American Notes Scandals

The maxim "Once burned, twice shy" apparently doesn't mean much to televangelist Jimmy Swaggart. Disgraced in 1988 after a liaison with a Louisiana call girl, Swaggart, 56, was stopped by police in Indio, Calif., two weeks ago for a traffic violation and found to be in the company of Rosemary Garcia, an admitted streetwalker. That latest foray prompted Swaggart to resign from his Baton Rouge-based ministry last Tuesday to seek "professional counseling and medical care." But the next day the preacher reversed the decision, explaining to his congregation that God told him to return to the pulpit. Swaggart announced to supporters that "the Lord told me it's flat none of your business" and that he didn't have to apologize for his conduct.

Swaggart's organization has been in decline since rival preacher Marvin Gorman circulated photos of Swaggart visiting a prostitute in a New Orleans motel three years ago. The scandal forced Swaggart to resign from the Assemblies of God, the nation's largest Pentecostal denomination, and nearly 200 television stations dropped his weekly program. The ministry took another hit last month when a jury in New Orleans found that Swaggart and others had defamed Gorman with allegations of adulterous behavior and ordered the group to pay $10 million in damages.