In 1958, Swaggart became a full-time traveling preacher and began developing a substantial revival-meeting following throughout the south. He became a licensed minister in the Assemblies of God in 1959. In 1960, Swaggart began recording gospel music record albums while he was building another audience via Christian-themed radio stations. In 1961, after attending bible college, he was ordained with the Assemblies of God. By 1969, his radio program, “The Camp Meeting Hour,” was being aired over numerous radio stations throughout the American Bible Belt. He also founded a church called Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which was also under the Assemblies of God. He also began airing a weekly 30 minute telecast over various local television stations in that city. He also purchased a local AM radio station. In September 1985, in a broadcast sermon Swaggart said

In 1986, Swaggart debated with Ahmed Deedat, a well known Muslim scholar of the Bible on the topic Is The Bible the Word of God^[2] which was witnessed by about 8,000 people. Henry Hock Guan Teh, a well-known Christian writer described the debate in his article The Law of Evidence as:

Ordination and a new focus

In the 1970s, his radio ministry grew and he purchased a couple other stations. His television ministry gradually grew to more stations as well by 1975. It was at this time that Swaggart decided to use television as his primary preaching medium. He also began to preach to large audiences by traveling around the southern region of the Unites States. In 1978, his weekly telecast was expanded to an hour. In 1980, he began a daily weekday telecast. His weekday telecast featured Bible study and some music. His weekend hour long telecast was either a sermon from Family Worship Center or from a traveling crusade. In the early 1980s, he expanded his crusades nationwide, visiting major cities. By 1983, he had become the most popular television preacher in the United States. Upwards of 250 television stations broadcast his program; “The Jimmy Swaggart Telecast” was regularly watched by two million households. Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, at this time headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, grew from a small local congregation of 100 people in the 1970s at the Family Worship Center to more than four thousand members, a printing and mailing production plant, a television production facility, a recording studio, and later a Bible college in 1984. The college had been formerly named Jimmy Swaggart Bible College ("JSBC"). Presently, it is renamed as the World Evangelism Bible College & Seminary. The Seminary opened in the fall of 1983.

While the Assemblies of God is conservative, Jimmy Swaggart was by far one of their most conservative ministers. While the church endorsed (and still does) Contemporary Christian Music, fellowshipping with mainline branches of Christianity (even Catholicism to some extent), Christian Psychology, and going to public motion pictures, Jimmy Swaggart shunned such practices. At one point he even said his own sometimes turned against him. On more than a few occasions he even stated that there were some Assembly Of God Churches that he would never send anyone to. He was critical of Billy Graham because of his willingness to fellowship with Catholics. While Jimmy Swaggart has great disdain for Roman Catholicism, he stops short of calling them a cult in league with the Mormons, for example. Musically, Jimmy Swaggart records and plays Southern Gospel music. He also embraces Black Gospel and Inspirational music. Swaggart also is opposed to the health and wealth gospel while still accepting signs and wonders.

Controversies and criticisms

Sex scandals 

 Exposed

In 1986, Swaggart exposed fellow Assemblies of God minister Marvin Gorman, who was accused of having an affair with another pastor's wife, who was at the time undergoing counseling with Pastor Gorman. Some said this was done out of fear that Gorman was taking away from Swaggart's audience and donations. Gorman was based in New Orleans and was adding stations throughout the southern region and was beginning to add stations on the west coast and the northeast. Gorman was also in the planning stages for a weekday telecast. Once exposed, Gorman was defrocked from the Assemblies of God and his ministry all but ended.

The following year, Swaggart exposed fellow Assemblies Of God televangelist Jim Bakker's sexual indiscretions and appeared on the Larry King Show, stating that Bakker was a "cancer in the body of Christ." He and similarly-minded Baptist evangelist Jerry Falwell investigated Jim Bakker and eventually discovered his indiscretions. In 1987, Jim Bakker's ministry was falling apart as a result.

Self

As a retaliatory move, Marvin Gorman hired a private detective to follow Swaggart. The detective found Swaggart in a Louisiana motel on Airline Highway with a prostitute, Debra Murphree, and took pictures of the tryst.^[4] Gorman presented Swaggart with the photos in a blackmail attempt to force Swaggart to come clean, but Swaggart refused. Gorman then presented the pictures to the presbytery leadership of the Assemblies of God, which decided that Swaggart should be suspended from broadcasting his television program for three months. This fact was heavily satirized by musician Frank Zappa in a three-song medley referred to by band members as the "Texas Motel Medley", consisting of three songs by the Beatles with the lyrics changed to reflect the events. While the Texas Motel Medley itself was never released due to copyright concerns, several references to the incident can be heard on the live albums The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life and Broadway The Hard Way.

