The Lord told me it’s flat none of your business. – Jimmy Swaggart
Twenty years ago today, the California Highway Patrol pulled over a white Jaguar in the town of Indio for driving on the wrong side of the road. The driver explained that he had pulled over to give a ride to a young woman who was standing on that side, and was in the process of pulling back over when he was stopped. And the cops might’ve accepted that, or given him a ticket and gone on their way, except for two things: the woman was a known prostitute named Rosemary Garcia, and the driver was well-known televangelist Jimmy Swaggart. Nor was this Swaggart’s first time caught with his hand in the crumpet tin; four years earlier it was another streetwalker in a seedy motel on Airline Highway in Metairie, Louisiana. That earlier scandal had almost ended his career, and the second one sharply curtailed his comeback. But let’s not put the car before the whores, as it were; the story makes more sense told chronologically.
Jimmy Swaggart was born in Ferriday, Louisiana on March 15, 1935, just six months before his cousin, rock and roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis and a year before another cousin, country star Mickey Gilley. He married Frances Anderson when he was only 17 years old and was a father at 19, despite the fact that he had neither residence nor income. The Swaggarts lived an itinerant existence as Jimmy preached in small rural Louisiana churches, bringing in roughly $30 a week and staying wherever people would let them. But showmanship ran in the family, and by 1957 Swaggart was popular at revival meetings all over the South. He entered Bible college, began recording Gospel music albums in 1960 and was ordained by the Assemblies of God after graduating in 1961. He soon had his own radio show, and by 1969 it was popular throughout the Bible Belt. That was the year he founded his Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, bought an AM radio station and started a weekly 30-minute television broadcast which was later syndicated. His television ministry quickly expanded; in 1978 the show grew to an hour, and in 1980 went from weekly to daily. By the mid-1980s his broadcast appeared on more than 250 television stations across the U.S. and pulled in about $150 million dollars a year.
Cousin Jimmy had come a long way from sleeping in church basements and preaching from the backs of trucks, but instead of rejoicing in his good fortune and helping other struggling preachers as Christian morality demands, Swaggart instead grew jealous of his position and schemed to bring down rival Assemblies of God televangelist Marvin Gorman, whose television show was becoming increasingly popular. In 1986 Swaggart discovered (possibly through the use of a private detective) that Gorman had a mistress, and exposed him to the AoG Presbytery with claims of “several affairs” (though Gorman only confessed to one). Gorman was defrocked, his TV ministry collapsed and he was forced to file bankruptcy; as one might expect, he wanted revenge. So, he hired a private detective named Scott Bailey and assigned his son Randy to assist him, and the two set out to discover whatever Swaggart might have to hide. It didn’t take long; early in 1987 they discovered that he regularly employed the services of Debra Murphree, a $35 streetwalker who worked out of the Travel Inn on Airline Highway. On a day when Bailey expected Swaggart to visit Murphree, Randy Gorman rented another room and secretly took pictures of her clients coming and going; when Swaggart arrived Randy snapped his picture entering the room, then let the air out of his tires and called his father (who lived only a few minutes away). The elder Gorman confronted Swaggart when he emerged and promised he wouldn’t release the pictures if Swaggart would publicly apologize to Gorman, admit to the Assemblies of God that he had lied about the affairs and use his influence to have Gorman reinstated.
But for some reason, Swaggart never made good on his end of the deal, and in January of 1988 Gorman told Swaggart his time was up. On February 15th Gorman contacted the AoG Executive Presbytery, the same officials who had defrocked him two years earlier, and exposed Swaggart’s transgression; they initially suspended him for three months, then travelled with him on his private plane to AoG headquarters in Springfield, Missouri to set the matter before the church’s national leadership. One would think Swaggart would be contrite and penitent, but this was not the case; an evangelist who was on that flight later reported that “Swaggart was VERY contemptuous of them. At one point…he stood up and wagged his finger in their faces and said…[words to the effect that] Swaggart spoke for God, and the AofG did not.” The national leaders were so offended by Swaggart’s arrogance they increased the suspension to two years, and so it was that on February 21st, 1988 Swaggart made his now-famous “I have sinned” speech and temporarily stepped down from the pulpit.
