US Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart In Critical Condition (Worthy News In-Depth)
by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent
BATON ROUGE, USA (Worthy News) – Jimmy Swaggart, the U.S. evangelist who is believed to have preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ on television longer than any other American in history, remained in critical condition Tuesday after suffering a heart attack, family members said.
The 90-year-old Swaggart, a towering figure in American evangelical broadcasting for over six decades, was rushed Sunday from a home in Baton Rouge to the main hospital in the U.S. city, confirmed his son.
During a Sunday service, Swaggart’s son, Reverend Donnie Swaggart, asked the congregation to keep his father in their prayers, saying that only a “miracle” could extend his father’s life.
“On this Father’s Day, we urgently ask you to pray for Brother Swaggart,” he wrote in a message on the social media platform Facebook.
“He needs a miracle from heaven right now, this morning. We must have the Lord intervene in this situation, and we need your prayers,” Donnie Swaggart added on his father’s Facebook page.
The younger Swaggart recalled that paramedics dispatched to the home were able to find a heartbeat before the preacher was rushed for treatment at a nearby hospital.
He told his congregation at the Family Worship Center during a special service on Sunday how he found his father unresponsive in his mother’s house.
RUSHING HOME
“This morning at a little after eight, Gabe and I rushed into Mother’s house. Dad had gone into cardiac arrest. He never regained consciousness. We both took turns giving him chest compressions until [emergency medical technicians] EMT could get there, and they were. I’ve never seen so many people arrive at one time, and I want to thank them,” he said.
The news was expected to shock the millions who watched and heard Swaggart, who was born on March 15, 1935, in Ferriday, Louisiana.
Swaggart, one of America’s most well-known preachers, launched into full-time ministry in 1955.
He is the pastor of the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which he established, and the founder of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries.
His ministry owns and operates the SonLife Broadcasting Network (SBN), which broadcasts his Family Worship Center services.
Swaggart also founded the Jimmy Swaggart Bible College.
At his peak in the mid-1980s, Swaggart was the country’s top-rated TV preacher, broadcasting services to over 2 million households.
IMAGE BRUISED
However, his image was bruised in 1988 after he faced public scrutiny over his involvement with a prostitute whom he met in a seedy New Orleans motel.
Swaggart never confessed to anything more than an unspecified sin during a televised apology in which he tearfully said: “I have sinned against you, my Lord,” before his congregation during a live broadcast. However, he did not specify that he had solicited a prostitute.
The incident led to him being defrocked by the Assemblies of God, although he continued to preach. Three years later, Swaggart was again found with a prostitute, this time in Indio, California, the media reported at the time.
Critics condemned his mistakes but believers supporting Swaggart forgave him just as Jesus did with a woman accused of adultery, seen as a capital offence, according to Bible verse John 8:7: “So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
Swaggart also made headlines for saying in a televised worship service that he would kill any gay man who looked at him romantically and tell God that he died.
He said he made the comment jokingly and did not mean any harm.
Despite some controversies and personal setbacks, Swaggart continued preaching the Gospel on the airwaves and in person around the world.
EVANGELISM CRUSADES
Swaggart held evangelism campaigns or “crusades” including in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Russia, and South Africa.
Swaggart also wrote about 50 Christian books offered through his ministry.
He also sang, selling over 15 million records worldwide as a Gospel artist and even receiving one Grammy Award nomination.
As the cousin of the late rock and roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis, he spoke at Lewis’s funeral.
One of Lewis’ final records was a gospel album he recorded with Swaggart that was released just a few months before Lewis’ death.
His family made it clear that whatever happens, Jimmy Swaggert will be blessed by the Lord he has served throughout his long life.
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