Word: springfields
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...feel the speculation has gotten ahead of the story," Bush said as he flew on Air Force Two from Chicago to Springfield, Ill. However, when asked if he were surprised that Dole was staying in the race, he replied, "I'm not sure I understand what he's doing...
...incriminating photos taken last fall outside New Orleans at a down-at-the-heels motel called the Travel Inn. The pictures showed a prostitute welcoming a series of men; Swaggart was seen both entering and leaving her room. According to a person present at the ten-hour session in Springfield, Swaggart confessed that he had battled an obsession with pornography since his youth and had been a periodic backslider. He stated that on the night the photos were shot, the woman had taken her clothes off and fondled herself, but he insisted that they did not have sexual intercourse...
...Swaggart and the woman outside the Travel Inn. (The air had been let out of the evangelist's tires to delay his departure.) Gorman then confronted his nemesis. Some sort of negotiations ensued between the two men, but apparently they broke down, and the damning photos landed in the Springfield offices of the Assemblies...
...slap-on-the-wrist penance package infuriated many national Assemblies leaders and church folk in general, who clogged the Springfield switchboard with calls protesting the special treatment. After all, until church law was changed in 1973, a clergyman who made such a confession would have been expelled for two years, though most left for good. Even under today's more lenient rules, it is unprecedented for an Assemblies minister caught in a sex scandal to be barred from the pulpit for less than a year. Headquarters was also perturbed that the Louisiana district had announced its plan publicly rather than...
Further afield, many Swaggart fans appeared eager to forgive, if not to forget. Said Mavis Peterson, a retiree in Springfield who has watched the evangelist's shows for a decade: "Brother Swaggart is an imperfect human being, but the Bible says those who love the Lord and seek the truth shall have their sins forgiven if they repent." Still, there is doubt whether Swaggart will ever again have the same level of revival stardom or draw such big TV and in-person audiences in the U.S. and overseas...