Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

Pointing and laughing at religious lunacy for more than half-a-century

Jimmy Swaggart, the US ‘traditional values’ televangelist who hired prostitutes, is dead at 90

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THE TV evangelist, who cashed in his chips on July 1, served on the board (with upstanding folks like Jerry Falwell) of the American Coalition for Traditional Values, which called on politicians to sign a pledge promising never to accept campaign contributions from gay people.

Later in life, Swaggart apologised for saying on air:

I’ve never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I’m going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I’m going to kill him and tell God he died.

It was all a joke, of course, he said.

It wasn’t only gays he hated. Writing for The Guardian, Stephen Bates described Swaggart as a “biblical literalist.”

He denounced Catholics and Jews, Mormons and Muslims with equal venom as cultists and heretics, as well as Darwinists, communists, liberals and judges. He suggested that the Jews had brought the Holocaust on themselves by denying Christ — and of course the End Times were nigh.

Swaggart’s TV ministry all but crashed and burned after his dalliances with prostitutes was exposed — twice!

On the first occasion, when the hypocrite was filmed with a woman at a motel near his church in the suburbs of New Orleans in 1988, he prayed for forgiveness during a tearful TV address.

On the second occasion, three years later in California when he was caught with a hooker in his car, he just told his congregation: “The Lord told me it’s flat out none of your business.”

Bates added that scepticism about Swaggart’s sincerity:

Hardened even among his most devoted followers when three years later he was stopped by police while driving his white Jaguar erratically in Indio, California. His passenger told reporters: ‘He asked me for sex. I mean that’s why he stopped me. That’s what I do. I’m a prostitute. She claimed the car had been swerving because he was trying to hide pornographic magazines under the driver’s seat.

RationalWiki reveals that:

Jimmy Swaggart’s son Donnie now runs what is left of the ministry, and the cable/satellite channel spews forth bullshit around the clock. He is a DEFCON level 4 asshole. Seriously.

Sartorially challenged Donnie Swaggart. Image via YouTube

It adds:

The younger Swag makes his dad look saintly in comparison. From claiming ‘gay activists would love to behead Christians’ to shilling hard for the Rise Up Australia Party despite being on the other side of the globe, he uses his pulpit mostly as a political mouthpiece.

And it concludes:

Swaggart’s grandson is also following in the family tradition, corrupting the minds of Baton Rouge youth with his Crossfire Ministries. So far, no more prostitutes … yet … that we know of.

You can post your condolences on the Jimmy Swaggart Ministries (JISM JSM) website.

Hat tip: Stephen Harvie

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Barry Duke

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7 responses to “Jimmy Swaggart, the US ‘traditional values’ televangelist who hired prostitutes, is dead at 90”

  1. Broga Avatar
    Broga

    There is a mystery around religious sickos like Swaggart and co. To say they are mediocrities is to give offence to mediocrities. They are repellant buffoons trying to foist some kind of spirtual depth on what is ignorant, senseless verbal dross.

    The mystery is that so many listen and pay attention to them.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    1. malcolmjdodd Avatar
      malcolmjdodd

      The mystery is that so many listen and pay attention to the Braggarts and the Trumpkin.

      Like

      Reply
      1. Broga Avatar
        Broga

        Yep, you got it. But pay back time is inevitable. Trump, a fool and destructive with it, is currently stopping various environmental safeguards, adding to the toxin of water and air and he and his supporting morons are boasting of what they are doing.

        Like

        Reply
  2. barriejohn Avatar
    barriejohn

    Let’s not be too harsh on poor Jimmy. What we mere mortals often forget is that prominent “men of god” like him are tempted in ways that the rest of us simply cannot imagine. They are the special target of Satan. I know this, because Billy Graham used to say so!Swaggart was a talented “gospel music artist”, and cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis, and surely could have had a great career as a legitimate entertainer (see YouTube). Once again, religion corrupts everything, and if you watch him on his SonLife channel, he wasn’t even a good preacher! It’s just so sad.

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    1. Avatar
      Anonymous

      Yes Barrie, he joins so many other dead evangelists who are much missed by the worldwide prostitution industry.

      In the early 90s, I was staying in the Intercontinental in Lusaka when the reverend Jesse Jackson and his male entourage took over the 1st floor (including my room) and the local prostitutes earned more in a few days than in a normal year!

      Like

      Reply
      1. barriejohn Avatar
        barriejohn

        I suppose you could at least say that Jackson, like MLK Jr, was more of a political figure than a religious demagogue, but it does seem that almost anything goes with these people. “I have sinned” seems to be the ultimate “Get Out of Jail Free” card, and it can be used, and has been used, over and over again. It beggars belief that Jim Bakker, at 85 years of age, is still scamming the public, promoting his overpriced, freeze-dried “survival” rations on TV, even if he did have to repay over $150,000 to purchasers of his bogus, colloidal silver “Covid cure”!

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        1. Avatar
          Anonymous

          I cannot remember why Jackson was in Lusaka and why they needed the whole 1st floor. All of my items were transferred to another room and replaced in exactly as I had left them, except for my local currency under a carpet under a settee. When I went to my old room at about 6pm the guy already had a girl in there, I know, because the girls were good fun to be with in the bar (for the price of a few beers at about 10p each) and one of them asked if it was me that went to the room as she recognised my voice. she explained that the guy panicked and shoved her into the bathroom as I retrieved my money. The stories they told about the perverse requirements were hilarious. Ironically, none of the yanks ever came to the bar!

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