February 21, 1988: Jimmy Swaggart Confesses

February 21, 1988: Jimmy Swaggart faces the music. This time, he's not preaching to the choir.

Jimmy Lee Swaggart -- he wasn't born "James" -- was born on March 15, 1935, in Ferriday, Louisiana. Also from that town are his cousins, rock and roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis and country singer Mickey Gilley. He went into the family business, but stayed on the gospel side of it, signing with Sam Phillips' Sun Records, before being ordained in 1961. By 1971, he was preaching on the radio, getting a TV show in 1975, broadcasting from his church, the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

In 1986, Swaggart exposed another Assemblies of God preacher, Marvin Gorman, in a sex scandal. Gorman vowed revenge. He hired his son Randy and his son-in-law Garland Bilbo to watch the Travel Inn, a "no-tell motel" in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, Louisiana. There, they photographed Swaggart outside Room 7 with Debra Murphree, a local prostitute.

Gorman arrived at the Travel Inn a short while later and confronted Swaggart. They struck a deal: Gorman would keep the secret if Swaggart would publicly apologize to him, say that he lied about Gorman's affairs, and start the process of Gorman's reinstatement to the Assemblies of God.

Gorman waited almost a year, a year that included the sex scandal that brought down another televangelist, Jim Bakker. Gorman hand-delivered a note to Swaggart informing him his time was up, and Swaggart did not respond. So, on February 16, 1988, Gorman contacted James Hamil, a member of the 13-man Executive Presbytery of the Assemblies of God, to expose Swaggart's assignation with the prostitute. The Presbytery suspended Swaggart from broadcasting his television program for 3 months.

On February 21, on live TV, Swaggart confessed to his flock:

I have tried to be like a man, and to preach this gospel exactly as I have seen it, without fear or reservation or compromise. I can do no less this morning.

I do not plan in any way to whitewash my sin. I do not call it a mistake, a mendacity; I call it sin. I would much rather, if possible -- and in my estimation it would not be possible -- to make it worse than less than it actually is. I have no one but myself to blame. I do not lay the fault or the blame of the charge at anyone else's feet. For no one is to blame but Jimmy Swaggart. I take the responsibility. I take the blame. I take the fault...

He apologized directly to his wife, Frances: "I have sinned against you, and I beg your forgiveness." He apologized to his son, Donnie, and his wife, Debbie. (Donnie would later divorce her, marry again, and get divorced again. In neither of his cases was it believed to be the result of adultery, on either side. Donnie and his son Gabriel are also ministers.) He apologized to the Assemblies of God in general, and to his church in particular. He apologized to his colleagues, for having demeaned their common profession. He apologized to his followers around the world.

Finally, through a torrent of tears, which seemed genuine and sincere at the time, he addressed Jesus Himself:

And most of all, to my Lord and my Savior, my Redeemer, the One whom I have served and I love and I worship. I bow at His feet, who has saved me and washed me and cleansed me. I have sinned against You, my Lord. And I would ask that Your precious blood would wash and cleanse every stain, until it is in the seas of God's forgetfulness, never to be remembered against me anymore.

Whether God or Jesus bought it, only They know. The Assemblies of God did not buy it, and suspended him for 2 years. He became an independent minister, and founded the SonLife Broadcasting Network (SBN).

In 1991, he got caught with another prostitute. This time, instead of a tearful, apparently heartfelt public confession, he told his superiors at the Assemblies of God, "The Lord told me it's flat none of your business." If, as the old saying goes, "Confession is good for the soul," it sure as hell didn't work in Swaggart's case.

As of February 21, 2022, at the age of 87, he's still at it -- ministry, that is, from his base in Baton Rouge. Whether he's still doing the other thing, I am in no position to know.

UPDATE: Jimmy Swaggart died on July 1, 2025.

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February 21, 1988 was a Sunday. This was also the day of the FA Cup match where Liverpool FC beat crosstown rival Everton FC, 1-0, and Liverpool's John Barnes backheeled a banana that had been thrown onto the pitch as a racist gesture. I have a separate entry for that event.

All the other games in that round of the FA Cup were played the day before. Baseball and American-style football were out of season. 

There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Chicago Bulls, 113-111 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio. 

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Sacramento Kings, 130-112, at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 120-115 in overtime at the Milwaukee Arena. In 1974, it was renamed the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 117-112 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Detroit Pistons, 117-110 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. This would prove to be a preview of the next two NBA Finals.

And there were 8 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Vancouver Canucks, 6-4 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New York Islanders beat the Hartford Whalers, 7-2 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Boston Bruins, 4-1 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-3 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Buffalo Sabres, 6-5 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-4 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago Blackhawks and the Calgary Flames played to a tie, 3-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 4-3 at the Winnipeg Arena. Kevin Lowe scored the game-winner with 1:45 left in overtime.