Murphree was interviewed repeatedly by news media and admitted to the odd fact that though Swaggart had seen her many times, he had never had sex with her; instead he had paid her to pose while he masturbated. This dovetailed with Swaggart’s admission to the AoG leaders that he “suffered from a lifelong addiction” to pornography, which certainly surprised no one who knew anything about reaction formation considering his vocal anti-porn stance. In July she got an illustrated interview in Penthouse; Jack had a subscription (delivered to my flat so his mother wouldn’t know) and I remember several details of that feature. One is that Murphree was, well, skanky-looking, which in conjunction with some of the things she reported he wanted her to do and talk about tells me he viewed their interaction as degrading to himself, and wanted it that way. Another is that he was extremely cheap; though her normal price was $35 he wouldn’t pay her more than $20 because he didn’t want to actually touch her. And as is typical of men in a state of deep sexual frustration, he had disgusting fantasies about things he probably would never actually do, such as asking if he could have sex with Murphree’s nine-year-old daughter. Penthouse paid $210,000 for her story, of which the IRS stole three-quarters.
Meanwhile, Swaggart had returned to the pulpit in May, at the end of the original three-month suspension; the AoG leadership responded by defrocking him for disobeying their two-year ban, and Swaggart countered by making his Family Worship Center and TV ministry non-denominational. The defiant move came at a heavy cost; he had already lost considerable following due to the scandal and was a national laughingstock (mocked by celebrities from Saturday Night Live to Ozzy Osbourne), and the break from AoG sent him into a downward spiral. By the end of 1988 he had lost 80% of his viewership, and in September of 1991 a New Orleans jury found that Swaggart had defamed Gorman with false allegations of adultery, and ordered him to pay $10 million in damages. Still, the fallen icon was determined and charismatic, and soon after that verdict he preached to a standing-room only crowd in San Diego. But a week later he picked up Rosemary Garcia in Indio…and that’s where we came in. She said he asked her to guide him to a hotel with in-room porn, and as she later told reporters “He’s the same guy who cries on TV for all these people to feel sorry for him…to give him all their money. For what? So he can come give it to us. That’s pretty good.” There was no tearful apology from the repeatedly disgraced televangelist this time; instead, he stood before his congregation and issued the statement which forms today’s epigram. His quick-thinking son Donnie immediately announced that his father would be temporarily stepping down as head of the ministry for “a time of healing and counseling.”
One might think that would be the end of the road for Swaggart, but as the adage tells us “you can fool some of the people all of the time.” In 1995 he founded the SonLife radio network, which according to Swaggart’s website “is heard nationwide on over 78 stations and around the world via the internet.” In 2009 he launched SonLife Broadcasting Network, “a Christian Television Network which airs nationally and internationally to a potential viewing audience of over 80 million.” And though he’s not the force he once was, there’s no doubt that he’s still a multi-millionaire with millions of adoring fans. As Larry Niven would say, there ain’t no justice.
One Year Ago Today
“Hooker Humor” should be self-explanatory. And beige.
Small typ0:
look for
“and the break from AoG send him into a downward spiral.”
Should send be sent?
You posted while I was still in the proofreading process, John; for some reason this one had quite a few corrections and it took me a bit longer than usual. I think that tense error was a leftover from an earlier draft in which that sentence was phrased differently, and I missed it when I first revised the wording. But thanks for pointing it out anyhow; next time I may not catch it myself. 🙂
People seriously need to realize that constraints in the lives of people(whether religion or sex) can mess them up mentally. If people treated this like a normal biological function and desire of humans(well men at least) then there would be a SIGNIFICANT decrease in issues people like Jimmy Swaggart went through mentally.
