Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart is dead at 90, leaving behind a legacy of fiery sermons, global fame—and one of the most infamous public downfalls in religious history.
Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, once the face of American evangelical broadcasting, has died at age 90 after suffering a cardiac arrest earlier this month. The Jimmy Swaggart funeral service today was held at Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, where his son Donnie called him “a man who never stopped preaching—even through the fire.”
Swaggart’s rise was unmatched in the 1980s, with his sermons beamed into homes across 100 nations. But his empire crumbled in 1988 after he was caught with a prostitute, exposed by a rival preacher. Just days later, in a moment seared into American pop culture, he sobbed before cameras, whispering the now-infamous line: “I have sinned against You, my Lord.”
The fallout was brutal—stripped of his preaching credentials, ridiculed in headlines, and financially gutted. A second scandal hit in 1991. But Swaggart never disappeared. He kept broadcasting, rebuilding a smaller but fiercely loyal base through his SonLife network.
This final Jimmy Swaggart update closes the chapter on a man defined by both pulpit power and personal collapse. Whether seen as a cautionary tale or a testament to unshakable conviction, Swaggart’s story remains one of the most unforgettable in televangelist history.
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