Jimmy Swaggart Bible College

Jimmy Swaggart Bible College, operating since 1984, has finally received candidacy for recognized accreditation, with TRACS at their April meeting.

The college survived its televangelist founder and namesake Jimmy Swaggart’s very famous sex scandals in 1988 and 91.

Steve Levicoff is laughing at this pairing, I know.

 

Swaggart has rebuilt his empire, consolidating in the late 80's-90's and he has had significant success with his Sonlife television channel and radio stations. He's more of a figurehead nowadays. Surprisingly, Swaggart and his successors are orthodox Christians who affirm classic Pentecostalism. Clearly, when Swaggart is more solid than most of Pentecostalism, that is saying something. I've even seen some biblical exposition coming from folks associated with the school.

 

Swaggart is and has always been a flim-flam artist. Preaching the prosperity gospel, these TV evangelists encourage the weak-minded to send them money so they can receive providentially even more of a bounty. (No particular ROI is promised, however.)

It's one thing to preach b.s. to people. It's another level (down) entirely to scam people with it.

This stuff really took off during the Reagan years (no kidding). Many, of course, were shown to be the frauds they were. (It's a long list.) I highly recommend The Faith Healers by James Randi. While outdated, it describes in detail how these people work to scam their viewers.

Swaggart is a particularly heinous character from this world of fraud, mixing in a rather toxic brand of hypocrisy to the brew he sells. (See his very public scandals in 1988 and 1991.)

Discussions have ocurred on this website about the impact--if any--on the utility of a degree from a school associated with an infamous character. (Mostly Liberty.) Okay, that times infinity for this example.

 

My personal favorite was how, the second time he got caught, he didn't even bother with a tearful confession:

"This time, rather than confessing his sins to his congregation, Swaggart told those at Family Worship Center, "The Lord told me it's flat none of your business."

I do think it's worth noting that affiliation with an infamous character is also quite a bit different from affiliated with and named after an infamous individual.

The vast majority of students enrolling at Liberty as undergrads today likely have only the vaguest idea of who Jerry Falwell was. And you can easily go there and ignore the entire Falwell legacy if you really wanted. Jimmy Swaggart's name would be on your diploma. It's a hard legacy to ignore.

I really do wish I could understand why people enroll in some of the colleges they do. Then again, I've certainly had people question my own academic history so I guess we each find our way to the schools we find in different ways.

 

Elmer Gantry is real.

 

Since you brought it up, I will say that the book has far more going on in it than the film does. I am a man of faith, and the book shows what happens when someone really goes overboard on pretending to be a person of faith. The experience of reading that book is one I will never forget.

 

Strange thing, though. I'm not sure I'd agree that the character Gantry ISN'T a person of faith. He's deeply flawed but at times he acts like a believer. I don't know. As in all great novels, there's some ambiguity.

 

Gosh!

"Jimmy Swaggart College?!" - I wonder what comes next! Maybe "Donald Trump University"? No, wait...

 

And he has passed at 90....

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, whose multimillion-dollar ministry and huge audience dwindled following his prostitution scandals, has died. He was 90.
Swaggart death was announced Tuesday on his public Facebook page. A cause wasn't immediately given, though Swaggart had been in ill health.

Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, whose ministry was toppled by prostitution scandals, dies at 90

 

I was assuming that would come any day now. In June he suffered a heart attack and was resuscitated, but never regained consciousness. He then spent the rest of his time in the hospital in the ICU.

 

I wonder if he's craving ice water?

Oh, no. Bad Nosborne48! Hist! Bad!

 

If he had been Muslim, he would be with 72 virgins now.

 

Where would they find them? LinkedIn?

 

There is some evidence that it's actually 72 vegans.

 

I thought it was Virginians...

Cut to Robin Williams dressed in Colonial attire beating a Camel with a musket.