Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart dies at age 90

Jimmy Swaggart, a televangelist and gospel singer whose fall from grace in the late 1980s made national headlines, has died, according to a social media post published by his ministry.

He was 90.

Swaggart was hospitalized on June 15 after going into cardiac arrest and being treated by paramedics, the televangelist’s son, Donnie, told congregants that day at the Family Worship Center Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

“Today, our hearts are heavy as we share that Brother Swaggart has finished his earthly race and entered into the presence of His Savior, Jesus Christ. Today was the day he has sung about for decades,” his ministry posted on Facebook on Tuesday.

A Pentecostal televangelist and musician — rock pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis was his cousin — Swaggart was once one of the best-known preachers in America. He filled stadiums in the early 1980s, building a massive radio and television following, raising more than $100 million a year for his ministry and feuding with rival televangelists Jim Bakker and Oral Roberts.

After an investigation by the Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal denomination that ordained Swaggart, he confessed to marital infidelity during a live broadcast of a church service in 1988. During that service, he apologized first to his wife, Frances, whom he credited for all his success. Then he spoke to the rest of the congregation and his television audience.

“I have sinned against you,” he told his audience and a capacity crowd at his Louisiana church. “I beg you, forgive me.” He was later caught again with a woman identified as a prostitute in 1991, during a traffic stop in California.

The scandals cost Swaggart’s ministry millions — it dropped from $150 million in revenue during the mid-1980s to about $11 million in the 1990s, RNS reported at the time, and much of his television audience collapsed. The Family Worship Center Church, which could hold thousands, began to draw only a few hundred worshippers.

After a few months out of the pulpit, Swaggart, who was defrocked by the Assemblies, returned to ministry and remained active the rest of his life, preaching into his late 80s. Earlier this year, he joined the church’s gospel band at a camp meeting, his voice still clear and strong.

“If you’re longing for a friend, loving and true,” he sang, sitting at a grand piano, “then turn to Jesus, he waits for you.”

That voice carried Swaggart, who was born March 15, 1935, in Ferriday, Louisiana, from the small Pentecostal churches he attended with his parents, W.L. and Minnie Bell Swaggart, to stadiums and revival meetings around the world.

Swaggart began his ministry in 1955 and a few years later released his first album, “Some Golden Daybreak,” and would eventually sell more than 17 million recordings, according to his ministry bio.

He first began broadcasting with his radio show, “The Camp Meeting Hour,” in 1969, followed by the “Jimmy Swaggart Telecast” in 1973, which brought him to national prominence. He also ran a Bible teaching program, A Study in the World. He started the SonLife Radio network in 1995 and the SonLife Broadcasting Network in 2010, run by Jimmy Swaggart Ministries.

Swaggart also authored more than 100 books, including an Expositor’s Study Bible, which his ministry said had sold more than 4 million copies, and published The Evangelist magazine for five decades. The ministry said he was set to be inducted into the Southern Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame this fall.

This story was produced through a collaboration between NPR and Religion News Service.