The Nation - News from Jan. 31, 1989

Television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, defrocked last year after confessing to unspecified “sins” with a New Orleans prostitute, has been expelled from the National Religious Broadcasters, the group that represents about three-fourths of the nation’s television ministries. The organization’s directors, who said his “moral failure” and “confessed misconduct” were damaging to the group’s interests, voted Swaggart out at their annual meeting in Washington. Meanwhile, Swaggart’s lawyer threatened to sue Penthouse magazine for publishing a new account of sexual misconduct against the Baton Rouge, La., minister. The article claims Swaggart conned a New Orleans stripper into performing sadomasochistic acts while he watched, and that he asked her 13-year-old daughter to have sex with him.