Posted on 09/28/2004 5:25:26 PM PDT by LouAvul
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A gay rights group is asking the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the tax-exempt status of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries following the preacher's recent remark that he would "kill" any gay man who looked at him.
The Capital City Alliance suggested that Swaggart's remarks disqualify his businesses from continuing to enjoy no-tax privileges.
"Swaggart Businesses/Ministries should not continue to enjoy the benefits of 'tax-free living' when his organizations use millions of tax-free dollars to travel around and degrade taxpaying Americans," said Joe Traigle, the group's co-chairman. In a broadcast this month, 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 says, to laughter and applause from the congregation. He later apologized, saying the remark was meant to be humorous.
The gay rights group dismissed Swaggart's apology Tuesday. "We all know that there are people out there that take these things very, very seriously," said Randal Beach, a lawyer for the organization.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
I somehow get nervous anytime a gay group suggests a probe.
Swaggart, what an embarassment for Christians.
Just for asking isn't Swaggarts cousin an old Rock and roll star that fooled around with young girls? I'm not kidding here seems to me he was a piano player.
If we are going to probe, let's start with the NAACP and Rainbow/PUSH.
Check his tax status, how Clintonian.
Jerry Lee Lewis.
If this was reversed, the gay community would be up in arms. They would be disgusted at the "discrimination".
Sorry, little gay people. Tax audits on the heels of perceived slights is a tactic of the Clintons and Democrats, not Bush or the Republicans.
And no, we won't allow you to pervert the meaning of marriage. Deal with it.
Bingo!...thanks I could not remember the name.
Yep. That was Jerry Lee Lewis. And he didn't just hitch a 13-year-old girl. He hitched his 13-year-old cousin.
Yup. Any right-thinkin' man should be a-fear'd of a family tree that don't branch.
"I feel so sad for those gays"
JS
Just as Bill Clinton can be a hero to the Dems who know he is a sleazeball, Jerry Lee is my all time favorite singer, despite his severe moral shortcomings. Swaggart I have no use for, but his homophobia should not be any business of the IRS.
Must be a court in San Francisco handling this probe.
well his comment is awful, but why does it require a tax probe?
Yes, the cousin married his 13 year old second cousin.
Gay rights activists want the same rights you have so badly that they are willing to deny you the rights they want. Its all for the best, just ask them.
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