Jimmy Swaggart is my hero

Secretly, the Louisiana minister was trying to tear it all down?

Way back in 1988, of course, we thought we, with his wife and members of his church, were in the seats of judgement—our favorite part of the theater. “I have sinned! he sobbed.

Watching the legendary confession of Jimmy Swaggart now, it’s inescapable?

It was all phony—down to his wife’s massive ball of hair that clearly took many loving hours to form into that particular shape.

She nods, accepting his tears—and I realize: this is all a script.

I returned to the scene of Jimmy Swaggart’s ‘crimes’ when sitting down to research, and re-think, the Bible’s teachings on sex.

What did he do that could possibly be wrong? He’d sat in a hotel room with a woman, Debra Murphree. I wasn’t sure they’d even ever touched.

In Jewish law, if that is a guide, to sit in a room with a woman would be problematic only if she was menstruating (cf. Leviticus 15:19–20). One presumes Ms. Murphree was not.

Otherwise? In the Bible’s “law,” prostitution is never other than legal. Even married men can see single women at will. It’s not a violation.