Jimmy Swaggart, televangelist felled by sex scandal, dies at 90 [View all]
Source: Washington Post
July 1, 2025 at 11:12 a.m. EDT
Jimmy Swaggart, an itinerant Louisiana preacher who became one of the most popular and polarizing Christian televangelists of his generation before a sex scandal — etched in public memory by his tear-streaked televised confession — consigned him to relative obscurity, died July 1. He was 90.
Jimmy Swaggart Ministries announced the death but did not share additional details. His son Donnie Swaggart, a fellow pastor, said on June 15 that his father went into cardiac arrest and was hospitalized in Baton Rouge.
Mr. Swaggart was one of a handful of televangelists who rose to global prominence in the second half of the 20th century, among them Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, and Jerry Falwell.
At his peak, in the late 1980s, Mr. Swaggart reached millions of viewers in the United States and more than 100 other countries. His broadcasts generated revenue of $140 million a year with a signature combination of fire and brimstone, musical performances and the relentless marketing of Swaggart-branded items, including Bible study manuals, T-shirts, records, tapes, mugs, plates, Roman coins and copies of Jesus’ crown of thorns. At its height, his Baton Rouge-based ministry operated the largest mail-order business in Louisiana.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2025/07/01/jimmy-swaggart-televangelist-dead/
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