Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart dies at age 90
July 1 (UPI) -- Jimmy Swaggart, the Louisiana preacher who built one of the largest televangelist ministries in the 1980s before becoming embroiled in a sex scandal, died Tuesday at the age of 90.
Swaggart never regained consciousness after he suffered a heart attack on Father's Day, according to Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, which still operates out of Baton Rouge.
"Today, our hearts are heavy as we share that Brother Swaggart has finished his earthly race and entered into the presence of His Savior, Jesus Christ. Today was the day he has sung about for decades. He met his beloved Savior and entered the portals of glory. At the same time, we rejoice knowing that we will see him again one day," the church wrote in a post, announcing his death.
During the height of Swaggart's televised ministry during the 1980s, the televangelist reached more than 2 million Christians in 145 countries around the world and generated nearly $142 million annually.
Swaggart was dubbed the "King of Honky Tonk Heaven" by Newsweek and called "the most charismatic televangelist of the 20th century" in 1986, before he was caught in an adultery scandal two years later.
In 1988, Swaggart made a tearful confession to his congregation during a live television broadcast, saying, "I have sinned."
"I have sinned against you, my Lord," Swaggart said, "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."
The Assembly of God church defrocked Swaggart, who continued preaching without a denomination.
Three years later, Swaggart was caught with another prostitute but refused to apologize to his dwindling congregation, saying, "The Lord told me it's flat none of your business."
Swaggart proceeded to blame Satan and called his second scandal a spiritual warfare that involved demonic attacks against him. His scandals became a case study after his ministry lost 80% of its viewers, all of its 7,000-member congregation and most of its donations.
According to a 2019 Gallup poll, confidence in church or organized religions dropped from a high of 68% in the mid-1970s and 66% in the 1980s down to 36%. According to the survey, the drop was fueled by the sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church and the fall of popular ministers, including Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart.
Growing up, Swaggart shared two famous cousins, including rock 'n' roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis and country music star Mickey Gilley. He shared his Pentecostal faith with his grandmother and decided to pair gospel music with preaching on the back roads of Louisiana.
As a gospel artist, Swaggart sold more than 15 million records globally and was nominated for a Grammy. He also wrote nearly 50 Christian books.
Swaggart became ordained as a full minister in the Assemblies of God church in 1960 and launched a telecast in 1973. His church, Jimmy Swaggart World Ministries, bought more than 200 acres of land in Baton Rouge, where he built a 7,500-seat church, dormitories, warehouses and television production studios.
After the scandals, Swaggart turned to his real estate holdings to keep his ministry alive.
On Tuesday, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry honored Swaggart in a post on X.
"Rest in peace to Rev. Jimmy Swaggart. He devoted much of his life to bringing people to Christ. Our prayers go out to the Swaggart family during this difficult time."
Notable deaths of 2025
Horse Trainer D. Wayne Lukas walks to the winners circle after Seize the Day won the 149th Preakness Stakes at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore in May 2024. Lukas had been active through much of this year, but declined aggressive treatment for a serious medical problem stemming from a MRSA blood infection and elected to spend his final few days at home. He was 89. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
13 hours ago
- UPI
2 Chinese nationals charged with spying in the United States
Two Chinese nationals were charged on Tuesday with trying to recruit military members to obtain information on behalf of a Chinese intelligence agency, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced. Photo by Annabelle Gordon/UPI | License Photo July 1 (UPI) -- Two Chinese nationals made separate appearances in federal courts on Tuesday to face charges accusing them of acting as agents for the Chinese government. Yuance Chen, 38, is a permanent legal resident of Happy Valley, Ore., and was arraigned on charges in the U.S. District Court of Oregon in Portland and accusing him of acting as an agent of the Chinese government without notifying the U.S. attorney general. Liren "Ryan" Lai, 39, also is charged with acting as an agent of the Chinese government and was arraigned in the U.S. District Court ofSouthern Texas in Houston. Lai traveled to the United States on a tourist visa in April. "This case underscores the Chinese government's sustained and aggressive effort to infiltrate our military and undermine our national security from within," Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Tuesday in a news release. "The Justice Department will not stand