Swaggart Barred From TV, Pulpit; 2-Yr. Rehabilitation

Disgraced TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart today was barred from the pulpit for at least a year and ordered not to appear on his television show for a year in connection with allegations he hired a prostitute.

The Assemblies of God suspended Swaggart as a minister conditionally for two years, effective immediately, a church spokeswoman said. He was also ordered to undergo rehabilitation for two years, not to preach at all for the first year and in the second year only under supervision from the church.

In addition to not appearing on his television show for one year, distribution or use of tapes of Swaggart in the United States or abroad was banned.

Group Has Final Say

The Pentecostal church’s General Presbytery had the final say on the fiery preacher’s punishment. Its decision was more severe than the three-month suspension recommended by the Louisiana branch of the church.

Gus Weill, a spokesman for Jimmy Swaggart Worldwide Ministries in Baton Rouge, La., declined immediate comment on the denomination’s decision.

People approved by the church would supervise Swaggart’s rehabilitation, the Rev. G. Raymond Carlson, general superintendent of the church, said at a news conference. He provided no other details about the sanctions.

The rehabilitation period would begin when Swaggart agreed to the terms in writing. He has 30 days to respond.

Carlson said he had notified Swaggart of the decision.

“He thanked me,” Carlson said. “He expressed thanks, and I had prayer with him over the telephone.”

Swaggart tearfully stepped down from his Baton Rouge pulpit Feb. 21, admitting unspecified sins. Published reports have said he paid a prostitute to pose naked.

But Deborah Murphree, who is wanted in a New Orleans suburb on a prostitution charge, said Swaggart paid her $50 a meeting on several occasions over more than a year to perform obscene acts.

To Appear in Magazine

Murphree will appear in the July issue of Penthouse magazine in photos that “will re-create the precise poses and actions that Jimmy Swaggart paid for,” a spokeswoman for the publication said.

It was Swaggart who last year revealed that television evangelist Jim Bakker had a sexual tryst with church secretary Jessica Hahn. Bakker resigned his PTL TV ministry and later was defrocked by the Assemblies of God.

Swaggart also revealed the sexual indiscretions of New Orleans evangelist Marvin Gorman, who also was defrocked by the Assemblies of God. Gorman then hired private detectives who photographed Swaggart and Murphree, 28, outside a motel room Oct. 17, 1987.