Jimmy Swaggart, Obituary, Jonestown, Jehovah's Witnesses, Video, LGB, Grace Community Church, Public Shaming
The Conversation: Jimmy Swaggart's rise and fall shaped the landscape of American televangelism
"Jimmy Swaggart, one of the most popular and enduring of the 1980s televangelists, died on July 1, 2025, but his legacy lives.
Along with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, he drew an audience in the millions, amassed a personal fortune and introduced a new generation of Americans to a potent mix of religion and politics.
Swaggart was an old-time evangelist whose focus was "saving souls." But he also preached on conservative social issues, warning followers about the evils of abortion, homosexuality and godless communism.
Swaggart also denounced what he called "false cults," including Catholicism, Judaism and Mormonism. In fact, his denunciations of other religions, as well as his attacks on rival preachers, made him a more polarizing figure than his politicized brethren."
"Jonestown is seared into the American psyche as one the darkest tragedies of the modern era, where 918 people "drank the Kool Aid" and ended their lives under the command of cult leader Jim Jones.
Located in the remote Guyanese jungle, the site where the army first discovered the mass of dead bodies of People's Temple members in 1978 is now opening as a somewhat morbid tourist attraction. It is designed to pay somber tribute in the manner of Auschwitz and the Killing Fields of Cambodia.
The curious can pay $750 to visit the clearing where Jones' religious cult, mostly US citizens who had traveled with him to Guyana, unraveled in the most gruesome way imaginable."
ICSA International Conference 2024, Barcelona, Spain: Waking Up: What the Narratives of Former Jehovah's Witnesses Bethelites Reveal About Their Experience of Realizing They Were in a Cult - Andre Jackson
RNS: Former member sues John MacArthur's megachurch for public shaming
"A former member has sued Grace Community Church, led by prominent evangelical pastor John MacArthur, saying church leaders disclosed confidential information about her during a church service.
In a complaint filed Thursday (July 3) in Los Angeles County Superior Court, lawyers for Lorraine Zielinski said she went to leaders at the megachurch in LA's Sun Valley neighborhood, where MacArthur is the longtime pastor, seeking counseling for her troubled marriage and was told her conversations would be kept confidential.
According to the complaint, she told counselors she was afraid for her safety and the safety of her daughter, alleging that her then-husband was physically abusive. Her lawyers said church leaders pressured Zielinski to drop her request for a legal separation.
When Zielinski tried to resign as a church member, pastors put her under church discipline for failing to follow their counsel, according to the complaint. They also allegedly told her to either come to a meeting with church pastors or details of her counseling would be made public to the congregation.
'When Plaintiff did not attend the meeting, GCC made good on its threat and shared information gained through confidential communications relating to her marriage with GCC membership,' according to the complaint."
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