Upon reflectin, it seems as though the life and career of Jimmy Swaggart should have given us some inkling as to the depths of depravity Americans were capable. Not Jimmy himself, mind you. He was the same husckster he was straight along, but each time he was caught with his pants down, quite literally, he was able to wriggle free and find his way back to the pulpit. That million dollar pulpit.
Televangelism is kind of a dying art, but in its heyday, Jimmy was top of the heap. His media empire kept expanding in the 1980s to include his own broadcasting network and a Bible college that bears his name. From his humble beginnings as a gospel singer and pianist on Colonel Sam Phillips' Sun Records (yes, that Sam Phillips), Jerry found his way to the airwaves on the radio and eventually television. By 1983, two hundred fifty television stations were carrying his weekly program.
It was somewhere around this time that he told his followers, "The Media is ruled by Satan. But yet I wonder if many Christians fully understand that." That was kind of the setup for the moment that he was caught with a prostiute and summarily defrocked by the Assemblies of God. This led to his impassioned sermon where he wept and begged for forgiveness from his Father who art in Heaven and everybody felt like that would be a wrap for Jimmy.
It wasn't. He took his show on the road to another network and got back to preaching. For about another three years when he got pulled over by police in Indio, California for driving on the wrong side of the road. With the reverend this time was Rosemary Garcia, who had this to say: "He asked me for sex. I mean, that's why he stopped me. That's what I do. I'm a prostitute." This time, Jimmy's response was less tortured and filled with grief: "The Lord told me it's flat none of your business."
Speaking of business, Jimmy's son and later his grandson picked up the family trade, but neither one of them won a Grammy like daddy did. Of course, neither one of them managed to have the Bible college they startedd change its name to deflect unwanted publicity.
Jimmy passed on to that next phase of his evangelical path at the age of ninety, having spent most of the past thirty years off of the public radar, no longer able to reach out and beg for money from his followers. When he went to that big revival tent in the sky, he was still worth five million dollars.
Rosemary Garcia was not available for comment.
Aloha, Jimmy Swaggart, cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis.
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