Swaggart Ordered to Rehabilitate, Limit Preaching

The Louisiana state hierarchy of the Assemblies of God church announced late Monday that it has ordered fallen evangelist Jimmy Swaggart to immediately begin a two-year rehabilitation period that will limit his preaching and include counseling.

Cecil Janway, the church’s Louisiana District supervisor, made the announcement outside an Alexandria, La., church about 10 p.m., after more than 9 1/2 hours of meeting with Swaggart.

The evangelist, who heads a Baton Rouge-based, $140-million-a-year television ministry, was accused of sexual misconduct and admitted Sunday to unspecified sins.

“The following action has been taken by the board of the Louisiana District of the Assemblies of God concerning evangelist Jimmy Swaggart: We accept his confession of specific incidents of a moral failure. Based on his detailed confession and the evidence we observed of true humility and repentance, we have offered him rehabilitation, in accordance with the bylaws of the general council and Louisiana District,” Janway said.

“Brother Swaggart has submitted to the terms of rehabilitation,” he added.

Swaggart, who had slipped through the back door of the church early Monday for the hearings, made no comment as he left Monday night. He was whisked away by guards and left in a van, apparently headed for his private, twin-engine airplane waiting at Esler Regional Airport in Pineville.

Janway told reporters that Swaggart will be prohibited from preaching a minimum of three months, “except in fulfillment of present commitments involving foreign governments during that period.”

The globe-trotting evangelist canceled a three-day crusade scheduled to start Friday in the West Indies.

In addition, Swaggart will be relieved of his duties as co-pastor of the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, but he will be allowed to return to preaching after three months, Janway said.

The church official said Swaggart would be counseled and supervised weekly by three members of the Louisiana District Presbytery during the rehabilitation period. He will be required to submit quarterly and monthly reports to church officials, Janway said.

“Again, no doubt, much speculation and rumor will find its way into the secular media. But for the church, the body of Christ, such speculation and rumor has no place,” he said.

“We urge Brother Swaggart and his associates to resist the request of those outside the church to respond to questions. Brother Swaggart has been in complete cooperation with the Assemblies of God and has pledged to work within the structure of the church,” Janway said.

He declined to answer questions after reading his statement, saying “No comment” when asked if Monday’s action would require further action from the church’s 13-member Executive Presbytery in Springfield, Mo.

But the Rev. Glen Cole of Sacramento’s Capital Christian Center, a member of the presbytery, said the group probably would take up the matter at its regular meeting next month.

“It is possible that we could meet sooner,” he said.

Ministry officials refused to comment on the future of Swaggart’s television program, which is videotaped at his regular Sunday service and distributed in more than 100 countries. The denomination actually has no control over the television ministry.

Jim Rentz, co-pastor with Swaggart at the worship center, said he would assume duties as chief pastor.

Without identifying the “sexual misconduct” confessed by Swaggart, Cole earlier Monday said the preacher has committed such indiscretions off and on since youth and that Swaggart told his family about it last October.

The evangelist has struggled with the problem for years, Cole said.

Swaggart tearfully informed his World Faith Center congregation Sunday morning that he was leaving his pulpit for an undetermined period. His confession to an unnamed “sin” came after an Assemblies district official told the sobbing, often supportive crowd that Swaggart had “confessed to specific incidents of moral failure.”

The Washington Post, quoting a source who spoke to a Jimmy Swaggart World Ministries board member, reported Monday that Swaggart said he did not engage in sexual intercourse with the woman cited in the reports of “sexual misconduct” but “paid her to perform pornographic acts.” The evangelist had confessed to a fascination with pornography stemming from his boyhood, the source said.

Asked Monday about news reports that Swaggart’s offense was “pornographic” and not adultery, Cole said by telephone, “In a situation like that, I don’t know what a man’s interpretation is of what happens.” He mentioned the saying attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew (5:28) that one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery in his heart.

Cole said he did not want to be more specific. He said that Swaggart needs to comment himself “so that this doesn’t get all out of proportion.”

According to Cole, Swaggart told his family of his indiscretions not long after photographs surfaced showing Swaggart at a motel room with a prostitute.

New Orleans evangelist Marvin Gorman, defrocked by the Assemblies of God for immorality, was reportedly the source of the photographs. Gorman has not confirmed that. He is appealing the dismissal last year of his $50-million defamation suit against Swaggart, claiming that Swaggart had unjustly accused him of multiple sexual affairs.

In services Sunday at his storefront church in Metairie, La., Gorman--once pastor of a major Assemblies church and a former member of the denomination’s Executive Presbytery--said he was saddened by the news. “No one knows the pain they are encountering more than the Gorman family does,” he said.

Nevertheless, Cole said that the Executive Presbytery was told that Gorman was the source of the photographs. “Somehow Marvin weaves all through this,” Cole said Monday.

Cole said that church leaders examined Swaggart’s confessed behavior over a long period. Louisiana district official Forrest Hall Sunday referred to “incidents” of moral failure; Cole affirmed that “plural is correct.”

Cole first talked about Swaggart’s problems Sunday in a news conference at his Sacramento church. “Something got hold of him and he just couldn’t shake it,” Cole said. Swaggart tried to deal with the problem through fasting and prayer, a method of repentance not unusual for Pentecostal ministers. He should have sought out a Christian psychologist or psychiatrist, Cole said.

“There has been a history of it for a good while,” Cole said. “It would stop for a time and then rise up to happen again.”

Cole said Swaggart’s family was “broken” by the revelations. He tried to comfort Swaggart’s son last week, Cole said. “I held his son in my arms not too many hours ago as he convulsed in tears like a child,” Cole said.

The pastor asked his congregation on Sunday to pray for the 52-year-old evangelist. “Jimmy Swaggart needs that generous spirit of a loving, forgiving heavenly father. So does Gary Hart and so do we,” Cole said, evidently referring to the presidential candidate’s relationship with Miami model Donna Rice.

Swaggart, a cousin of rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis and country singer Mickey Gilley, combined his singing and piano playing with old-fashioned preaching to build one of the nation’s most powerful evangelistic organizations.

John Dart reported from Los Angeles and J. Michael Kennedy from Louisiana.