On February 21, 1988, without giving the details of his transgressions, Swaggart tearfully spoke to his family, congregation and audience, saying, "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 forgiveness."^[5] On a New Orleans morning news show four days later, Murphree stated that while Swaggart was a regular customer, they had never engaged in intercourse.

Against the ruling of the governing body of the Assemblies of God, Swaggart returned to his television pulpit long before his three-month suspension expired. He stated, "If I do not return to the pulpit this weekend, millions of people will go to hell." Believing that Swaggart was not genuinely repentant in not submitting to their authority, the Assemblies of God immediately defrocked Swaggart, removing his credentials and ministerial license.

On October 11, 1991, Swaggart was found in the company of another prostitute, Rosemary Garcia, when he was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol in Indio, California, for driving on the wrong side of the street. According to Garcia, Swaggart stopped to proposition her on the side of the road. When the patrolman asked Garcia why she was with Swaggart, she replied, "He asked me for sex. I mean, that's why he stopped me. That's what I do. I'm a prostitute." Rather than confessing to his congregation, Swaggart told his flock this time that "The Lord told me it's flat none of your business." His son Donnie then announced to the stunned audience that his father would be temporarily stepping down as head of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries for "a time of healing and counseling."

The Ozzy Osbourne Conflict

Prior to the prostitute controversy, Jimmy Swaggart was a fierce opponent to heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne, who released the infamous song "Suicide Solution" in 1980. Vehemently castigating Osbourne, Swaggart christened Osbourne as a satanist who ordered teenagers to accept Lucifer as their savior and/or to commit suicide. Following Jimmy's newfound dilemmas, Ozzy decided to retaliate. On October 22nd, 1988 Ozzy Osbourne released the album No Rest for the Wicked. The first song and single from the album is entitled "Miracle Man" (see the music video here.) " The music video was shot in a cross between a church and a pig sty while Ozzy opens the video wearing a "Jimmy Swaggart" mask, mocking his public plea for forgiveness. The lyrics hint to real anecdotes in the fiasco: Jimmy "got busted" "with his pants down" and after, he went "on TV cryin'" confessing to his sins. The song, which refers to Jimmy throughout as "Jimmy Sinner," ends with the repetitious line, "Miracle Man got busted".Criticism of Christian rock and metal

Swaggart wrote a book criticizing the Christian rock and metal movements entitled Religious Rock n' Roll – A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing in 1987. The book criticized the scene for using heavy metal music to preach the gospel of Christianity, calling rock music the music of the devil. Ironically, it was Swaggart that helped convert Michael Sweet and Robert Sweet, two of the founding members of the band Stryper.^[13][14] Also criticized by Swaggart were Larry Norman (the "father of Christian rock"), Petra, Mylon LeFevre and other notable Christian rock and metal bands.

In 1986, Swaggart called rock music "the new pornography." That comment has been cited as the inspiration for the naming of the Canadian indie-rock band the New Pornographers, but frontman Carl Newman claims not to have heard the quote until after having named the band

 Print and recorded media

Swaggart is the on-record author of several Christian works offered through his ministry, as well as an autobiography To Cross a River and a personal account of the 1988 scandal The Cup Which My Father Hath Given Me: A Biblical Revelation of Personal Spiritual Warfare.

He has also sold over 15 million Gospel albums.Current ministry

A worldwide multi-million-dollar ministry, Jimmy Swaggart Ministries today mainly comprises The Jimmy Swaggart Telecast, radio and television programs called A Study in the Word, (SonLife Radio Network),, and a website, JSM.org. Jimmy's wife, Frances (very much behind the scenes); and son, Donnie, control the ministry's preaching and leadership. Jimmy's grandson, Gabriel, is a preacher, and leads the Family Worship Center youth ministry, "Crossfire". Sonlife radio is heard in 22 states

In popular culture

One of the most famous samples in industrial music is Swaggart thundering "No sex until marriage!", as heard on the Front 242 track "Welcome to Paradise" -- released, ironically, in 1988, the year his first sex scandal broke.

Swaggart was played by actor Alec Baldwin in the 1989 Jerry Lee Lewis biopic Great Balls of Fire!

Early life

Jones was born in Crete, Indiana, to James Thurman Jones, a World War I veteran, and Lyneta Putnam. He would later claim part Cherokee descent through his mother. In 2007 interviews with PBS, childhood acquaintances recalled Jones as being a "weird kid" who was "obsessed with religion ... obsessed with death;" they further claimed that Jones frequently held funerals for small animals, and heard a story of Jones fatally stabbing a cat.^{[3][dead link]} He graduated from Richmond High School in Richmond, Indiana. In 1951 Jones and his wife Marceline moved to Indianapolis, where Jones enrolled in Butler University attending night school and earned a degree in secondary education in 1961.

