The Harder They Fall

Jimmy Swaggart

It's been 27 years since the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart brought scorn and ridicule upon himself when he was caught in the company of a prostitute. Swaggart was a fiery, charismatic preacher who was one of top-tier ministers in the Assemblies of God Church (AOG) for several decades.

That was until he got caught in the company of a prostitute in 1988. He was subsequently suspended by the AOG, but not before he offered his famous tearful apology in front of his stunned congregation and a TV audience. At the time, Swaggart's confession seemed genuine. 

He looked and sounded like a broken man who had sinned against God and heaven. In fact, this is what he said during his apology: "I have sinned against You, my Lord, and I would ask that Your Precious Blood would wash and cleanse every stain until it is in the seas of God's forgetfulness, not to be remembered against me anymore."

Swaggart's fall was truly stunning. He became a laughingstock to those who believe all church ministers are hypocrites. To add insult to injury, Swaggart was the man who had accused fellow AOG minister Marvin Gorman of sexual immorality in 1986. After Gorman admitted his sexual sins, he was defrocked and his career as an AOG minister was over. 

Now, the table was turned on Swaggart, and there were rumors that Gorman had his son and son-in-law get the goods on Swaggart by trailing him to his fateful rendezvous with a hooker at a motel in New Orleans.

Whether Gorman was the man who pulled the proverbial curtains on Swaggart is debatable. What isn't debatable is the fact that three years later, Swaggart got caught in the company of another prostitute, this time in Indio, California. Swaggart was caught by the police when he drove his car over to the wrong side of a street to proposition a hooker named Rosemary Garcia. When Garcia was asked to describe her conversation with the reverend, she replied: "He asked me for sex. I mean, that's why he stopped me. That's what I do. I'm a prostitute."

After the second incident, Swaggart was anything but contrite. There were no televised tearful apologies and no pleas to God for forgiveness. He told anyone who asked about the Indio incident that it was none of their business. And then he reportedly stepped down from his church to seek help for his overactive libido.

I'm told that Swaggart's a much different man today than the man he was nearly 30 years ago. Though he's now 80, he retains that charismatic fire-in-the-belly style of preaching that made him one of the most recognizable faces in the Christian church until his fall. I hope that he's changed because his faith and biblical knowledge are extraordinary.

However, the damage that he inflicted upon the church and the name of Jesus Christ doesn't easily go away. True Christians are required to forgive those who've sinned against them and the church. And Swaggart's been forgiven. I also believe that Swaggart's sincere these days when he admits that what he did was wrong. 

But there are those who will inevitably point to Swaggart or Jim Bakker or David Loveless or other ministers who embarrassed themselves and their churches by getting caught in sexual sin. That's the real damage. While sexual sin prevails throughout the world, it's toxic when it surfaces in the church. And it's become one of the main reasons why so many people view the church so skeptically these days.

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the apostle Paul warned the early Christians to avoid sexual sin like it was a deadly plague. Here's what he wrote: "Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

Surely, Jimmy Swaggart knows that verse today. Surely, he knew that verse 30 years ago. He knew it well enough to expose Marvin Gorman's sins. Unfortunately, he didn't apply that to his own life. Though he does now, is the church better off for that? I certainly hope so.