OAN Staff Abril Elfi
1:22 PM – Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Jimmy Swaggart, who is known as America’s longest-running television evangelist (televangelist), is reportedly in “critical condition” after the 90-year-old suffered a cardiac arrest.
In the mid-1980s, Swaggart was one of the country’s top-rated TV preachers and his Sunday message was broadcast in over 2 million households.
Recently, the son of the prominent televangelist asked his congregation during their Sunday church service to keep his father in their prayers, expressing that only a “miracle” from God could extend his father’s life.
“On this Father’s Day, we urgently ask you to pray for Brother Swaggart. He needs a miracle from heaven right now, this morning. We must have the Lord intervene in this situation, and we need your prayers,” Donnie Swaggart wrote in a post on his father’s Facebook page.
“He’s my rock and my hero and he needs the Lord’s healing power today. If I am able to get away, I will try to be at the service to give everyone an update,” Donnie Swaggart wrote in another post.
According to his ministry website, Swaggart has preached the gospel on television longer than any other American evangelist in history, beginning in 1955. Swaggart’s ministry roots lie in Pentecostalism—specifically as a minister ordained by the Assemblies of God (the world’s largest Pentecostal body) in 1961. He built a significant ministry under its banner through the 1960s and 1970s.
However, after a “sexual misconduct” scandal in the late 1980s, he was defrocked by the Assemblies of God and has since led a non‑denominational Pentecostal ministry. Pentecostalism is best understood as a movement or theological tradition, not a single denomination.
His reputation suffered a significant decline following the scandal, which involved a prostitute whom he was discovered visiting in New Orleans. Additionally, Swaggart was also publicly caught with another suspected prostitute on a separate occasion as well, police said at the time.
“Just four days later, [the prostitute] came forward on a New Orleans television news program and provided more details regarding Swaggart’s unusual predilections. She said that while Swaggart was a regular customer, the two never had intercourse; rather, he paid her to pose in the nude,” according to EBSCO.
Swaggart also made news headlines in 2004 after boldly asserting in a televised worship service that he would kill any homosexual man who looked at him sexually or romantically. Swaggart later stated that he made the remark as a joke and had no intention of causing harm.
“I’ve never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I’m gonna be blunt and plain: if one ever looks at me like that, I’m gonna kill him and tell God he died,” he said.
UPDATE – 6/17/25 – 1:24 pm PT – The word “broadcasted” was edited to “broadcast.”
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