Founding of the Temple

Main article: Peoples Temple

Indiana beginnings

In 1951, Jones began attending communist meetings and rallies in Indianapolis. Jones became flustered with harassment he received during the McCarthy Hearings, particularly regarding meetings between Jones and his mother with Paul Robeson. He also became frustrated with what he perceived to be ostracism of open communists in the United States, especially during the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. This, among other things, provoked a seminal moment for Jones in which he asked himself "how can I demonstrate my Marxism? The thought was, infiltrate the church."

Jones' interest in religion began during his childhood, primarily because he found making friends difficult, though initially he vacillated on his church of choice.Jones was surprised when a Methodist superintendent helped Jones to get a start in the church even though he knew Jones to be a communist and Jones did not meet him through the American Communist Party. In 1952, Jones became a student pastor in Sommerset Southside Methodist Church, but left that church because they barred him from integrating African Americans into his congregation. Around this time, Jones witnessed a faith-healing service at the Seventh Day Baptist Church, observed that it attracted people and their cash and concluded that with financial resources from such healings, he could help accomplish his social goals.

Jones then began his own church, which changed names until it became the Peoples Temple Christian Church Full Gospel. Jones sold pet monkeys door-to-door to raise the money to fund his church.

Jones moved away from the American Communist Party and Maoists when ACP members and Mao became critical of some of former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's policies.

In 1961, Jones helped to integrate churches, restaurants, the telephone company, the police department, a theater, an amusement park, and the Methodist Hospital and became the executive director of the Indianapolis Human Rights Commission.

Jones received considerable criticism in Indiana for his integrationist views^] In addition, Jim and Marcy Jones were the first white couple in Indiana to adopt an African American child, and they also adopted other children of Korean-American and Native American ancestry.

Move to California

 

Los Angeles

San Francisco

Ukiah

Bakersfield

Fresno

Sacramento

Santa Rosa

Some of the Peoples Temple's California Locations

After traveling in Brazil from 1962 to 1963, in 1965, Jones claimed that the world would be engulfed in a nuclear war on July 15, 1967 that would then create a new socialist Eden on earth and that they must move to Northern California for safety. Accordingly, the Peoples Temple began moving to Redwood Valley, California.

While Jones always spoke of the social gospel's virtues, before the late 1960s Jones chose to conceal that his gospel was actually communism.  By the late 1960s, Jones began at least partially openly revealing in Temple sermons his "Apostolic Socialism" concept. Specifically, "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment -- socialism." Jones often mixed those concepts, such as preaching that "If you're born in capitalist America, racist America, fascist America, then you're born in sin. But if you're born in socialism, you're not born in sin."

By the early 1970s, Jones began deriding traditional Christianity as "fly away religion," rejected the Bible as being white mens' justification to subordinate women and subjugate people of color and stated it spoke of a "Sky God" who was no God at all. Jones authored a booklet titled "The Letter Killeth," stating what he felt were the contradictions, absurdities, and atrocities in the Bible.

By the Spring of 1976, Jones began openly admitting even to outsiders that he was an atheist. Despite the Temple's fear that the IRS was investigating its religious tax exemption, by 1977, Jones' wife Marcy admitted to the New York Times that, as early as age 18 when he watched his then idol Mao Tse Tung overthrow the Chinese government, Jim Jones realized that the way to achieve social change through Marxism in the United States was to mobilize people through religion. She stated that "Jim used religion to try to get some people out of the opiate of religion," and had slammed the Bible on the table yelling "I've got to destroy this paper idol!"

 Political involvement

Main article: Political alliances of Peoples Temple

Due to the Peoples Temples' instrumental participation in the mayoral election victory of George Moscone in 1975, Moscone appointed Jones as the Chairman of the San Francisco Housing Commission.

Jim Jones as portrayed in a brochure of the Peoples Temple

Unlike most other figures deemed as cult leaders, Jones enjoyed public support and contact with some of the highest level politicians in the United States. For example, Jones and Moscone met privately with vice presidential candidate Walter Mondale on his campaign plane days before the 1976 election and Mondale publicly praised the Temple. Likewise, First Lady Rosalynn Carter personally met with Jones on multiple occasions, corresponded with him about Cuba and spoke with him at the grand opening of the San Francisco Democratic Party Headquarters where Jones garnered louder applause than Mrs. Carter .

In September 1976, Willie Brown served as master of ceremonies at a large testimonial dinner for Jones, also attended by Governor Jerry Brown and Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally, among others. At that dinner, while introducing Jones, Willie Brown stated "Let me present to you what you should see every day when you look in the mirror in the early morning hours ... Let me present to you a combination of Martin King, Angela Davis, Albert Einstein ... Chairman Mao."

After Jones fled to Jonestown following allegations of criminal and cult activity, Brown, Harvey Milk and Art Agnos attended a rally against Temple enemies at the Temple.  Milk, who had spoke at political rallies at the