The “Black Eye” Years
With the charismatic movement in full swing, the era of parachurch media ministries was also emerging. Once again another paradox within the AG arose: While the headquarters kept a strong grip on the gospel message coming out of Springfield through its Revivaltime radio show or the officially approved Gospel Publishing House content, an entrepreneurial spirit sprung up—the same bent that launched Bible colleges years before, sent missionaries around the world to birth indigenous AG denominations or fired up a young man like Loren Cunningham to thrust thousands of young people into missions.
This time it was with evangelists like Jimmy Swaggart, whose fiery Louisiana brand of Pentecostal preaching not only gained him a huge following, but also helped spark the Pentecostal revival in Latin America, according to Rodriguez.
Paul Crouch, who attended Central Bible College and worked at the AG’s headquarters in the media department at one time, launched Trinity Broadcasting Network in 1973. Shortly thereafter Jim Bakker, who attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis and grew up in the AG, started the PTL network, which took off like a rocket.
In 1987 Bakker became the personification of the unscrupulous televangelist when he admitted to a moral failure that threw PTL into bankruptcy and landed him in prison for five years. Along the way Swaggart became increasingly critical of Bakker until his own moral failures were exposed in the following years. His solicitations of prostitutes effectively ruined what was a massive, global ministry at the time, and ever since he has carried on at only a tiny fraction of the size.
Though secular media predictably enjoyed taking shots at the televangelists, the Bakker/Swaggart scandals were also a huge black eye to the Assemblies—as it was to the entire cause of Christ around the world. Both men had been ordained in the Assemblies, though their ministries were totally independent with separate boards. And while Christian commentators waxed eloquent about the televangelists’ lack of accountability, the truth is they were accountable to the denomination—which disciplined them in the only way it could: it withdrew their ordination as a result of their wrongs.
Unlike nondenominational churches where leaders such as Bishop Eddie Long or the now-deceased Zachery Tims remained in their pulpits through allegations of sexual immorality, the Assemblies held a strong line insisting on moral purity. But while they did so, they also offered a way to rehabilitate the erring ministers, unlike some conservative evangelical groups where one moral strike against you disqualifies you from the ministry for life.
Rehabilitation for moral failure is never less than two years, and countless AG ministers have submitted to this discipline and re-entered the ministry. However, Bakker and Swaggart chose not to. Today each operates independently. Bakker, who wrote a “tell-all” account of his transgressions in I Was Wrong, has ironically started over only a few miles south of Springfield and has quietly built a smaller, albeit debt-free, version of the former Heritage USA. Those who know him well say he’s a changed man. Swaggart’s ministry has continued to dwindle, though he’s still on the air blasting any preacher he doesn’t agree with.
