home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- NATION, Page 35American NotesSCANDALSNo Apologies This Time
-
-
-
- The maxim "Once burned, twice shy" apparently doesn't mean
- much to televangelist Jimmy Swaggart. Disgraced in 1988 after a
- liaison with a Louisiana call girl, Swaggart, 56, was stopped by
- police in Indio, Calif., two weeks ago for a traffic violation
- and found to be in the company of Rosemary Garcia, an admitted
- streetwalker. That latest foray prompted Swaggart to resign from
- his Baton Rouge-based ministry last Tuesday to seek
- "professional counseling and medical care." But the next day the
- preacher reversed the decision, explaining to his congregation
- that God told him to return to the pulpit. Swaggart announced
- to supporters that "the Lord told me it's flat none of your
- business" and that he didn't have to apologize for his conduct.
-
- Swaggart's organization has been in decline since rival
- preacher Marvin Gorman circulated photos of Swaggart visiting
- a prostitute in a New Orleans motel three years ago. The scandal
- forced Swaggart to resign from the Assemblies of God, the
- nation's largest Pentecostal denomination, and nearly 200
- television stations dropped his weekly program. The ministry
- took another hit last month when a jury in New Orleans found
- that Swaggart and others had defamed Gorman with allegations of
- adulterous behavior and ordered the group to pay $10 million in
- damages.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-