The Trials of Televangelism: Jerry Falwell and the Enemy

In 1987, at the outset of the Pit (“Praise the Lord”) scandal, the Reverend Jimmy Swaggart solemnly announced that “the gospel of Jesus Christ has never sunk to such a level as it has today.” Never mind the Inquisition: it had taken Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker to drag Christianity to the very depths of depravity. Nobody could have guessed that a year later it would be the Reverend Jimmy’s turn to cry, once his sexual carryings-on came to light. We may never know if Swaggart’s denunciation of the Bakkers projected his still-secret guilt upon a pair of vulnerable rivals. What is clear is that Swaggart’s disgrace (and the Bakkers’), along with Pat Robertson’s cranky presidential crusade in...