggart, who was her regular customer . Thereupon Swaggart preached against the decision of the board of directors of the Assemblies of God before the end of the three-month period from his television pulpit again. He stated, “If I don't stand in the pulpit again this weekend, millions of people will go to Hell .” Swaggart was immediately removed from office by the Assemblies of God.
On October 11, 1991, Swaggart was seen in the company of another prostitute, Rosemary Garcia, and a transsexual when the trio was stopped by police in Indio, California for driving on the wrong side of the street. When asked about her reason for the joyride with Swaggart, Garcia told police, “He asked me about sex. I mean, that's why he approached me. That's what i'm doing I'm a prostitute . ” Instead of confessing to his congregation, Swaggart told the believers, “ The Lord told me this is simply none of your business. ”(“ The Lord told me it's flat none of your business. ”) His son Donnie then announced to the stunned public that his father had temporarily resigned as director of the Jimmy Swaggart ministry for "a period of healing and counseling."
As a result of these scandals, the ministry's income fell by 85% in 1995. In contrast, Swaggart continued to receive an annual salary of over US $ 350,000.
Swaggart's new beginning and activities today
In 1987, Swaggart published a critical book on Christian rock and metal music rock n 'roll - A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing (Rock'n Roll - a wolf in sheep 's clothing ). The book condemns the Christian music scene for using heavy metal music as an element of Christian preaching and stigmatizes rock music as the music of the devil. Ironically, it was Swaggart through whom the also criticized musicians Michael and Robert Sweet, two of the founding members of the Christian white metal band Stryper, found their faith . Swaggart also criticizes Larry Norman (the "father of Christian rock music"), Petra and other notable Christian rock and metal bands. In 1986 Swaggart called rock music "the new pornography". This was also of Frank Zappa held in his 1988 US tour commented satirically in his lyrics.
Swaggart is the producer of several Christian CDs that his missionary work distributes. He wrote his autobiography To Cross a River and in 1988 a personal reckoning with the scandal The Cup Which My Father Hath Given Me: A Biblical Revelation of Personal Spiritual Warfare .
Swaggart, his son and grandson distribute television, radio and Internet broadcasts through the Sonlife Broadcasting Network . His wife Francis and son Donnie lead Ministry's preaching and leadership , grandson Gabriel is also a preacher and leads the Family Worship Center Youth Ministry "Crossfire".
In art
- The Swaggart sex scandal was revealed by Frank Zappa in the songs What Kind of Girl? , Stinkfoot and Jesus Thinks You're A Jerk processed satirically.
- Ozzy Osbourne took up the events in his song Miracle Man .
- On the television series A Terribly Kind Family , Swaggart is parodied by Reverend Al Bundy when he tearfully confesses to his misogynist community that he loves his own wife.
- Swaggart was portrayed by Alec Baldwin in the 1989 cinematic biography of Jerry Lee Lewis' Great Balls of Fire! shown.
- Swaggart was parodied by Jim Carrey in In Living Color .
- The Alf series thematizes in the 17th episode of the fourth season ( The Yodel Priest ) the subject of Swaggart in a dispute between Kate and Alf.
- In the Genesis song and video clip Jesus He Knows Me from the album We Can't Dance , the Christian TV evangelists, who are accused of mendacity and greed for money, are settled in a biting way.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ BBC article On this day: February 21st, 1988 TV evangelist quits over sex scandal on January 25, 2007 in BBC World News.
- ↑ For a short time he picked them up in his concerts, for example at the concert in Binghamton, New York on March 17, 1988 in the Beatles parodies Norwegian Jim , Louisiana Hooker With Herpes and Texas Motel , the pieces Lonesome Cowboy Burt (Swaggart Version) and He released More Trouble Every Day (Swaggart Version) on the album The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life .
- ^ Pastor Jimmy Swaggart: Apology Sermon on Americanrhetoric.com, published January 25, 2007
- ↑ Swaggart Plans to Step Down , The New York Times, October 15, 1991
- ^ History of Christian Heavy Metal Part 1 (Portuguese, 2nd part no longer available); Rock for the King. Ope Publishing, December 19, 2007.
- ↑ Michael Janke's Tribute to Petra on the website www.guidetopetra.com
- ↑ Rap, Rock, and Censorship in the music portal www.cas.sc.edu by Mathieu Deflem
- ^ Text by Lonesome Cowboy Burt on globalia.net
- ↑ SonLife Broadcasting Network - SBN at the Jimmy Swaggart Ministries In: jsm.org , accessed on February 21 2018th
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Swaggart, Jimmy |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Swaggart Lee, Jimmy |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American preacher within the Pentecostal movement |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 15, 1935 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ferriday , Louisiana |