Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart in critical condition after cardiac arrest, family says

Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart is in critical condition after he went into cardiac arrest over the weekend, according to a statement from his ministry. 

Swaggart, 90, went into cardiac arrest around 8 a.m. Sunday while at his home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, his son, Donnie Swaggart, said. Donnie Swaggart said that “without a miracle, his time will be short.”

Donnie Swaggart said during a Sunday night service that, before EMTs arrived, he and his brother took turns giving their father chest compressions, but “he never regained consciousness.”

“Emergency personnel responded swiftly and were able to revive his heartbeat before transporting him to the hospital. He remains in the ICU, where he is under close medical care,” a spokesperson for Jimmy Swaggart Ministries said.

Jimmy Swaggart is one of the country’s best-known televangelists. The founder of his eponymous ministry, he began preaching on the radio in the early 1960s. He is the founder of the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, where his family continues to preach, and his ministry also runs the SonLife Broadcasting Network, which broadcasts the Family Worship Center’s services.

Jimmy Swaggart made national headlines in 1988 when he was photographed outside a New Orleans-area hotel with a sex worker. He tearfully admitted to sinning before his congregation during a live television broadcast, although he did not specify that he had solicited a prostitute. The incident led to him being defrocked by the Assemblies of God, although he continued to preach.

Three years later, he was again found with a prostitute, this time in Indio, California, according to The Associated Press. He told his congregation that God said to him, “You tell them that Thursday morning you’ll be making television programs,” adding: “The Lord told me it’s flat none of your business,” The AP reported.

Jimmy Swaggart has also recorded gospel music and is the cousin of the late rock and roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis. Swaggart spoke at Lewis’ funeral, and one of Lewis’ final records was a gospel album he recorded with Jimmy Swaggart that was released just a few months before Lewis’ death.