Word: swaggart
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...sunburst cheer about the nation, however, Reagan's campaign brought up some darker American forces. He had met with right-wing Fundamentalists like the Rev. Jerry Falwell and the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, and the glow of presidential approval reflected off them to the religious fringe, on what might be called the Christian certitudinarians, the ones with a hard light of fanaticism in their eyes. These are the people who know they are right. One always wishes to press a copy of the Sermon on the Mount into the hands of a militant Reaganite Christian. Reagan also identified himself with...
...Voice report card, which flunks Geraldine Ferraro on 'moral/family issues' because she supports the nuclear freeze. Or scan something called the Presidential Biblical Scoreboard, which as much as brands me antifamily and un-Christian." And he cited one other example: "It is troubling that the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, who insists that Catholicism is a 'false religion,' and that Jews are damned to go to hell, is a welcome policy adviser at the White House...
Although I disagree with the fundamentalists and evangelical preachers on almost everything, I welcome their participation in the larger political discourse. It is healthy that they are there. If Walter Mondale wants to disagree with Jerry Falwell or Jimmy Swaggart, that's fine. He has a right to do that, and when they begin making political statements they open themselves to that kind of criticism. It is very precarious for religious leaders to back a particular candidate, because their credibility as religious leaders is at a somewhat more basic level, formulating moral principles. But that is a matter...