This week in Christian history: Jacob Arminius born, Jimmy Swaggart scandal

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, October 08, 2023

Jimmy Swaggart caught with prostitute – Oct. 11, 1991

This week marks the anniversary of when popular televangelist Jimmy Swaggart was pulled over while driving in California and was discovered by authorities to be with a prostitute.

Swaggart had been cited for driving an unregistered vehicle, driving on the wrong side of the street, and not wearing a seatbelt when he was discovered with Rosemary Garcia of Coachella Valley.

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“He asked for sex,” Garcia told KNBC-TV in Los Angeles at the time, as reported by The Associated Press. “I mean that’s why he stopped me, that’s what I do, I’m a prostitute.”

A couple of days later, Swaggart announced that he was stepping down from his worldwide ministry, at least for the time being, with his son, Donnie Swaggart, temporarily taking over.

The 1991 incident occurred three years after Swaggart had been caught in an affair with a prostitute in New Orleans, Louisiana, which led to him being defrocked by the Assemblies of God.