by while hostile nations embed spies in our country," Bondi added. The charges against both defendants were filed in the Court of Northern California in San Francisco, and they were arrested on Friday, the Department of Justice. Each is innocent until proven guilty. Both men are accused of "overseeing and carrying out various clandestine intelligence taskings in the United States on behalf of the [Chinese] government's principal foreign intelligence service, the Ministry of State Security," the DOJ said. The pair allegedly were "attempting to recruit U.S. military service members on behalf of the People's Republic of China," FBI Director Kash Patel said. "The Chinese Communist Party thought they were getting away with their scheme to operate on U.S. soil, utilizing spy craft, like dead drops, to pay their sources," Patel continued. He said the case was a "complex and coordinated effort" that involved counterintelligence work by FBI agents in San Francisco, Portland, Houston and San Diego and the agency's Counterintelligence Division. The DOJ accuses Lai of recruiting Chen on behalf of the MSS in 2021 and says the pair met in Guangzhou, China, in January 2022, to devise a dead-drop payment of at least $10,000. They allegedly worked with individuals in the United States to leave a backpack with the cash inside a day-use locker at a recreational facility in Livermore, Calif., that same month. The DOJ says Lai and Chen also conspired to obtain a list of personnel from a U.S. Navy recruitment center in San Gabriel, Calif., and a Navy installation in Washington state to identify potential intelligence assets and transmit the information to the MSS in China. China's MSS also instructed Chen in how to "engage and recruit future sailors and methods for minimizing his risk of exposure," the DOJ alleges. Chen also is accused of traveling to China in April 2024 and March 2025 to meet with MSS intelligence officers and discuss specific tasks and compensation. Chen and Lai each could be imprisoned for up to 10 years and fined up to $250,000 if found guilty of the charges against them.
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
Jimmy Swaggart, fire-and-brimstone preacher, dies at 90
As he barnstormed across America, Jimmy Swaggart would prowl the stage like a born-again Mick Jagger, all swagger as he strutted, bellowed, banged on a piano, spoke in tongues and — in a pitch he perfected to a near art form — urged the faithful to double down on their relationship with the Lord by contributing to his ministry. A fire-and-brimstone Pentecostal preacher, Swaggart bragged he had more followers than Oral Roberts or Jim Bakker, lived a luxuriant life on a 100-acre compound in Baton Rouge, La., and whooshed off to evangelistic crusades in a private jet with a fleet of 18-wheelers, loaded with musical instruments and television equipment, rumbling down the highway below. But his ministry was upended in the 1980s when photos surfaced showing Swaggart with a prostitute at a New Orleans motel and again when he was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol in the Mojave Desert while traveling with a woman who told officers she was a prostitute. Defrocked and disgraced, Swaggart clawed his way back to the pulpit, but attendance at his church shrank, his television ministry withered and the Bible college he founded stripped away his name. Unbowed until the end, Swaggart died Tuesday at Baton Rouge General Medical Center after suffering a cardiac event on June 15, according to a statement from Megan Kelly, a family spokesperson. He was 90. Much like his rock 'n' roll cousin Jerry Lee Lewis, Swaggart was comfortable onstage and confident at the piano, working the masses into a fervor when he invited those who were physically and spiritually ailing to approach the altar, where a team of ministers would lay their hands on the worshipers to begin the healing. "If you think Miller Lite is going to carry you home, you're wrong," he howled during one service in his native Louisiana. "If you think the president is going to carry you home, you're wrong," he said, pausing, and then gently adding: "It's Jesus Christ, that's your savior." His brand of populist hellfire played well in the U.S. and beyond in the 1980s when "The Jimmy Swaggart Telecast" reached nearly 2 million viewers a week on 500 stations and his monthly magazine, the Evangelist, was shipped to more than 800,000 households. His gospel albums sold millions, and when he hit the road, his followers would pour in by the thousands. Dan Rather once called him "the most effective speaker in the country." "I really don't look at it as success or lack of success," Swaggart told the Associated Press in 1985. "It's just mostly the Lord. I feel he wants me to do what I'm doing." Jimmy Lee Swaggart was born March 15, 1935, in Ferriday, a small crossroads eight miles from the Mississippi River in northeastern Louisiana. It was a tired-out town of just a few thousand, but it's likely that every soul there knew Swaggart, Lewis and their other cousin Mickey Gilley. The Ferriday Three, town folk called them. Swaggart said he was 8 when the Lord first spoke to him as he stood outside the Arcade Theater in downtown