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Jimmy Lee Swaggart (; March 15, 1935 – July 1, 2025) was an American Pentecostalism televangelism, pastor, media mogul, author and gospel music artist.
He was born in Ferriday, Louisiana, into a musically and religiously active family that included cousins Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley. Swaggart was ordained as a pastor by the Assemblies of God. He went on to become one of the most well-known televangelists in America. During the 1980s, his crusades were a major part of his ministry—drawing large crowds and receiving significant media attention. Swaggart founded Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, which owns and operates the SonLife Broadcasting Network (SBN). He also founded the Jimmy Swaggart Bible College. Swaggart was the senior pastor of the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Swaggart was known for scandals involving Prostitution in 1988 and 1991 and revolutionary groups accused of War crime in southern Africa. One prostitution scandal gave rise to a televised February 21, 1988, speech by Swaggart known as his "I have sinned" speech. After Swaggart was defrocked by the Assemblies of God due to sexual immorality, he moved on to become a non-denominational minister.
Swaggart founded Jimmy Swaggart Bible College. He wrote about 50 Christian books offered. He sold over 15 million records worldwide as a gospel artist and, in 1980, he received a Grammy Award nomination. Married for over 70 years, he raised a ministerial family spanning four generations. Swaggart died in Baton Rouge at age 90.
According to his autobiography To Cross a River, Swaggart, along with his wife and son, lived in poverty during the 1950s as he preached throughout rural Louisiana, struggling to survive on an income of $30 a week (). Being too poor to own a home, the Swaggarts lived in church basements, homes of pastors, and small motels. Sun Records producer Sam Phillips wanted to start a Gospel music line of music for the label (perhaps to remain in competition with RCA Records and Columbia Records, who also had gospel lines at the time) and wanted Swaggart for Sun as the first gospel artist for the label. Swaggart's cousin, Jerry Lee Lewis, had previously signed with Sun and was reportedly earning $20,000 per week at the time. Although the offer meant a promise for significant income for him and his family, Swaggart turned Phillips down, stating that he was called to preach the gospel.
In 1971, Swaggart began transmitting a weekly 30-minute telecast over various local television stations in Baton Rouge and also purchased a local AM radio station, WLUX (now WPFC). The station broadcast Christian feature stories, preaching and teaching to various fundamentalist and Pentecostal denominations and playing black gospel, Southern gospel, and inspirational music. Swaggart sold many of his radio stations gradually throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
As a retaliatory measure, Gorman hired his son Randy and son-in-law Garland Bilbo to watch the Travel Inn on Airline Highway in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans. At the Travel Inn, the two men photographed Swaggart outside Room 7 with Debra Murphree, a local prostitute. Gorman arrived at the Travel Inn a short while later and confronted Swaggart.
According to Swaggart: The Unauthorized Biography of an American Evangelist, Gorman secured a promise from Swaggart that he would publicly apologize to Gorman and begin the process of Gorman's reinstatement to the Assemblies of God. Gorman offered to remain silent if Swaggart would publicly say that he lied about Gorman's affairs. Gorman waited almost a year, then hand-delivered a note to Swaggart informing him that his time was up; Swaggart did not respond. On February 16, 1988, Gorman contacted James Hamil, one of the 13-man Executive Presbytery of the Assemblies of God, to expose Swaggart's assignation with the prostitute.Seaman, p.337 The presbytery leadership of the Assemblies of God suspended Swaggart from broadcasting his television program for three months.
According to the Associated Press, Murphree failed a polygraph test administered by a New York City Police Department polygraph expert.Associated Press. Ocala Star-Banner, February 27, 1988. The test administrator concluded that Murphree had failed to tell the truth on all key questions concerning her statement. The test was administered after Murphree offered to sell the story to the National Enquirer for $100,000. Murphree failed questions about whether she was paid or promised money to "set up" Swaggart, and whether she made up the story to make money from it. Toronto Star, February 27, 1988. In place of Murphree's interview, Enquirer editor Paul Levy published an accounting of Swaggart's family where they allegedly expressed their fears over Swaggart's health. Murphree, who blamed her failed polygraph on "cocaine use" the day before the test was given, was interviewed in Penthouse magazine.
On February 21, 1988, without giving any details regarding his transgressions, Swaggart delivered what came to be known as his "I have sinned" speech on live television. He spoke tearfully to his family, congregation, TV audience, and ended his speech with a prayer: "I have sinned against You, my Lord, and I would ask that Your Precious Blood ... would wash and cleanse every stain until it is in the seas of God's forgetfulness never to be remembered against me anymore."
The national presbytery of the Assemblies of God extended Swaggart's suspension to their standard two-year suspension for sexual immorality. His return to the pulpit coincided with the end of the three-month suspension originally ordered by the denomination. Believing that Swaggart was not genuinely repentant in submitting to their authority, the hierarchy of the Assemblies of God defrocked him and therein removed his credentials and ministerial license.
Swaggart then became an independent and non-denominational Pentecostal minister, establishing Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, based at the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge and the SonLife Broadcasting Network (SBN) which broadcasts in the United States and other countries.
The network's flagship station is WJFM in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. WJFM fcc government. Accessed September 6, 2016
In 1988, Swaggart lost some of his broadcast and merchandise rights following his first prostitution scandal. In 1991, his career as a standard televangelist ended after more local TV stations canceled their contracts with him following his second prostitution scandal.
In 1991, JSBC was renamed the World Evangelism Bible College and enrollment dropped to 370 students. The college closed programs in music, physical education, secretarial science, and communications that October and disbanded its basketball team. In November "the college laid off three Bible professors and an English professor, effective at the end of the fall semester".
On June 30, 2025, one day before his death, Swaggart was inducted as part of the Southern Gospel Hall of Fame Class of 2025.
Although Swaggart was known as a leading figure in the emergence of the Christian Right, he had no political affiliation.
On June 15, 2025, it was reported that Swaggart had been hospitalized and was in intensive care after going into cardiac arrest at his home. His son, Donnie Swaggart, stated of his father: "Without a miracle, his time will be short."
Swaggart died in Baton Rouge on July 1, 2025, at age 90.
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