Jimmy Lee Swaggart: 'A' for effort

(Photo by Tiago F. Abreu)

Say what you want about disgraced televangelist Jimmy Lee Swaggart – but not until you, too, have turned down a lucrative offer from a record company while struggling to survive as a preacher.

This offer came from Sun Records (then-label of Swaggart’s cousin, Jerry Lee Lewis).  Wikipedia references Swaggart’s biography, To Cross a River, when reporting that producer Sam Phillips wanted

Swaggart to be Sun Record’s very first gospel artist.  At the time, Jerry Lee Lewis was making hundreds of dollars more per week as a musician than Swaggart was as a minister.  Nevertheless, Swaggart turned Phillips down, “stating that he was called to preach the gospel.”

And preach the gospel he did.  At first, Swaggart and his family “lived in church basements, pastors’ homes, and small motels” because they couldn’t afford their own home.  He would preach from a flatbed trailer that was donated to him, and “began developing a revival-meeting following throughout the American South.”

The rest, as they say, is history – some quite good, some not so good.  Which would make Swaggart…

human?

After “the Fall” (and an announced “time of healing and counseling”), Swaggart continued his ministry (although under different auspices and on a much smaller scale).  He continues to inspire many through his preaching, books – and, ironically, his gospel music.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Swaggart

Copyright August 17, 2012 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved