Jimmy Swaggart Scandal

Jimmy Swaggart Scandal 1980's

Jimmy Swaggart, cousin to rock-n-roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis, was a TV televangelist that ran a huge television ministry in the 1980's.  By 1983, Swaggart had an estimated 250 stations broadcasting his telecast.  In 1986, Swaggart exposed a fellow Assemblies of God minister, named Marvin Gorman, who had been sleeping around.  Gorman was defrocked and his ministry effectively dried up.  Soon after, Gorman retaliated by conducting a stake out and taking pictures of Swaggart associating with a prostitute.   This eventually led to Gorman notifying the Assembly of God head haunchos on what Jimmy had been up to, and on Feb. 21, 1988, Swaggart gave his "I have sinned" speech during a telecast.  He was eventually defrocked just like Gorman, and tried to continue his ministry as non-denominational.  However, in 1991, once again Swaggart was busted with a prostitute, and this time he decided to step down.  However, at the time of this writing, the Jimmy Swaggart Ministry was still in business, operating 24 hours per day on the Sonlife Broadcasting Network (SBN) on cable TV.  It was not clear what role Jimmy continued to play in his empire.