Btw maggie hope my email wasn’t too much to read(I’m jordan btw remember)
Not at all, sweetie; I’ve just been super-busy the last few days. 😉
Its ok sexy 🙂
D’ohm, my own typo 🙂
Wow! What a freakin’ narcissist. I wondered what had happened to him after he cried on TV; now I know. Thanks Maggie.
You’re welcome. 🙂
I wondered what had happened to him after he cried on TV
He had to change his underwear? 🙂
I was wondering what happened to him as well. I’m going to have to click on those links, I have to admit that I am not familiar with reaction formation.
For comparison, another example of reaction formation is former Congressman Mark Foley, who “wrote letters to the governor and attorney general of Florida, asking them to review the legality of a program for teenagers of a Lake Como nudist resort in Land o’ Lakes, Florida” and then got busted for sending sexually suggestive emails to teenage Congressional pages.
I am clicking reaction formation too…. lol
What a great story. You know though, I see the humor and everything, but for some religious types he really was a good preacher, and inspired people, did you expect that just because he loved God he didn’t love Whores?
I say, more power to you Jimmy, but if you’re gonna sin, just go ahead and fuck her- God will forgive either “sin” equally right? Isn’t that how it goes? I don’t get why unless it was because it shamed him to masturbate in front of her and he was really a sub… into the humiliation.
I don’t know, either way, I think the story is only really outrageous if you subscribe to the theory that paying for sexual services is perverse, to me, I know lots of bishops, ministers, pastors, whatever title each one chooses.
I think the outrage is about the hypocrisy of his crusade against porn and for “family values” than the actual acts he was engaging in.
“Murphree was interviewed repeatedly by news media and admitted to the odd fact that though Swaggart had seen her many times, he had never had sex with her…”
Is this really that odd? I thought we were paying hookers for a fantasy, of sorts, and what if this is someone’s fantasy? I’m speaking in general, not just about ol’ Jimbo.
Yet the AOG gave more chances to Jimmy Swaggert than Marvin Gorman.The standards in much of Christianity have fallen. It’s either that or popularity trumps all. Having sex with chidren is sick which is what Jimmy Swaggert alegedly wanted to do. Religion isn’t supposed to be about popularity or a popularity contest. Many people think it is, and it’s supposed to be about making serious attempts to conform to a moral life. Jimmy Swaggert failed miserably at the attempt, and then he tells us how to live. What a crock!!!
I don’t have a personal problem with a man going to a consenting adult prostitute even though it is regarded by many including me as morally wrong. Even though I’m Christian and Catholic, I’m for decriminalization and legalization of prostitution.
Personally, I wouldn’t care how many prostitutes Jimmy Swaggart or anybody else sees, if it wasn’t for the hypocrisy.
I’ll admit, though, that I feel a sense of satisfaction when these guys get caught. When Chris Hanson got caught in an affair via hidden camera, my first thought was, “The only thing that would make this better was if she were underage.” I’d love for some of the more outspoken Drug Warriors to get caught with a few hundred micrograms of LSD, or a pound of marijuana. Serve them right.
Then I wonder if maybe I’m taking too much pleasure in the misfortunes of others. But damn it, they’ve got it coming!
I really like that epigram. If Swaggart had taken that stance from the beginning, I would’ve had a lot more respect for him, but of course, he should’ve applied the same standard to everyone else, too.
Aahh, Sweet Schadenfreude! (No, that’s not the German Translation for Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”)
I’m with Sailor on this one. Who cares who hires whores. Unless the one hiring whores has been ranting about them or prosecuting them.
I’d like Eliot Spitzer to take a long weighted walk off of a very short pier. But apparently the Media Whores have fewer standards than the AoG.
It would be justice if Spitzer’s career was over. Not for his hiring of hookers but for his persecution of them.
Christianity deserves better than fake preachers like Jimmy Swaggart. Who know how many people reacted to the Swaggart prostitution scandal by concluding that Christianity is a sham for hypocrites.
