Swaggart Admits Sin to Congregation - February 1988

Speaking on February 21, before more than 6,000 at his Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jimmy Swaggart admitted an unspecified sin and asked for forgiveness. In 1987, Swaggart denounced another TV evangelist, Jim Bakker, as a "cancer on the body of Christ" after Bakker had been linked to sexual misbehavior. Swaggart had also accused Marvin Gorman---who, like Bakker and Swaggart, was an Assemblies of God minister---of adultery. Gorman later obtained photographs of Swaggart taken by a private detective that placed Swaggart at a motel frequently used by prostitutes. Gorman handed over the evidence to the Assemblies of God. While it was not made public, the evidence was sufficient for Swaggart to admit an indiscretion, and for the local leaders of the church to bar him, February 22, from the pulpit for three months and impose a two-year period of rehabilitation. Swaggart conducted the country's most popular religious broadcast, which brought in donations of $150M a year.