Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart apologized Wednesday for saying in a televised worship service that he would kill any gay man who looked at him romantically. Yick, Jimmy, wouldn't the shame of that be punishment enough?
Posted on 09/22/2004 1:27:10 PM PDT by ItsJeff
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart apologized Wednesday for saying in a televised worship service that he would kill any gay man who looked at him romantically.
A complaint was filed with a Canadian broadcasting group, and Swaggart said his Baton Rouge-based Jimmy Swaggart Ministries has received complaints from gay groups over the remarks made on the Sept. 12 telecast.
In the broadcast, Swaggart was discussing his opposition to gay marriage when he said "I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry."
"And I'm going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died," Swaggart said to laughter and applause from the congregation.
On Wednesday, Swaggart said he has jokingly used the expression "killing someone and telling God he died" thousands of times, about all sorts of people. He said the expression is figurative and not meant to harm.
"It's a humorous statement that doesn't mean anything. You can't lie to God - it's ridiculous," Swaggart told The Associated Press. "If it's an insult, I certainly didn't think it was, but if they are offended, then I certainly offer an apology."
Audio recordings of the Sept. 12 statements have circulated on gay-themed Web sites.
One complaint was sent to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, a self-regulating industry group that enforces broadcast standards, after a Toronto television station broadcast the service, said Ann Mainville-Neeson, the group's executive director.
Cheryl Jacques, head of the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign, which represents homosexuals, bisexuals and transgendered people, said Swaggart should preach equality for all Americans.
"Apologies don't discourage violence - action does. We hope that he takes action," Jacques said. "His language only encourages an environment where hate crimes occur."
Swaggart was a popular television evangelist during the 1980s until a 1987 sex scandal involving a prostitute that he met in a seedy New Orleans motel. Swaggart never confessed to anything more than an unspecified sin. A few years later, he was stopped by police while driving in California with a suspected prostitute in his car.
That's unfortunate that he said that. I used to listen to him. Rather liked him. Sad to see a man like that continue to self destruct.
nick
Idiot
Nah... Next time he's out shopping for a Ho, he should at least consider dropping a couple of twenties on a drag queen.
Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart apologized Wednesday for saying in a televised worship service that he would kill any gay man who looked at him romantically. Yick, Jimmy, wouldn't the shame of that be punishment enough?
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I think the gay world will not be losing many of its fine young men . . . |
What irony. Canada officially recognizes Islamic Sharia law (which makes Swaggart's statement seem positively tame in comparison), but goes nonlinear when Swaggart says something about the gays.
Our neighbor to the north has gone schizo. Normally I'd recommend medical treatment, but I've seen the sad state of their health care system as well.
What have they got, shoe-sized IQs?
Amazingly stupid remark.
Well, I have no stones to throw. But the idiocy of a statement that any minister has to perform some action to atone to the gay community is just that -- idiocy.
This sort of thing does not help the cause of moral decency and the fight against the gay activist agenda. Remember to hate the sin but love the sinner, people.
Swaggert is an idiot.
"Oh, Jimmy you brute, you know you'd love to take us all on!"
God hates hatemongers.
exactomundo
I think this was a shot across the bow to Paul Crouch.
I dunno. A lot of gays seem to have a thing for this guy: 
I agree.
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