Jimmy Swaggert died about two weeks ago after an agonizing period of suffering from a cardiac event. His death, like his life, was a reminder to all of us who love Jesus that, “what goes around, comes around.” In this case, the agony of suffering is a theme in Jimmy’s life, which is the theme of this essay.

Swaggert was ordained by one of the most unusual organizations I know: The Assembly of God. They sponsored his ministry and took in millions of dollars from his music and crusade offerings. Their role in Jimmy’s suffering becomes clearer later in this journey, but we start here because the Assembly of God gave Swaggert his institutional credentials for his ministry, both as an evangelist and a Gospel singer.

Swaggert had no formal education. His theology showed it. His simplistic and often twisted hermeneutics left professional ministers puzzled by his claims. None perhaps more than his anthropology and soteriology. Swaggert taught that when a person is converted, they are totally washed clean…that they aren’t really “sinners” anymore. And then when they are “baptized in the Holy Ghost”, they are empowered to live the Christian life as “new men”…tempted, but without sin. So Jim Bakker – a man he helped expose for his own sins of the flesh – was obviously a charlatan to Swaggert, who went on multiple diatribes against Bakker on his ministry TV program. Like too many in Pentecostal circles, he also regularly committed the ancient heresy of Montanism. Essentially, this means that prophesy and other spiritual gifts can supersede the clear teaching of Scripture just by adding, “The Lord said…” This will also come back into this story…as we see a suffering man try to justify his sin by saying these very words.

In 1988, his theology was exposed for the public to see. Swaggert, a married man, was seen in the presence of prostitutes. The inference was clear that he was having sexual relationships outside of his marriage with women of the night. This behavior was more than just sinful, it revealed a serious flaw in his character and significant problems in his marriage. I won’t “psychoanalyze” Swaggert at this point…but I think it is safe to say that he was a man suffering on many levels, including his sexual appetite.

Re-enter the Assembly of God. Swaggert was pulled into a meeting with his local (and biased) leadership in the AOG where he was confronted for his grievous sin. Swaggert confessed apparently, which was both prudent and accurate. The end result was that the leaders of the AOG in Louisiana put him under a sort of discipline for 3 months – no public ministry – and he had to publicly confess his fall from his own pulpit. Swaggert agreed to those terms and he followed them.

Now enter the International leadership of the Assembly of God. They were not satisfied with these terms, so they dragged the Louisiana leadership into a meeting, demanding that Swaggert be silenced for two years. Y-E-A-R-S. This was what their governing documents required of a clergyman who needed rehabilitation in the wake of public sin. So the Louisiana AOG brought Swaggert back for another meeting and made clear he would need to stay out of the pulpit and the piano for two years.

Swaggert held a public press conference where he refused to abide by the two years because it would do too much damage to the ministry. My translation is that Swaggert was looking at the loss of millions of dollars from concerts, crusades, and television appeals. In other words, Swaggert was more motivated by dollars and cents than his own character and (most of all) his spiritual health.

The International Assembly of God defrocked Swaggert.

Then a few years later, Swaggert was found with another prostitute. This time, he went on his stage and told the gathered congregation that God told him to tell them it was none of their business. The spiritual smugness, arrogance, and temerity of such a move still shocks me to this day.

In the intervening years, multiple people who worked for the various departments of Jimmy Swaggert Ministries exposed the inner working and personalities of Swaggert and his wife, Frances. The “ministry” was a cash cow. The real power behind the scenes was not Jimmy, but Frances…who was apparently a nasty person to her staff and volunteers. The inference I draw from this is that Jimmy was in a marriage with a woman who was power hungry and drawn to material things more than a spirituality of compassion.

There were other reporters who dug deeper into Swaggert – including the man who broke the story of Swaggert’s dalliances with prostitutes. They suggested that Swaggert was playing fast and loose with tax and property laws to his advantage…all the while cloaking himself as the victim for what happened in 1988 and saying that he had no money.

Finally, as Swaggert’s health began to fail, his son and grandson grabbed ahold of his coattails and launched into new approaches to ministry. They launched a Christian TV network which was modestly profitable, which helped fuel their opulent lifestyles.

When Jimmy had a heart attack, the historical revisionism began from the pulpit of his church. His son, Donny, began describing his ailing father as the poor victim, whose ministry was responsible for millions of people coming to faith in Christ, and who was greatly misunderstood by the masses. No mention of his Fall from Grace.

And this past weekend, they buried this tortured and suffering man and held a memorial service where people could drown their grief by wallowing in a program about the greatness of Jimmy Swaggert.

It was a pathetic scene.

I’ve tried to be careful in writing these words. I don’t want to be unfair to Jimmy…I believe he is a pitiable figure. Sure, the man’s work was flooded with deception and cover-ups. He was a sex-addict. He was uneducated, but tried to portray himself as a Bible scholar to get some support for his preaching and ministry. And there is no doubt he was a top tier performer and musician.

But Jimmy Swaggert suffered throughout his life. I doubt he ever came to terms with his own dark side. I think his marriage was more a business partnership than the wonderful union that is available to those willing to invest in their mates and their relationship. He knew he was lying and covering up…and because he was also a man with a hunger for things spiritual, he probably had fits and bouts of guilt over it all.

No, I don’t relish this man’s death. The whole thing about heralding him as some champion of the Christian faith is as phony as the man’s real spirituality…paper-thin and absent from the depth of a genuine Christian transformation.

So as he goes to the ultimate day we all face, I pray for God’s grace for this man. Jimmy Swaggert is no different than all of us on some level. Like him, I’ve disappointed people by my dark side. I’ve walked in places where I never should have been…and consorted with people that were no good for me. And most of all, I’ve deceived myself and others about the real mess I am inside. I hide my brokenness and pain instead of rejoicing in the mercy and grace that allows me to look at those times as God’s loving work in a prodigal son.

Rest in peace, Jimmy. And may you now find in the face of Jesus the peace you were denied in your life among us.