Jimmy Swaggart, who was one of the most influential televangelists in America in the 1980s before a liaison with a prostitute, crashed her career, died at the age of 90.
Swaggart grew up in a musically talented family and linked to the pioneer of Rockabilly Jerry Lee Lewis and the Star of Country Mockey Music Gilley.
While his cousins have obtained significant renown in secular music, Swaggart continued Gospel music and televogelism.
Ironically, his two talented cousins died in 2022. Mickey Gilley died at the age of 86 in May 2022 while Jerry Lee Lewis died at the age of 87 in October 2022.
To its peak as a fundamentalist Pentecostalist preacher, Swaggart had a global audience estimated at 200 million. Then came the prostitute’s scandal in 1988.
With tears gushing his cheeks, Swaggart admitted to his congregation which he had sinned – without providing details – and begged forgiveness.
A tall and muscular man with chopped characteristics, Swaggart was an imposing figure while he started his own career by preaching around the street and during rural Pentecostal meetings, filled with song, agitation by hand and speaking in tongues.
In 1969, he was enough to start “The Camp Hour Meeting”, a radio program, and his star increased when he brought his sermons to television in 1973.
After the news of her death, thousands of people went to social networks to ask for the details of the funeral of Jimmy Swaggart.
According to his website, no service was scheduled for Tuesday.
