Jimmy Swaggart, a scandal-plagued Pentecostal televangelist who was known for his fire-and-brimstone sermonizing, and who waged a fiery campaign against rock ‘n’ roll even though he was the cousin of rock pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis and country star Mickey Gilley, died Tuesday at age 90.
The death was confirmed on Swaggart’s social media accounts Tuesday morning. No details were given, but Swaggart had been reported as close to death by his ministry 16 days ago, after he suffered a major coronary event on Father’s Day. In reporting the death, his family offered thanks to Baton Rouge General Medical Center for his care during his two-plus weeks in the ICU.
“Today, our hearts are heavy as we share that Brother Swaggart has finished his earthly race and entered into the presence of His Savior, Jesus Christ,” read the statement from his family. “Today was the day he has sung about for decades. He met his beloved Savior and entered the portals of glory. At the same time, we rejoice knowing that we will see him again one day.”
For better or worse, Swaggart became the figure many Americans first thought of when they considered the idea of “TV preachers,” as his flair for emotional fire-and-brimstone sermons came to overshadow even Billy Graham, whose own warnings of an eternity without God sounded comparatively kinder and gentler in comparison to Swaggart’s penchant for melodrama.
Although Gilley and Lewis were more likely to popularly referred to as the successful musicians in the family. Swaggart had a longstanding recording career of his own, albeit strictly in the traditional gospel field, as he eschewed more contemporary forms of popular music as the devil’s gateway.
Swaggart had his own pathways to the dark side, as evidenced in headlines in the 1980s and ’90s. He was first accused of soliciting prostitution in 1988, when he was caught entering a motel with a New Orleans sex worker, which led to his defrocking by the Assembly of God denomination. The media spotlight on his backsliding led to a widely rebroadcast “I have sinned” speech in front of his congregation, with famous shots of tears streaking down his face.
Having been cut loose by the AOG after that infraction, he took his ministry non-denominational. But in 1991, he was pulled over in California with a woman in his car who said she was a prostitute Swaggart had picked up. But he did not confess this time, instead stepping aside as minister for a short time before returning to the pulpit.
Jimmy Swaggart Ministries claimed that he had sold 15 million copies of his albums, although there is no verification of that. His website offers more than 75 CDs for sale — including two volumes of “The Boys From Ferriday,” albums he recorded jointly with Jerry Lee Lewis.
Cousins Lewis and Gilley both died in 2022.
Swaggart was inducted into the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame on June 30, one day before his death. A formal induction ceremony will be held in September, at which his son, Donnie Swaggart, was already scheduled to accept the honor for him.
Prior to the scandals, Swaggart’s church services — broadcast from his church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana — were seen on more than 200 TV stations. Even now, Jimmy Swaggart Ministries still had its preaching heard on a radio network of 75 stations.
Swaggart grew up as the son of a sharecropper in Ferriday, Louisiana. His grandmother, Ada Lewis Swaggart, joined the Pentecostal movement and was influential on her grandson’s immersion in a faith dependent on signs and wonders — with young Jimmy first speaking in tongues at age 8.
He was ordained as a minister by the Assemblies of God in 1960 and launched his telecast in 1973. As his church outgrew its home, he built a new 7,500-seat facility as the 1970s came to a close, becoming one of Baton Rouge’s primary tourist attractions. By the 1980s, the ministry was bringing in a reported $142 million a year.
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