Decision on Swaggart Preaching Ban Sent Back to Louisiana District for New Study

Indicating that the three-month preaching ban handed evangelist Jimmy Swaggart for sexual immorality was unacceptably brief, national leaders of the Assemblies of God on Friday directed Louisiana church officials to recommend a new, and presumably stiffer, penalty.

The church’s Executive Presbytery, called into special session because of protests of lenient treatment of Swaggart, ended a two-day, 11-hour meeting Friday with a terse announcement that the disciplinary recommendations made Monday by Louisiana church officials were being returned to them “for further consideration.”

Executive Presbytery officials refused to say what they wanted changed, but Assemblies’ spokeswoman Juleen Turnage said that the very fact that the Executive Presbytery met demonstrated that it was unsatisfied with the recommendation.

Acted After Public Confession

The Louisiana District Presbytery had met and announced its decision one day after Swaggart made a dramatic, televised confession that he had committed unspecified sins--evidently related to reports, not denied by Swaggart, that he solicited pornographic acts by prostitutes.

The district officials recommended that the Baton Rouge, La.-based evangelist be prohibited from preaching for three months and undergo two years of rehabilitation and counseling.

“The final decision on (Swaggart’s ministerial credentials) could be several days or weeks away,” said General Supt. G. Raymond Carlson, the church’s highest officer. The Executive Presbytery, which must approve the conditions for Swaggart’s rehabilitation, has its next regular meeting March 29-31.

The Revs. Cecil Janway and Forrest Hall, top officers of the Louisiana District, met with the Executive Presbytery here Thursday.

It is unprecedented in the 2.5-million-member Assemblies of God, the nation’s largest Pentecostal church, for a minister implicated in sexual immorality to receive a suspension from the pulpit of less than a year, Turnage said.

Complication Arises

The situation regarding Swaggart is complicated by the assumption that Swaggart’s $140-million evangelistic ministry has perhaps months of unused videotaped programs from evangelistic crusades it could show on television during his suspension.

“The average person doesn’t know whether he’s seeing Swaggart live or on tape,” said Richard G. Champion, editor of the church’s magazine and Pentecostal Evangel. “The problem is compounded by the fact that we have no control over Jimmy Swaggart World Ministries, which is unaffiliated with the Assemblies.”

Church authorities have never tried to design a prohibition for a minister who preaches both from the pulpit and on a taped television show. “The only other case that even came close was Jim Bakker’s, and he did not ask for rehabilitation,” Turnage said.

Bakker, founder-president of the PTL religious television network, resigned his post last March 19 when he revealed that he had had a sexual encounter with a young church secretary in 1980. Ironically, Swaggart who had learned earlier of the tryst and Bakker’s attempt to pay hush money, said that he had warned Assemblies leaders in 1986 that the denomination was going to be “dragged through the mud” if they did not take action.

Globe-Trotting Preacher

The Assemblies’ dilemma is how to limit effectively a preacher who is more than a local pastor. In Baton Rouge, co-pastor Jim Rentz has taken over preaching duties at Swaggart’s 7,000-seat World Faith Center. But Swaggart is also a globe-circling evangelist who conducts both outdoor and arena crusades that are videotaped and edited into television programs.

It was reported last year that after a late April weekend crusade in San Diego, 30 tapes were taken back to the ministries’ $20-million Vance Teleproduction Center in Baton Rouge. There the tapes were edited into several telecasts--at that time expected to be shown eight months later.

In that same building, Swaggart tapes his daily Bible study program and records his albums. Swaggart has been a popular gospel singer since 1971 and 1972, when he had two best-selling albums.

Barbara Klein, the spokeswoman for Swaggart Ministries, said Friday that she could not give any information about the ministry’s supply of shows that have not been telecast. She also said she would have no comment on the decision by church authorities here.

Prominence Cited

The prominence of Swaggart as a heavy contributor to Assemblies’ overseas missions and his impact as the most-watched TV preacher in America was thought by some ministers to be the reason for the light penalty that was recommended.

“A lesser-known minister probably would have received a stronger punishment,” said Russell Spittler, an Assemblies of God master who teaches New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. Spittler said he did not think that the Louisiana District recommendation was necessarily inconsistent, noting that Swaggart’s repentance and reported full confession to the church were probably mitigating factors.

But the Rev. Harold Cummings, pastor of the 2,000-member First Assemblies of God Church in Aurora, Colo., said that it was “a strong sense of moral outrage” over the district action.

Turnage said that the Executive Presbytery “does not want to put the Louisiana District in a box”--that is, dictate what it should recommend. “The board here tries to work out every way they can to come to an agreement with any district on the discipline of a minister,” she said.

Upset Over Soft Penalty

Yet, the national officials were clearly upset over the soft penalty and the fact that the Louisiana church officials announced it publicly. “That (announcement) created confusion because people thought that it was a final decision,” she said. “This is a confidential . . . church court process.”

Carlson, appearing briefly before reporters with seven other Executive Presbytery members, said flatly in his short statement Friday: “We will not discuss the content of our meeting nor speak to any information or recommendations which have been sent to Louisiana.”

If the national body accepts the new report from the Louisiana District, but Swaggart objects to it, the evangelist would have 30 days to appeal, Turnage said.