![]() Like Jim Bakker and Oral Roberts, Swaggart, 63, has lost much of his flock and his financial empire, which once enjoyed annual revenues of $150 million. ![]() Decorating the stadium-sized, mostly vacant parking lot at the worship center are signs for a shuttle bus that long ago stopped running. Outside, the 100-plus poles that once carried the flags of every country where his sermons were broadcast stand unused. To his left and right, huge curtains block off seats and disguise the fact that his 7,000-seat Family Worship Center on Bluebonnet Road now attracts only 500 people to Sunday services. ![]() Ten years later, everywhere Swaggart looks, his eyes see the damage caused by his indiscretion in a New Orleans motel room. The tears resemble those that fell from Swaggart's face in 1988, when the televangelist, caught with a prostitute, told his congregation, "I have sinned, my Lord." "I know we have sinned, but Jesus, please, please help him." "Jesus will heal you because he can heal you," says Swaggart, weeping again. And he lays hands on a partially paralyzed young man. Seven times, he abruptly breaks into tears. "Praise Jesus!" he says, launching a spellbinding two-hour sermon, which he interrupts twice to record 30-second promotional spots for the TV version. Jimmy Swaggart plays a scale on his grand piano and slides off the bench to grab the microphone. `I HAVE SINNED, my Lord.' A decade after he was caught with a prostitute, the televangelist has lost much of his flock and financial empire.īATON ROUGE, La.
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