Jimmy Swaggart, one of the most influential US teleevolars in the 1980s, before an adventure with a prostitute destroyed her career, died at the age of 90, reports Reuters, taken over by Agerpres.
Jimmy Swaggart Ministries confirmed his death through a message distributed on Facebook, and the family of the American preacher thanked the employees of the General Medical Center in the city of Baton Rouge, however, without revealing the cause of death.
Sin recognized with tears on the cheeks
During his glory period, when he was a fundamentalist Pentecostal preacher, Jimmy Swaggart had a global audience estimated at 200 million viewers. Then the scandal broke out with a prostitute in 1988. With tears flowing on his cheeks, Jimmy Swaggart acknowledged in front of his congregation that he sinned – without giving other details – and begged the believers to forgive him.
Born on March 15, 1935, Jimmy Swaggart grew up in Ferriday, a town in Louisiana, during the racial segregation, along with two cousins who also became famous-Jerry Lee Lewis, a pioneer of rock-and-roll musical style, and singer Mickey Gilley.
In childhood, he grew up in an environment dominated by a Pentecostal version of Christianity marked by allusions to “fire and puck”, which he would later promote in his radio and television shows. His father, a banks and a fan of very harsh discipline, preached from time to time, and Jimmy Swaggart was only nine when, according to his words, he was “called” for the first time to preach.
“You will preach my gospel worldwide. You will take it even to Africa,” it was the command that Jimmy Swaggart claimed that God gave him.
He dropped out of school, picked cotton and carried gravel so he could have. At the age of 17, he married Frances Anderson, then 15 years old, after a three -month relationship. He attended times when other preachers, such as Oral Roberts, earn the souls of believers and a lot of money through huge evangelical meetings organized in tents.
“God told me that it is not your job”
High, muscular and with chiseled features, Jimmy Swaggart was already an imposing figure when he started his career preaching at street corners during Pentecostal meetings in rural areas, dominated by songs, extensive gestures and episodes of glosolalia. Until 1969, he had achieved enough success to launch “The Camp Hour Meeting”, a radio show, and his reputation increased even more after moving his sermon to television in 1973.
The ultra-conservative preacher and sometimes criticizing the Catholics and the Jews, Jimmy Swaggart had become an extremely influential character in the first days of the American Religious Rights Movement in the 1980s-a movement that wanted to align public policy on the Bible guidelines. He took his sermons to Africa, as well as in Latin America, becoming a celebrity in unexpected places, such as the South African Soweto.
The New York Times then announced that his relationship with a new Orleans prostitute was revealed by Marvin Gorman, a rival preacher who provided photographic evidence in this regard and said that Swaggrt unfairly accused of more extramarital relations.
In February 1988, Jimmy Swaggart presented, crying, in front of his congregation brought to the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge and begged to be forgiven. He was dismissed from the Assembles of God national organization for refusing to accept the punishment of being suspended.
In 1991, he was stopped by the police for a violation of the road traffic rules in Indio, California, while a prostitute was in his car. He announced that he was going to withdraw from his congregation, but then he changed his mind and sent the following message to the believers: “God told me that this is not your job.”
Prior to the scandal that destroyed his career, Jimmy Swaggart frequently criticized pornography and behaviors they said were “a sexual immorality”. He was strongly criticized in 2004 after declaring in his television show that if a gay man ever made sexual advances, “then I will kill him and tell God that he died”-a comment that he later said was a joke.
The influence of Jimmy Swaggart has decreased considerably after these scandals. His congregation has survived in a much diminished form, and he continued to appear in TV shows from time to time. Jimmy Swaggart and his wife, Frances, who remained with the scandals, had a child, Donnie, who learned an important position in the congregation led by his father.