Ferriday, waiting to watch a Saturday matinee. "I felt better inside," Swaggart said years later. "Almost like taking a bath continuously." Like his cousins, Swaggart grew up with a burning desire to get out of Ferriday. He dropped out of high school, just like his cousins, and started preaching on street corners, then took a position as a pastor at a small church. The Bible had been his companion for years. But if Lewis' ascent was explosive as he rocketed to fame with "Great Balls of Fire" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On," Swaggart did the Lord's work in near poverty. While Lewis was earning up to $80,000 a month from record sales and concerts, Swaggart was lucky to scratch out $30 a week. Finally, Lewis bought his cousin a beat-up Plymouth and loaned Swaggart his backup musicians and studio time to record a gospel album. Swaggart finally hit the road, traveling the back roads of Louisiana and Mississippi, holding revivals. His gospel albums were good enough and his baritone voice strong enough that he settled in Baton Rouge in 1969 and started the "Camp Meeting Hour" radio show, a blend of gospel, dire warnings and road maps to redemption. By the time he was 49, Swaggart had overtaken Robert Schuller and Oral Roberts as the king of television preachers, reaching 2 million households a week and appearing on more than 500 stations. The money poured in. By 1985, his ministry was bringing in roughly $120 million a year from collections, magazine sales and merchandise from his World Ministry gift catalog. The trappings of it all were impressive: the 100-acre compound; the 7,500-square-foot house; the matching Lincoln Town Cars for his wife, Frances, and himself; the assembly hall that seated 1,000; the Bible college; the immaculately tended gardens; and the 28 relatives on the payroll. But the higher the ascent, the greater the fall. And for the Ferriday Three, there was to be a day of reckoning. Lewis had been a hell-raiser since he was a youth, and he was no different as an adult. He drank, took amphetamines and cheated on his wives. Lewis also seemed to have a tight relationship with death. A son drowned in a swimming pool, another was killed in a Jeep accident, and his fifth wife died of a drug overdose under suspicious circumstances. His fans rolled with his excesses and pitied his life tragedies. But when he married a 13-year-old cousin, they melted away. Gilley, who launched his career as a country artist but had greater success when he embraced pop, lost much of his fortune when he got into a legal dispute with his partner in a Pasadena, Texas, nightclub called Gilley's. Shuttered, the place burned to the ground in 1990 in a fire that authorities determined was arson. Swaggart's success with the collection plate occasionally raised suspicions. Former employees went to court, accusing the preacher of misappropriating donations, and lawsuits were filed against his ministry over tax exemptions and contested wills, which brought in millions. Swaggart's downfall, however, was born from a religious war of sorts that erupted in the 1980s among three pop-star evangelists — Bakker, then soaring high with "The PTL Club," New Orleans preacher Marvin Gorman and Swaggart himself. Swaggart took the first swing when he went after Bakker, accusing him of having an affair with a church secretary named Jessica Hahn. Bakker was eventually expelled from the Assemblies of God denomination and was sentenced to 45 years in prison for fraud. The sentence was later reduced to eight years, and Bakker was paroled after serving just five. But the outcome was far different when the preacher went after Gorman, who like Swaggart had an international television ministry. Swaggart accused the New Orleans preacher of having affairs with various parishioners, as well as another minister's wife. It was enough to get Gorman tossed from the Assemblies of God. Incensed, Gorman sued Swaggart for defamation and won a $10-million judgment that was later reduced to $6.64 million, then finally settled out of court for $1.8 million. Gorman's revenge, though, was not yet complete. Suspicious that Swaggart himself was an adulterer, Gorman asked his son to tail Swaggart one night. The son found Swaggart at a run-down motel on Airline Highway in New Orleans and took photos of the preacher checking into a room with a prostitute. Gorman handed the photos over to the Assemblies of God, which ordered Swaggart suspended for two years. Uncertain that his ministry could withstand such a long break, Swaggart gave it three months and returned to the pulpit, preaching under the auspices of the Jimmy Swaggart Bible College. On a bright Baton Rouge morning in 1988, Swaggart bounded up the steps of his worship center and — as thousands gazed on — spoke vaguely about his "trying time," his "burden" and his struggles with "Satan." When a women in the pews called out, "Do you want some money?" Swaggart smiled broadly. "I sure do." Three years later, Swaggart was pulled over for driving on the wrong side of the road in the Coachella Valley. His passenger told officers that she was a prostitute and that the preacher had picked her up while cruising the streets of Indio. This