The Jimmy Swaggart reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Jimmy Swaggart

Jimmy Swaggart (born March 15, 1935) was a popular televangelist in the 1980s and a pioneer in that medium.

He was born in Ferriday, Louisiana, cousin of rock and roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis and country musician Mickey Gilley, all three of which played the piano.

On February 21, 1988, on his television show taped in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Swaggart confessed that he was guilty of an unspecified sin and would be temporarily leaving the pulpit. The "unspecified sin" was an affair with a prostitute.

Some time later, he was stopped for speeding. In the car with him was another prostitute. Soon after, he was told to leave the church he pastored, but he did not do so. Swaggart kept his church and began preaching again years later.

Now he has "made his life right with God" and preaches a message called "the Cross" which says that the only way to Heaven is through the death of Jesus. He opposes such movements as "G12 Vision" and "Purpose Driven Life."

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