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.
You know, and don't take this wrong - but in the olden days his statement would not have been questioned by anyone - at least not by one who had a voice in the matter -
Is this a sign of changing times - or - Is this a case of PC? Because in the olden days it was the "action" that got you in trouble - not just the words. Though I do agree - he should not have been so dramatic in his statement. A sin is a sin no matter who it is against -
Funny thing is, if he'd stuck to the first part of that quote, he probably would have skated. As I like to say, even setting aside any moral questions, any man who dates within his own gender is lacking in good taste.
"....If one ever looks at me like that......"
I'd speculate Staggard is fairly safe from that happening.
----Jimmy should read 5 Matthew v 39-----
It's no secret Swaggart likes girls. Alot.
"We hope that he takes action," said Cheryl Jacques, head of the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign.
Finally, something Cheryl and I agree on...
Yep. And what I find increasingly disturbing is that Left-wing whackjobs can make specific threats on the life of our President and nothing happens to them. Nothing. But one evangelist makes a ridiculous pseudo-threat to no-one in particular and the masses pitch an unholy fit.
This really has a negative effect on the credibility of the outrage here.
I'd insert a Paul Crouch joke here, except I'm still finding that story too bizarre to believe at the moment. On the other hand, I don't doubt that there are a good number of small dogs who've fallen in lust with Jan Crouch's wigs.
I don't care what "year" he would have said it in, for a religious man, it was an incredible stupid and revealing thing to say. I can't believe people still listen to him anyway, he's got sevearl screws loose.
Especially the ones that are bastions of virtue who later pose in porno mags and get boob jobs on Hugh Hefner's dime.
Isn't this the classic non-apology apology?
Note that he's not sorry for saying it -- he's sorry if it offended someone.
For out of the heart the mouth speaketh. The man is a whitewashed tomb filled with dead men's bones and all manner of rotteness. Flee from such men.
I had no idea this guy was still on the airwaves. He should be in Vegas.
Yeah, but you sure seen your share of skank crack hos.
Jimmy--sit down and shut up!
It amazes me that he is still on TV. I think his protesting about this sounds a bit like how he used to rail against "Prostitutes", and how evil they were.
Some old guy once wrote something about protesting too much....
Hey, works for the Leftists. Should work for the evangelists, right? ; )
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