American charismatic maestro of hi-tech salvation, television evangelist of Pentecostal Christianity blessed with the ability to spellbind audiences to the tune of $150 million a year. He conducted a vast yet dubious ministry secluded behind the walls of his $30 million dollar compound in Baton Rouge, LA. An itinerant preacher in the ’60s, he began cutting gospel records before he started a radio show that led into his TV program. Outspoken against sin, he himself succumbed to the temptation of a prostitute in December 1987. Behind the power and the glory, Swaggart may be best known for his tortured, televised public confession on 2/21/1988 for consorting with prostitutes. When his escapade was exposed, he made a tearful TV confession and was back to preaching once more against sin within three months.
Swaggart grew up in Ferriday, LA, held up on the wings of Pentecostal Christianity. His first message from God came at age eight while standing in line at a movie theater. “The Lord spoke to me. I know that sounds funny but I sensed it in my heart. It was so vivid and so powerful I will never forget it. The Lord said “Don’t go in there but give me your heart. I want to save your soul and set you apart as a chosen vessel used in my service…I gave my heart to the Lord.”
Known as a frequent hell-raiser as a teen, he dropped out of high school and played honky tonk piano with his notoriously carousing cousin Jerry Lee Lewis. In 1953 at age 17, he married a 15-year old farm girl who lived down the road, both successfully lying about their ages. Soon after his marriage, Swaggart preached his first sermon in front of a grocery store in Mangham, LA., interspersed with playing the accordion, “knowing we get crowds with the music.” By the ’60s, he was itinerant preacher traveling the Southeastern US and began to cut gospel records of which he eventually sold over 150 million. After another message from God he began a radio show and from that point onward TV became his manifest destiny. “The ministry probably quadrupled with radio. With TV it exploded.”
In front of the TV camera, Swaggart became more outspoken than ever, verbally attacking Roman Catholicism, Jews and homosexuals while soliciting money from his viewers. During each sermon, the impassioned preacher ranted and raved, coercing his followers and himself into a feeding frenzy of devotion. His antics backfired and in the early ’80s he became a target of investigations. In 1981 a wealthy California widow left almost her entire estate to Swaggart Ministries. “The Evangelistic Association and its agents were charged by family lawyers with ‘preying upon her loneliness and illness for the purpose of securing donations from her.'” By now Swaggart was flush with 3 palatial estates and a private jet.
Further allegations of misallocations of monies, death threats, handsome payoffs and the exploitation of prostitutes led to private investigation. When confronted by photos of himself with prostitutes he reportedly admitted he had a fascination with pornography from childhood. This incident earned him a three-month suspension from his US pulpit and a two-year rehabilitation period, which proved unsuccessful. Further confirmed encounters with prostitutes sent him reeling into public confession.
Swaggart and his wife Frances had one son, Donnie. They continue to conduct their Pentecostal ministry in their compound in Baton Rouge, LA.
Link to Wikipedia biography