Swaggart: The Unauthorised Biography of an American Evangelist
By Ann Rowe Seaman
Continuum. 438 pages. £16.99 (hardback)
ISBN 0 8264 1117 7
Ann Seaman painstakingly records Jimmy Swaggart's rise from humble origins in rural Louisiana to a ministry that reached 500,000,000 people, and his public disgrace and its aftermath. Hers is a generous, sympathetic approach.
When the ministry was at its height, she points out, every letter was answered and every plea for help was referred to a trained counsellor, whether or not it contained money. She emphasises the Swaggart family's good (and costly) relationship with the black community: Sammy Davis Jr. 'was sure they were called nigger lovers'. God 'flowed through' Jimmy, she notes at one point. Time and time again she affirms his better side: 'Most of the humorous, affectionate things he did to make people feel a sense of belonging never got on television.'
