Swaggart often railed from the pulpit and on evangelistic crusades against ''sissified preachers.'' Scornful Description Bakker admitted last year that he had a sexual encounter with a church secretary in 1980, Mr.
Swaggart has been possibly the most outspoken and intransigent in his views, criticizing other theologies and savaging fellow evangelists in blunt and often colorful language.Īfter Mr. It spread through the congregation for perhaps a minute as the evangelist said, finally, that he had also sinned against God and asked for His forgiveness.Īmong the denomination's ministers, Mr. They fell to their knees and appeared to grant his wish.Īs he spoke, many sobbed openly, called the name of Jesus, and began a ululating prayer in an unknown tongue, held by Pentacostals to be a manifestation of possession by the Holy Spirit. Hundreds in the congregation got to their feet and went to the altar to gather around him at the end of the Sunday morning service that had become a sobbing pastoral confession. To each, he said, he had brought ''disgrace and humiliation and embarrassment.'' To each, he said, in a faltering whisper, ''I beg your forgiveness.'' They included his son Donnie the Assemblies of God church other pastors of the faith missionaries ''on the front lines of darkness, holding back the tides of hell'' his own church and television ministry the Jimmy Swaggart Bible College he founded those who took part in Swaggart crusades around the world, and his ''fellow television ministers and evangelists, already bearing almost unbearable loads to save souls and continue to tell the great story of Jesus Christ.'' Hundreds Rally Around Him
In turn, the 52-year-old evangelist, clutching a microphone and bending over it, moved through a litany of those whom he said he had sinned against. ''My sin was done in secret,'' he said, ''and God has said to me I will do what I do before the whole world.'' Swaggart turned first to his wife, Frances, spoke of the strength and commitment she brought to his ministry, and said, haltingly, ''Oh, I have sinned against you, and I beg your forgiveness.'' Speaking slowly at first, then more loudly, then dropping to a whisper, Mr.
He said he blamed no one for his own fall from grace, ''no one but myself, no one but Jimmy Swaggart.'' Swaggart today admitted his failings was filled with the emotions associated with confession and remorse. ''In the opinion of the officers of the Louisiana District, he has shown true humility and repentance and has not tried to blame anyone else for his failure.''ĭistrict church officials will determine ''appropriate disciplinary procedures after hearing all the facts and circumstances,'' Mr. ''He confessed to specific incidents of moral failure,'' said Mr. Hall, secretary-treasurer of the Louisiana District of the Assemblies of God, told the overflow crowd in the 7,500-seat worship center that the evangelist had confessed to church officials at a 10-hour meeting Thursday, and to his family. Swaggart is a one-time backwoods Louisiana Pentacostal preacher whose evangelical television ministry ultimately reached into 142 countries and brought in $140 million annually in offerings.įorrest H. But he also referred, in the plural, to ''incidents'' that led to his confession to church authorities Thursday in Springfield, Mo., where the Assemblies of God governing council sits.
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