Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, whose ministry was toppled by prostitution scandals, dies at 90

BATON ROUGE La AP Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart whose multimillion-dollar ministry and huge audience dwindled following his prostitution scandals has died He was Swaggart death was informed Tuesday on his populace Facebook page A cause wasn t this instant given though Swaggart had been in ill robustness The Louisiana native was best known for being a captivating Pentecostal preacher with a massive following before being caught on camera with a prostitute in New Orleans in one of a string of prosperous TV preachers brought down in the s and s by sex scandals He continued preaching for decades but with a reduced audience Swaggart encapsulated his downfall in a tearful sermon in which he wept and apologized but made no reference to his connection to a prostitute I have sinned against you Swaggart recounted parishioners nationwide I beg you to forgive me He informed his resignation from the Assemblies of God later that year shortly after the church noted it was defrocking him for rejecting punishment it had ordered for moral failure The church had sought him to undergo a two-year rehabilitation scheme including not preaching for a full year Swaggart noted at the time that he knew dismissal was inevitable but insisted he had no choice but to separate from the church to save his ministry and Bible college FILE Members of the audience react to evangelist Jimmy Swaggart during a modern rally in Milwaukee Feb AP Photo Joseph Jensen Jr file FILE Rev Jimmy Swaggart raises his fist to make point at news conference at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles Friday March AP Photo Lennox McLendon file FILE Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart speaks at the funeral utility for his cousin rock and roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis in Ferriday La Saturday Nov AP Photo Gerald Herbert file Show Caption of FILE Members of the audience react to evangelist Jimmy Swaggart during a latest rally in Milwaukee Feb AP Photo Joseph Jensen Jr file Expand From poverty and oil fields to a household name Swaggart grew up poor the son of a preacher in a music-rich family He excelled at piano and gospel music playing and caroling with talented cousins who took different paths rock- n -roller Jerry Lee Lewis and country singer Mickey Gilley In his hometown of Ferriday Louisiana Swaggart reported he first heard the call of God at age The voice gave him goose bumps and made his hair tingle he announced Everything seemed different after that day in front of the Arcade Theater he reported in a interview with the Jacksonville Journal-Courier in Illinois I felt better inside Almost like taking a bath He preached and worked part time in oil fields until he was He then moved entirely into his ministry preaching playing piano and caroling gospel songs with the barrelhouse fervor of cousin Lewis at Assemblies of God revivals and camp meetings Related Articles Jury returns to deliberate for a second day at Sean Diddy Combs sex trafficking trial The man accused of killing Idaho firefighters had once aspired to be one Mystery surrounds the Jeffrey Epstein files after Bondi asserts tens of thousands of videos In the present day in History July Judge Clarence Thomas nominated to the Supreme Court Bay State executives react to killing of Idaho firefighters Swaggart started a radio show a magazine and then moved into television with outspoken views He called Roman Catholicism a false religion It is not the Christian way and claimed that Jews suffered for thousands of years because of their rejection of Christ If you don t like what I say talk to my boss he once shouted as he strode in front of his congregation at his Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge where his sermons moved listeners to speak in tongues and stand up as if possessed by the Holy Spirit Swaggart s messages stirred thousands of congregants and millions of TV viewers making him a household name by the late s Contributors built Jimmy Swaggart Ministries into a business that made an estimated million in His Baton Rouge complex still includes a worship center and broadcasting and recording facilities The scandals that led to Swaggart s ruin Swaggart s downfall came in the late s as other prominent preachers faced similar scandals Swaggart mentioned publicly that his earnings were hurt in by the sex embarrassment surrounding rival televangelist Jim Bakker and a former church secretary at Bakker s PTL ministry organization The following year Swaggart was photographed at a hotel with Debra Murphree an admitted prostitute who notified reporters that the two did not have sex but that the preacher had paid her to pose nude She later repeated the claim and posed nude for Penthouse magazine The surveillance photos that crippled Swaggart s career apparently stemmed from his rivalry with preacher Marvin Gorman whom Swaggart had accused of sexual misdeeds Gorman hired the photographer who captured Swaggart and Murphree on film Swaggart later paid Gorman million to settle a lawsuit over the sexual statements against Gorman More trouble came in when police in California detained Swaggart with another prostitute The evangelist was charged with driving on the wrong side of the road and driving an unregistered Jaguar His companion Rosemary Garcia announced Swaggart became nervous when he saw the police car and weaved when he tried to stuff pornographic magazines under a car seat Swaggart was later mocked by the late TV comic Phil Hartman who impersonated him on NBC s Saturday Night Live Out of the inhabitants eye but still in the pulpit The evangelist largely stayed out of the news in later years but remained in the pulpit at Jimmy Swaggart Ministries often joined by his son Donnie a fellow preacher His radio station broadcast church services and gospel music to states and Swaggart s ministry boasted a worldwide audience on the internet The preacher caused another brief stir in with remarks about being looked at amorously by a gay man And I m going to be blunt and plain If one ever looks at me like that I m going to kill him and tell God he died Swaggart stated to laughter from the congregation He later apologized Swaggart made insufficient populace appearances outside his church save for intonating Amazing Grace at the funeral of Louisiana Secretary of State Fox McKeithen a prominent name in state politics for decades In he shared memories at the memorial provision for Lewis his cousin and rock n roll pioneer The pair had distributed The Boys From Ferriday a gospel album earlier that year