I guess I agree, but I thought he sincerely tried to take the church in a more positive and tolerant direction. If he wasn't successful enough in that I don't count it against him, and just trying made him great in my eyes.
Televangelist Jimmy Swaggert died today at age 90 after a heart attack suffered June 14th. He was one of the greats of the 1980's televangelist era until a sex scandal caused his fall from grace.
Televangelist Jimmy Swaggert died today at age 90 after a heart attack suffered June 14th. He was one of the greats of the 1980's televangelist era until a sex scandal caused his fall from grace.
He was one of the better ones, IMHO (admittedly a low bar). I grew up in the church in the 80's, so those televangelists were cultural touchstones of their time. Whenever I hear his name I can't help but think of this photo:
quote:Billy Don Moyers (June 5, 1934 – June 26, 2025) was an American journalist and political commentator who served as the eleventh White House Press Secretary from 1965 to 1967 during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. He also served as the de facto White House Chief of Staff for a brief period from 1964 until 1965.
Moyers was a director of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1967 to 1974. He was also a onetime steering committee member of the annual Bilderberg Meeting. Moyers also worked as a network TV news commentator for ten years. Moyers was extensively involved with public broadcasting, producing documentaries and news journal programs, and won many awards and honorary degrees for his investigative journalism and civic activities. He was well known as a trenchant critic of the corporately structured U.S. news media.
Moose
Edited by Minnemooseus, : Blotched [quote] formatting.
In the second half of the 1980's he did a three-part report on Christian fundamentalist activism. I forget the first part; maybe it was about the Radical Religious Right (Falwell et al.). The third part concerned the take-over of the Southern Baptist Convention by fundamentalists and how that drove out many life-long Baptists -- up to that point, Baptists were very independent and mainly could only agree to disagree, but now they all had to follow the same fundamentalist dogma.
The second part covered the Christian reconstructionist movement, a forerunner of Christian Nationalism and whose goal was to replace the Constitution with an Old Testament theocracy. That part made a very definite impression on me.
speaking of poisioning pigeons in the park, there's an old Oscar Brand recording of "Will you please refrain from flushing the toilet while train is standing in the station" that ends with "goosing statues in the dark, if Sherman's horse can take it why can't you?"
my brain wanders. old times singing some of these songs.....
Edited by xongsmith, : age at time of death was 97
"I'm the Grim Reaper now, Mitch. Step aside." Death to #TzarVladimirtheCondemned! "Enjoy every sandwich!"-Warren Zevon on his last DaveLetterman show
In 1964, I discovered That Was The Week That Was (TW3) at the age of 13. Frustratingly, it played opposite the prime-time soap, Peyton Place, which my older sister insisted on watching instead -- those were the "good old days" when households only had one TV set and if you missed a show when it aired you just missed it.
Tom Lehrer wrote several songs for TW3 which he leased as an album, That Was The Year That Was, which my social studies teacher introduced us to and which led me to buy that album later. My high school friend went on to track down his other records.
In 1980, his songs were compiled into a musical revue, Tomfoolery, which I once saw in community theatre. The audience kept singing along with the cast. Watching the Pope (or a bishop) dancing the Charleston to The Vatican Rag was a sight.
Lehrer's day job was teaching math (and musical theatre). Coincidentally, "Lehrer" is the German word for "teacher." Math teachers are infamous for their strange sense of humor, which came out in his New Math:
New Math:The book wants us to do the problem in base 8. [a gasp from the audience] I heard you, but don't worry. Base 8 is exactly like base 10, if you're missing two fingers.
all televison evangelists are fucking NAZI Fascists and the only good NAZI is a dead NAZI.
Yes, Swaggert was a hypocrite and poor excuse for a Pastor. My friends and I call these people Hypochristians, a word we made up. But to say that all media Pastors/Evangelists are NAZIS is as silly as my saying that all folk singers are liberal socialists who approve of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and that they, Hillary, and AOC should be thrown in jail.
Swaggart *did* cast many stones at others during his whacky sermons. He even vilified the entire Catholic Church and Mother Theresa! Of course, Faith did the same thing. And I myself have been guilty of labeling ALL liberals as being authoritarian and bad for America. Meanwhile, many of them would label me a MAGAt. And we all know that the only good maggot is a dead maggot.
When both religious and non-religious people reach the same conclusions then you know religion isn't the reason.--Percy God alone is God *but* God is not alone~Ellis Potter We see Monsters where Science shows us Windmills.~Phat, remixed
Critics would of course say that "God" is a product of human imagination...but then again God may well declare that all of creation is a product of His imagination! It is all in the perspective of the observer.~Phat
For being a college dropout, the man was sharp and had rational arguments.
He was hardly loathsome, as PaulK implies. I predict that he will have more influence through his death than he had while alive.
Is it the guns or is it "improper" free speech?
Lets see how this plays out in the press!
When both religious and non-religious people reach the same conclusions then you know religion isn't the reason.--Percy God alone is God *but* God is not alone~Ellis Potter We see Monsters where Science shows us Windmills.~Phat, remixed
Critics would of course say that "God" is a product of human imagination...but then again God may well declare that all of creation is a product of His imagination! It is all in the perspective of the observer.~Phat
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