time, rather than face parishioners, Swaggart stepped down as head of his ministry in order "to reflect." His son Donnie took over Sunday services. Most days, Swaggart retired to his study and wrote or played the piano, singing his favorite gospel songs. During the length of his career, he wrote nearly 50 books and dozens of study guides and commentaries on the Bible. When he did preach, it was in a smaller church, where the gatherings would seem larger and his presence more commanding. When pressed about his sins, he was often direct. "The Lord told me it's flat none of your business," he said during one prayer service. Swaggart is survived by his wife, son, three grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Times staff writer Grace Toohey contributed to this report. Sign up for Essential California for the L.A. Times biggest news, features and recommendations in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
UPI
16 hours ago
- UPI
Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart dies at age 90
Jimmy Swaggart, the Louisiana preacher who built one of the largest televangelist ministries in the 1980s before becoming embroiled in a sex scandal, died Tuesday at the age of 90. Swaggart suffered cardiac arrest two weeks ago and never regained consciousness. File Photo by UPI | License Photo July 1 (UPI) -- Jimmy Swaggart, the Louisiana preacher who built one of the largest televangelist ministries in the 1980s before becoming embroiled in a sex scandal, died Tuesday at the age of 90. Swaggart never regained consciousness after he suffered a heart attack on Father's Day, according to Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, which still operates out of Baton Rouge. "Today, our hearts are heavy as we share that Brother Swaggart has finished his earthly race and entered into the presence of His Savior, Jesus Christ. Today was the day he has sung about for decades. He met his beloved Savior and entered the portals of glory. At the same time, we rejoice knowing that we will see him again one day," the church wrote in a post, announcing his death. During the height of Swaggart's televised ministry during the 1980s, the televangelist reached more than 2 million Christians in 145 countries around the world and generated nearly $142 million annually. Swaggart was dubbed the "King of Honky Tonk Heaven" by Newsweek and called "the most charismatic televangelist of the 20th century" in 1986, before he was caught in an adultery scandal two years later. In 1988, Swaggart made a tearful confession to his congregation during a live television broadcast, saying, "I have sinned." "I have sinned against you, my Lord," Swaggart said, "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." The Assembly of God church defrocked Swaggart, who continued preaching without a denomination. Three years later, Swaggart was caught with another prostitute but refused to apologize to his dwindling congregation, saying, "The Lord told me it's flat none of your business." Swaggart proceeded to blame Satan and called his second scandal a spiritual warfare that involved demonic attacks against him. His scandals became a case study after his ministry lost 80% of its viewers, all of its 7,000-member congregation and most of its donations. According to a 2019 Gallup poll, confidence in church or organized religions dropped from a high of 68% in the mid-1970s and 66% in the 1980s down to 36%. According to the survey, the drop was fueled by the sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church and the fall of popular ministers, including Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart. Growing up, Swaggart shared two famous cousins, including rock 'n' roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis and country music star Mickey Gilley. He shared his Pentecostal faith with his grandmother and decided to pair gospel music with preaching on the back roads of Louisiana. As a gospel artist, Swaggart sold more than 15 million records globally and was nominated for a Grammy. He also wrote nearly 50 Christian books. Swaggart became ordained as a full minister in the Assemblies of God church in 1960 and launched a telecast in 1973. His church, Jimmy Swaggart World Ministries, bought more than 200 acres of land in Baton Rouge, where he built a 7,500-seat church, dormitories, warehouses and television production studios. After the scandals, Swaggart turned to his real estate holdings to keep his ministry alive. On Tuesday, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry honored Swaggart in a post on X. "Rest in peace to Rev. Jimmy Swaggart. He devoted much of his life to bringing people to Christ. Our prayers go out to the Swaggart family during this difficult time." Notable deaths of 2025 Horse Trainer D. Wayne Lukas walks to the winners circle after Seize the Day won the 149th Preakness Stakes at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore in May 2024. Lukas had been active through much of this year, but declined aggressive treatment for a serious medical problem stemming from a MRSA blood infection and elected to spend his final few days at home. He was 89. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
