Word: swaggart
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Shortly thereafter Swaggart alerted Assemblies of God leaders to the impending scandal. Then, on March 19, Bakker beat the Observer to the punch. He confessed to the newspaper his adultery and the payment of "blackmail," quit PTL, and to the surprise of his followers handed control over to Jerry Falwell...
...hamper than the laundry he thought was in Rev. Bakker's." A mysterious allusion to people living in "glass churches" suggested that Grutman was slyly fingering Televangelist Robert Schuller of Garden Grove, Calif., and Crystal Cathedral fame. Grutman eventually confirmed that the mysterious plotter was not Schuller but Jimmy Swaggart...
Denying that there was any plot or that he coveted control of PTL, Swaggart said that in early March he and Ankerberg, along with Falwell and other televangelists, decided to send a letter to Bakker asking him to tell the truth and repent. Swaggart later wrote Ankerberg a letter asking that his name be kept off the letter. Apparently that letter leaked to Bakker, who interpreted it as a "takeover" bid by his rival...
...Swaggart, in Los Angeles last week to launch a revival meeting, quickly challenged Grutman to reveal any dirty linen the lawyer might have "to the whole world." Grutman produced an article in Spin magazine reporting former employees' sometimes vague accusations that Swaggart had spent lavish sums on his family and had used donations for causes other than their original purposes...
Joining the attacks was Bakker's friend Oral Roberts, who warned without mentioning Swaggart by name that "Satan has put something in your heart that you're better than anybody else." At a Tennessee nightclub Swaggart's cousin, Rock 'n' Roller Jerry Lee Lewis, leaped to the defense: "Jimmy Swaggart don't have to lie about nothing." After some tensions, Falwell agreed that Swaggart had "no designs...