Swaggart under fire over ‘gays’ comment

BATON ROUGE, La. – 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 said, to laughter and applause from the congregation. He later apologized, saying the remark was meant to be humorous.

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.

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