Jimmy Swaggart: Saint or Sinner?

By:
Candace Westcott

Jimmy Lee Swaggart is a well known television evangelist, he has been working in the ministry since the 1950's. He is a man who brought himself from the depths of poverty and established a ministry worth millions of dollars. If this was all one knew about the man it would seem as though he was most definitely a saint, but there is more! Swaggart's ministry was rocked by not one but two sex scandals. But before we get to this saints transformation to sinner, let us first example his life leading up to this scandal. Jimmy Lee Swaggart was born in Louisiana on March 15th, 1935 to parents Minnie and Willie. Jimmy was not born into wealth although he ended up having two very famous cousins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley. Jimmy was inspired to preach the gospel from a very young age, he attended church all of his childhood along with his parents. He felt compelled to begin to preaching at the early age of 9. Jimmy was married by the time he was only 18 years old and had his first child shortly after that time. This was not uncommon back in the 1950's, getting married and having children at a young age was what everyone did. Swaggart struggled to support his family while working many odd jobs on the side of his preaching. He preached in several different areas of his home state, Louisiana. Although his family was struggling financially Swaggart believed he was living up to his calling and preaching the word of God. He was approached by the same record label that his cousin Jerry Lee Lewis was signed under. This label wanted Swaggart to be their first and only gospel artist. At a time when his family was surviving on practically nothing Swaggart still turned down the offer and stated that his calling was to preach and not create music. The first place Swaggart actually owned to preach from was a semi trailer that he received via donation. Jimmy worked and then entered into a Bible college and working for different Christian based radio stations. He was finally accepted into a church, the Assemblies of God. It would not be long until he established his radio show and was then able to start his own church. Once Swaggart established his own church it grew quickly, from 1970 to 1980 he went from around 40 members to well over 1,000 members. It was during this time that Swaggart started what he would be best known for, his television work. Swaggart had a telecast that was played on a daily basis, he quickly expanded in this area as well and the show was picked up by more stations until he was on in all of the major cities within the United States. Swaggart was responsible for teaching many people about Jesus Christ and was rapidly becoming a house hold name. It would not be long until his first scandal dropped. In 1988 his first scandal rocked the ministries of Assemblies of God churches. Jimmy Swaggart was put in the middle of a sex scandal. He was caught on camera entering and then leaving the hotel room of a known prostitute in the New Orleans area. The camera was in place because a defrocked minister blamed Swaggart for being kicked out of the Assemblies of God ministry. This man had been exposed by Swaggart for having extra martial affairs. When this scandal first broke Jimmy denied all l of the allegations but after the exposure from the media and his time to think the situation over, Swaggart decided that he would tell the truth. Upon the discovery of this information the church decided that they should suspend Swaggers television broadcasts for a three month period. The NYPD was investigating the claims made by the prostitute involved, she was given a polygraph and failed several questions. While no one is clear on exactly what happened within that hotel room the fact is he was there and that was caught on film. Swaggart went on air to issue a public apology in 1988, this speech was parodied and is what Swaggart is best recognized by unfortunately. Swaggart never fully stopped preaching the gospel throughout this entire ordeal. It would not be long, only 3 years later, when the next scandal would arise. It seemed that Swaggart was found to be driving on the wrong side of the road in California, he had picked up a woman off the side of the road. The police man that pulled Swaggart over tried to access the situation and found that she was in fact a prostitute. How did he know this? She admitted it of course, this woman found no foul in admitting exactly why she was there and what Swaggart wanted, sex. This time Swaggart was not open and honest about what had happened and ended up resigning from his ministry for a time. The question of whether or not Jimmy Swaggart is a Saint or a Sinner is a difficult one to answer. It seems that given his history he was absolutely involved with prostitution. It leads one to question whether or not there were many other times that Swaggart engaged in prostitution but was not caught publicly. This is a difficult question, saint or sinner, and the answer will vary from person to person. When talking about sin there tends to be a severity level that we as people consider before answering a question such as this one. Murder, rape and other violent crimes are generally at the top of the list. I think these sexual transgressions can be easily forgiven. If I were to answer from a Christian standpoint the answer would be that we are all sinners. There is no person, besides Jesus Christ would is without sin. So in short we are all sinners, so Swaggart is a sinner but so am I. I may not be engaging with prostitutes but according to the Bible a sin is a sin, none really greater than the other. I do not know the actual requirements to be considered a saint when it comes to Christianity. In my opinion any person that devotes their life to the spreading the good news of Christ, any person who brings however many thousands to Christ can be considered a saint. I think that Swaggart is still a saint regardless of his transgressions, we all have them and as stated we are all sinners.