Jimmy Swaggart, a scandal-plagued Pentecostal televangelist who was known for his fire-and-brimstone sermonizing, and who waged a fiery campaign against rock ‘n’ roll even though he was the cousin of rock pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis and country star Mickey Gilley, died Tuesday at age 90.
The death was confirmed on Swaggart’s social media accounts Tuesday morning. No details were given, but Swaggart had been reported as close to death by his ministry 16 days ago, after he suffered a major coronary event on Father’s Day. In reporting the death, his family offered thanks to Baton Rouge General Medical Center for his care during his two-plus weeks in the ICU.
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“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,” read the statement from his family. “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.”
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For better or worse, Swaggart became the figure many Americans first thought of when they considered the idea of “TV preachers,” as his flair for emotional fire-and-brimstone sermons came to overshadow even Billy Graham, whose own warnings of an eternity without God sounded comparatively kinder and gentler in comparison to Swaggart’s penchant for melodrama.
Swaggart’s sermonizing against rock music — even Christian rock — was personal. “‘My family started rock ‘and ‘n’ roll!” he told his congregation. ‘I don’t say that with any glee! I don’t say it with any pomp or pride! I say it with shame and sadness, because I’ve seen the death and the destruction. I’ve seen the unmitigated misery and the pain. I’ve seen it!… I speak of experience. My family – Jerry Lee Lewis, with Elvis Presley, with Chuck Berry … started rock ‘n’ roll!”
Although Gilley and Lewis were more likely to be popularly referred to as the successful musicians in the family, Swaggart had a longstanding recording career of his own, albeit strictly in the traditional gospel field, as he eschewed more contemporary forms of popular music as the devil’s gateway.
Swaggart had his own pathways to the dark side, as evidenced in headlines in the 1980s and ’90s. He was first accused of soliciting prostitution in 1988, when he was caught entering a motel with a New Orleans sex worker, who said that they had had “pornographic” encounters that did not involve sexual intercourse. The media spotlight on his backsliding led to a widely rebroadcast “I have sinned” speech in front of his Baton Rouge congregation, with famous shots of tears streaking down his face.
Some of Swaggart’s detractors took delight in these developments, being able to point to his apparent hypocrisy, as he had previously made news headlines by furiously denouncing fellow televangelist JIm Bakker for his own sex scandal, calling the “PTL” host “a cancer that needed to be excised from the body of Christ.” It was indeed an act of revenge from a fellow minister that exposed Swaggart’s sin, although not by Bakker. After Swaggart accused another Assemblies of God minister, Marvin Gorman, of serial adultery, it was Gorman who hired the private detective who was taking photographs when Swaggart and the sex worker checked into the motel room.
Swaggart was ordered to take a year off by the Assemblies of God, but when he resumed the pulpit after just three months, the denomination defrocked him. That did not act as much of a roadblock to his ministry, as he took his World Faith Center non-denominational. But in 1991, he was pulled over in California with a woman in his car who said she was a prostitute Swaggart had picked up. But he did not offer a tearful public confession this time — “The Lord told me it’s flat none of your business,” he told his congregation, before again taking a short-time out from the ministry.
Jimmy Swaggart Ministries claimed that he had sold 15 million copies of his albums, although there is no verification of that. His website offers more than 75 CDs for sale — including two volumes of “The Boys From Ferriday,” albums he recorded jointly with Jerry Lee Lewis.
Cousins Lewis and Gilley both died in 2022.
Swaggart was inducted into the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame on June 30, one day before his death. A formal induction ceremony will be held in September, at which his son, Donnie Swaggart, was already scheduled to accept the honor for him.
Prior to the scandals, Swaggart’s church services — broadcast from his church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana — were seen on more than 200 TV stations. Even now, Jimmy Swaggart Ministries still had its preaching heard on a radio network of 75 stations.
Swaggart grew up as the son of a sharecropper in Ferriday, Louisiana. His grandmother, Ada Lewis Swaggart, joined the Pentecostal movement and was influential on her grandson’s immersion in a faith dependent on signs and wonders — with young Jimmy first speaking in tongues at age 8.
He was ordained as a minister by the Assemblies of God in 1960 and launched his telecast in 1973. As his church outgrew its home, he built a new 7,500-seat facility as the 1970s came to a close, becoming one of Baton Rouge’s primary tourist attractions. By the 1980s, the ministry was bringing in a reported $142 million a year.
Swaggart used his pulpit to rail against not just secular rock ‘n’ roll, but even Christian pop. His 1987 book “Religious Rock ‘n’ Roll: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” found him on a tear against relatively tame CCM artists like the “fleshly” Amy Grant as well as Jesus-espousing rock acts like Stryper. “You cannot proclaim the message of the anointed WITH THE MUSIC OF THE DEVIL!” he insisted.
Swaggart was sometimes referenced and parodied in popular culture, especially by rock musicians, who enjoyed the chance to dish some of his ire back at him.
Ozzy Osbourne’s 1988 song “Miracle Man” took digs at the preacher’s fall from grace, with the ex-Black Sabbath singer wearing a Swaggart mask while filming the music video in a church. Swaggart had previously singled Osbourne out as a purveyor of occultism. “Miracle man got busted, miracle man got busted / Today I saw a miracle man, on TV cryin’,” sang Osbourne. “Such a hypocritical man, born again, dying / He don’t know where he’s goin’ but we know where he’s been / It was our little Jimmy sinner.”
Frank Zappa once recorded a track called “Lonesome Cowboy Burt (Swaggart Version)” which included the lyrics “My name is Swaggart / I am an asshole…” / I make lot of” and “Wanna love ’em all! In the name of Jesus!… I’ll buy ’em furs / I’ll buy ’em jewelry / I’ll never fuck them,” in reference to the televangelist’s reported habit of indulging in behavior with prostitutes that stopped short of intercourse.
Genesis also satirized Swaggart along with Bakker, Robert Tilton and other televangelists in the video for the 1991 song “Jesus He Knows Me.”
But Swaggart had something in common with many of his targets and adversaries: a Grammy nomination. He was put up for best traditional gospel performance in 1981 for his album “Worship.” His name turned up more often at Christian music’s Dove Awards, with Swaggart being nominated eight times in the late ’70s, according to his website.
