Televangelist Plagued by Sex Scandals Dies at 90
Jimmy Swaggart, the conservative televangelist who preached family values while privately soliciting sex workers, died Tuesday.
Rick Maiman/Sygma via Getty Images
Reverend Jimmy Swaggart, the Pentecostal televangelist whose empire was rocked by sex scandals in the 1980s and ’90s, has died. He was 90.
Swaggart’s family announced his death on Instagram Tuesday morning, two weeks after revealing the Reverend had suffered a heart attack.
“Today was the day he has sung about for decades,” Swaggart’s family wrote of his death. “He met his beloved Savior and entered the portals of glory.”
The pastor’s son, Donnie, 70, previously told parishioners at the family’s church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on June 15, that his father was in critical condition, adding, “Without a miracle, his time is short.”
Born in 1935 in Ferriday, Louisiana, Swaggart was a second generation minister, the son of sharecropper, fiddle player, and Pentecostal preacher Willie Leon Swaggart.
The younger Swaggart developed a following across the American South in the 1950s while delivering sermons from the back of a flatbed trailer. At age 17, he married Frances Anderson, then 15. The pair stayed married until his death, with Frances playing an essential role in his ministries and hosting a daytime talk show, Frances & Friends, on her husband’s television network.
Sign Up for Our Cheat Sheet Newsletter
By clicking “SUBSCRIBE” you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
After two of his cousins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley, rose to mainstream fame as musicians, Swaggart gained wider popularity in the ’60s as a gospel singer and later, as a radio minister. In the late 1960s, Swaggart built his primary church, the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge.
Swaggart shifted to television in 1971, and by 1978, was broadcasting an hour-long weekly sermon nationwide. By the early 1980s, he was preaching on television daily, and gained mainstream attention for his ultra-conservative views on “alternative lifestyles.” He was staunchly opposed to adultery, pornography, and homosexuality, once telling parishioners he would murder any gay man who looked at him romantically.
By 1987, Swaggart’s television network, SonLife Broadcasting, drew up to 510 million viewers across 145 countries and raked in nearly $150 million in earnings, making him a rival of televangelist giants like Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.
Swaggart's international "crusades"—campaigns to convert new parishioners across Latin America and the Caribbean—drew massive crowds and helped him rise to a new level of international fame before his ministry was rocked by scandal in 1988.
Cindy Karp/Getty Images
However, Swaggart’s multi-million dollar ministry started to crumble in 1988, when he was photographed soliciting a sex worker. The scandal started as a feud with fellow Louisiana televangelist Martin Gorman, who had hired men to follow Swaggart after the pastor exposed him for soliciting sex workers two years earlier.
In response to the scandal, Swaggart was publicly suspended from preaching by the Assemblies of God, the global governing body for the Pentecostal Church.
He later apologized to his wife, parishioners, and God in a widely publicized sermon known as his “I Have Sinned” speech.
The scandal ultimately saw Swaggart defrocked by the Assemblies of God after he refused to take a one-year hiatus from television as penance.
However, the pastor’s career continued, with Swaggart continuing his televised sermons as a non-denominational Pentecostal minister.
Though Swaggart was apologetic over his first sex work scandal in 1988, he was decisively less repentant when he was caught with another sex worker three years later.
Cynthia Johnson/Getty Images
His ministries took another hit just three years later, when, in 1991, Swaggart was once again found soliciting a sex worker. At the same time, he agreed to pay $1.85 million to Gorman, who had sued him for defamation.
Though he took a brief hiatus from preaching, Swaggart refused to apologize for his second scandal, instead telling parishioners, “The Lord told me it’s flat none of your business.” Shortly after the scandal, however, Swaggart Ministries announced it would cease all television broadcasts.
In his later years, Swaggart returned to the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge. He resumed his telecasts across a few public access networks in the 2000s. Donnie Swaggart, his only son, joined him as co-pastor, and the two preached together until Jimmy Swaggart’s hospitalization last month.
In their statement on Tuesday, Swaggart’s family wrote, “He was not just a preacher—he was a worshipper, a warrior, and a witness to the grace and mercy of God. He was a man whose faith was steadfast and always entered whatever door the Lord opened.”
Swaggart is survived by his wife, Frances; son, Donnie; grandchildren Jennifer, Gabriel, and Matthew, and nine great-grandchildren.
See more of our coverage in your search results.
Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.
Register below to read this article for free or subscribe
to unlock unlimited access to The Daily Beast.
Monthly
$1
First month then $5.99/month
Annual
$35
First year then $59.99/year
Premium
$79
First year then $119.99/year
*Substack access provided by the next business day, using your subscription email. Choosing the Premium plan constitutes your permission to share your subscription email with Substack and your agreement to Substack’s Privacy Policy.
Already have an account? Sign In
Looks like you already have a subscription!
You're all set!
Thanks for subscribing.