The Nation - News from April 1, 1988

Oral Roberts prayed with fellow TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart after Swaggart was suspended from his ministry but did not recommend Swaggart’s immediate return to the pulpit, a spokesman for the Tulsa, Okla., evangelist said. Swaggart stepped down from the pulpit Feb. 21 after admitting a moral lapse involving a prostitute. Last Wednesday, his lawyer indicated he would return May 22 in defiance of an order issued by the Assemblies of God General Presbytery that he not preach for at least a year. On Wednesday, the Rev. Mike Evans of Euless, Tex., had told the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram: “Oral Roberts called him up and told him that he saw demons with long fingernails digging . . . into Jimmy Swaggart’s body and he cast those demons out of his body.” After the conversation, Swaggart felt he was released from sin, Evans said.