I moved to Baton Rouge in 2000 for one reason; to be near TV Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart. I was not a convert to Jimmy’s religion, in fact I wasn’t a Christian and didn’t believe in much at all, but I believed in Jimmy Swaggart. His preaching, his story and particularly his music were my only articles of faith at 20 years old.
While the rest of the Christian world delineates time into the periods before and after the life of Jesus of Nazareth, those who live at Jimmy Swaggart Ministries divide time into two periods: before The Fall and after The Fall. The Fall is a reference to what happened at JSM in 1988, when it was revealed to the church and to the larger world that everyone’s favorite TV evangelist had been regularly visiting prostitutes. A contrite and utterly broken Jimmy Swaggart gave a very public plea for forgiveness that year, openly weeping and saying through his sobs, “I have sinned against you my Lord.”
Ask almost anyone over 40 if they know who Jimmy Swaggart is, and they will remember him crying on television. That clip was played so much on TV that even those who had no interest in the mysterious world of Pentecostal TV evangelism remember the public apology of Jimmy Swaggart.
I was born on the very last day of 1980, so I was only 7 years old when Jimmy gave his tearful speech of contrition on February 21st, 1988. I had no way of knowing at that time that my entire adult life would be shaped by Jimmy Swaggart. I also didn’t know that there was a 8 year old boy sitting in the congregation at JSM that day, whose life was also shaped by the preacher in front of him, and whose destiny was on a collision course with my own.
