Jimmy Swaggart Ministries Gives Health Update: ‘the days ahead will surely be difficult’
Friends and family of 90-year-old televangelist Jimmy Swaggart are continuing to keep him in their prayers after he suffered a heart attack several weeks ago, which left him unconscious. According to a recent health update from Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, there have been “no significant changes” since he was admitted to the ICU.
Swaggart went into cardiac arrest on May 15 and never regained consciousness. At the time, his son Donnie shared with the church that “without a miracle, his time will be short.”
Swaggart founded the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in the late 1960s, where he remains the pastor today. A prolific author, he wrote more than 50 books and sold over 15 million gosple records worldwide.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Jimmy Swaggart became a household name through The Jimmy Swaggart Telecast, a globally broadcast program that blended preaching, gospel music, and calls to salvation. At its peak, Jimmy Swaggart Ministries reached an estimated 100 million viewers and he headlined major crusades worldwide, becoming one of the biggest names in the industry. He later launched the SonLife Broadcasting Network. (SBN)
His world imploded in February 1988 when photographs surfaced of him entering and exiting a New Orleans motel with Debra Murphree, a prostitute. Murphree later told reporters that Swaggart had paid her for sexual services. The fallout prompted a widely broadcast confession on February 21, 1988, where Swaggart tearfully acknowledged unspecified “moral failings” and sought forgiveness.
The Assemblies of God, his religious denomination, imposed a three-month suspension. However, after Swaggart rejected additional disciplinary measures and they felt he was unrepentant, they revoked his ministerial credentials.
Despite his now-infamous teary confession, three years later, in 1991, Swaggart was stopped by police in Indio, California with another prostitute in his vehicle. She alleged that Swaggart had propositioned her for sexual acts. This was the final straw, and led many to write him off altogether. Most of his church stood by him, however.
While he apologized for propositioning a prostitute in the first incident, in the second, he told his congregation that God instructed him to keep preaching and that to anyone asking about it: “The Lord told me it’s flat none of your business.”
Since then, although not as popular as he used to be, his ministry has continued unabated. He and his family continue to run all his ministry endeavors, with his wife hosting the television program, Frances and Friends, shown daily on SBN. Swaggart has continued to host the Bible study program, The Message of the Cross, with his son Donnie, a pastor, preaching at Family Worship Center.
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