Millions did and many still are…and yet the egotistical manaic swore back in 1992 (after the 2nd time) that GOD told him if he didn’t start back preaching millions would go to hell! I challenge somebody to reinvestigate and see just how many other whores he visited. He only confessed to two because his back was against the wall. And yet he confessed that he had had a porn addiction all of his life. Jimmy, you KNOW you saw many more whores and ARE NOT coming clean. And that alone is why you don’t qualify. Investigate the idiot and he’ll tell you this: “GOD told me to tell you it is none of your goddamn business!”
There seems to be something about being a celebrity preacher that makes for this kind of scandal. Henry Ward Beecher and Aimee Semple McPherson spring to mind…
We are all sinners, Mr. Swagart as a Christian believes in repentance and forgiveness for our sins. Christians and religious people freely admit they have sinned. It is usually secular and feminist types that believe they are perfect and are usually unforgiving and overly judgemental. Christians are more realistic about people’s failings, The bible is full of stories of man’s struggle against temptation and his inner demons..
Jimmy Swaggart didn’t “freely admit” he had sinned; he hid it until other people exposed it. Jimmy Swaggart telling his congregation about his latest hooker bust, “The Lord told me it’s flat none of your business”, doesn’t sound like he freely admitted he had sinned.
Amen! And another thing: Jimmy Swaggart runs over to king David’s adulterous affair as an excuse why he can be restored and start back preaching. First of all, David only did this ONCE; secondly, David was not a preacher so he wasn’t restored to preaching; thirdly, why go back to an old testament king being forgiven instead of going to the new testament qualifications for a PREACHER. Paul plainly told them to Timothy and Titus…and a repeated adulterer DISQUALIFIES himself forever from preaching. He can be forgiven, restored to serve God, but NOT RESTORED TO PASTORAL leadership. Swaggart’s ego can’t handle this new testament TRUTH, so he runs to king David (not preacher David) and pulls his story out of context to discount Paul’s new testament instructions since they chap his hide and disqualify him. Talking about scripture twisters! Why is God so strict on his new testament preachers either walking the chalk line or stepping down? because if they continually get away with it, every believer in the pew will see a cheap version of what grace can do. “Thou that sayest thou shalt not steal, dost thou steal…” The only two results that come from this type of person remaining in the pulpit are, 1. making people bitter who know what they did; 2. giving newcomers the idea you don’t have to be responsible for your actions. Kill somebody with a gun. don’t step down from preaching afterwards. Just say God, I’m sorry…and go back to preaching. I personally believe Jimmy Swaggart’s EGO will not bow to being anything short of a Jim Jones-type leader! He will not step down and be contented serving God as a fallen, disqualified preacher. it’s either “LET ME CONTROL OR I WON’T SERVE AT ALL!!!”
Any working girl can tell you, she’s had preachers, judges, politicians as clients. Who is the “John” seeing the whores? He’s every type of guy there is. He’s young and old, single and married, wealthy and not. He’s a banker,plumber, doctor, factory worker.
Swaggart has based his whole life on preaching a fantasy I doubt even he believes in, it’s no wonder he’s a mess.
Evolution has meant us to enjoy sex, to want to have it. Frustrating that desire just makes it come out in weird ways.
I’d be more curious as to what’s happened to Murphee than Swaggart.
Well-said, Comixchik. There’s been a lot of discussion on this thread about what if anything Swaggart did “wrong” by seeing a prostitute, and IMHO his sin was threefold:
1) Like the Pharisees, he was prideful of his position and loudly proclaimed his own holiness, then violated the morality he made a lot of money preaching to others, thus proving himself a hypocrite.
2) He exposed Gorman rather than helping him to “repent from his sin”, though he himself was a practitioner of the same “sin” (adultery).
3) He cheated Murpree of almost half her rightful fee, when Christian morality demands he should’ve been trying to help her uplift herself.
Swaggert sounds like he’d be the type that would justify cheating Murphree out of her fee by invoking the idea of not profiting from “sin” and that the smaller amount he was ever so graciously giving her made her sinfulness less so. Not his of course, he has an exemption.
“In July she got an illustrated interview in Penthouse; Jack had a subscription (delivered to my flat so his mother wouldn’t know) and I remember several details of that feature. One is that Murphree was, well, skanky-looking”
A friend of mine had a Penthouse subscription and I remember my wife and I wanting to see what Mr. Hair felt was irresitable enough to risk his lucrative racket over. I don’t think skanky is a strong enough word. I hate to be rudely honest, but as I told my wife I’d of paid a lot more than he did to not be touched or even in the same room.
I’d pay gold to stay out and double that to be let out if I strayed in.
Ozzy Osborne as Swaggart was pretty freaking sweet.
Interesting usage of the article I wrote years ago. It turned up in a Google search I did on where it’s been used.
I have often wondered what happened to the women Swaggart shamelessly used myself .. Hunter Lundy’s book “Let Us Prey” really gave insight into their lives found nowhere else. This leaves me shaking my head sadly as I remember the words of that great philsopher, Eli, from the recent movie about his “book” .. “Nothing good ..”
Meh, Christianity specifically, and religion in general, is just one big con anyway, so I guess I don’t really care one way or another……I mean, should we really be surprised that something that by it’s very nature is one big con is led by, and attracts con-artists? Just sayin’!!!!!!
Buisness is business,Swaggart is selling a product.He,s no more a Christian than Osama Bin Ladden .Christianity is His product and He,s a salesman.Do You really believe the guy in a doctors coat selling headache pills or toothpaste on TV is a real doctor?Or that He uses the product?It,s all about the money folks,allways has been allways will be.What concerns Me is how many of You can be so gullable.You work hard for Your money and You give it to these evangelists.And no matter what they do or how many times they do it You keep listening to them.As long as people keep sending them money there will be people like Jimmy,Pat,the Bakkers ready to take it.Iv,e thought about getting into it myself,stop by Sally Ann pick up a worn bible and I,m in buisness.It,s totally legal and pays better than selling vacume cleaners door to door.
“You work hard for Your money and You give it to these evangelists.And no matter what they do or how many times they do it You keep listening to them.”
What makes you think we are sending them our money?
Old saying Stupid is as Stupid does.No-one forced anyone to listen to these charlitans and no one forces anyone to send them Your hard earned cash.It,s a free country and if it makes someone happy to make these guys rich then so be it.Personally I would,nt do it But if someone wants to throw their cash away thats their business.Thats whats so wonderfull about being in a free country,You can be as stupid as you want to be and it,s totally legal.
I forgive Jimmy Swaggart and I still love him. I believe I like him better now than I did back in the 1980’s when he was at his peak. He is human and we all suffer with addiction albeit, tobacco, alcohol or pornography. We all sin. Don’t you think the devil is constantly tempting preachers more that the normal person? To make them fall and not be able to teach or spread the Gospel? Sometimes God will allow us to fall so he can use us more mightily in the future. I love Sonlife Broadcasting and watch nearly 24/7. Especially his wifes talk show “Frances and Friends”. God is not finished with Jimmy Swaggart Ministries and Donnie Swaggart and Gabe Swaggart are wonderful preachers.
Then Cheryl, Jimmy deserves to receive every penny you can scrape together to send him, and you deserve to give to Jimmy until you’re in bankruptcy. If you’re not willing to bankrupt yourself for Jimmy Swaggart’s ministry, you don’t really trust God and you’re not saved.
You need to be telling this to Jimmy Swaggart. “Hey, Slim Jim, you’d lied about Marvin Gorman’s multiple adulterous affairs and caused his ministry to tumble. They proved you’re a liar in court (Marvin only confessed to ONE affair) and you had to pay him millions for liable. If you can lie about your fellow preacher and brother in Christ, and NEVER make it publically right by confessing this to the public (which you deceived) and asking Marvin’s forgiveness as well, and doing all you can to help this forgiven sinner back into the ministry should you get to keep on preaching?” You didn’t just screw prostitutes, you screwed Marvin Gorman! NEVER once have you tried to rectify this!
http://www.fmh-child.org/JimmySwaggart.html
lenora hamilton’/
I always LOVed jimmie’s ministry,it really hurt me when all thAT CAME OUT. BUT THEN i THOUGHT IF WE ALL HAD OUR PERSONAL LIVES DRAGGED OUT IN THE PUBLIC,HOW WOULD WE FARE?
IF GOD FORGIVES HIM WE HAVE TO.
The trouble with you and most people is you have “forgiveness” and “consequences” confused. For example, you can rape my wife, and I might forgive you for it, but I will never trust you alone with my wife again. Swaggar had 3 different women (not 2 like most people think) accuse him. Read the 3rd one in Penthouse: Murphree, Garcia, and Camden…God knows how many more…and did you know the first time he got caught, he waited a whole year to confess “I have sinned”; and only then because Gorman gave him a deadline and said “I’ll reveal you for what you ARE”; WHEN THE DEADLINE APPROACHED, jIMMY WAS FORCED TO COME ON tv AND SHED SOME CROC TEARS.
You almost got that right, Dennis Norville. The deadline CAME & went, & Jimmy didn’t do what he promised. Therefore, Marvin G. showed the photos to the denomination, which is why Jimmy “had” to go & shed the fake croc tears.
I wish you had mentioned that the guy who let the air out of JS’s car tires was named Garland Bilbo
Imagine trying to grow up as a boy named Garland.
Or as a boy named Bilbo.
There’s no wonder these guys are mental cases.
[…] http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/none-of-your-business/ […]
Actually, new facts are coming out. Looks like Debra Murphree was one of Swaggart’s girls but not the one Gorman caught Swaggart with in 1987. Apparently the well connected and wealthy Swaggarts had the truth and the early reports that contained the truth quickly scrubbed from the public view. Thanks to some unearthed reports, more ugly truth about Jimmy Swaggart is about to be made public. Here’s the whole story with evidence to back up the newly discovered facts. Jimmy Swaggart did not have only adultery in common with David in the Bible. The real girl he got caught with, Sexy Suzi, came up missing right after Gorman told Jimmy his time was up. Adultery and MURDER TOO? Don’t rule it out until you’ve seen this.
That was interesting, though it did make a few leaps. Someday the whole story will come out, and while by that time there may be nobody who cares, it’s still best that it all comes out.
Thanks for watching the video. Actually, the video presents a thumbnail of volumes of research and evidence which backs up all that is stated there. There was no way to present all that evidence in the actual video. The actual conclusions can in fact be substantiated or they would never have been stated the way the author states them. It is amazing how much evidence was contained even in the initial reports themselves. It really didn’t take rocket science to connect the dots, and that undoubtedly is why the Swaggarts obviously worked so hard to completely “sanitize” the internet of those reports and then “re-write” the story as they did. I am certain that the Lord wanted these things to be discovered, and I am certain that He will expose the pack of wolves called the Swaggarts and their phoney cronies. There is no statute of limitations on murder, and I believe that one or more members of the Swaggart family are going to wish that there were.
I hope to live a good many years yet, so I will know what is being talked about whenever this does come out.
Anyone who would contribute to Jimmy Swaggart is either unbelievable naive or is as wicked as he is.
[…] Magazine (1986) reported that a male employee said Jim Bakker extorted blow-jobs from him, and Jimmy Swaggart’s prostitute said she wouldn’t want her kids hanging around Jimmy Swaggart because of the sex acts he […]
How is it that a so called man of God.. Can be forgiven for his sins.. How many times??? But yet someone who has done much less is a terrible person will burn in hell… Judge not Mr. Swaggart
.for the judgement you put on others will be the same you will receive. I wat watched your show the other day and you said that Christians and sinners are different.. Which one are you???