Preaching from a flatbed trailer donated to him, Swaggart began full-time evangelistic work in 1955. I’m a prostitute." New York Times This time, rather than confessing to his congregation, Swaggart told those at Family Worship Center that "The Lord told me it’s flat none of your business." Time Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Swaggart’s son Donnie then announced to the stunned audience that his father would be temporarily stepping down as head of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries for "a time of healing and counseling." Ordination and early career When the patrolman asked Garcia why she was with Swaggart, she replied, "He asked me for sex. According to Garcia, Swaggart stopped to proposition her on the side of the road. On October 11, 1991, Swaggart for a second time was found in the company of a prostitute, Rosemary Garcia, when he was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol in Indio, California, for driving on the wrong side of the road. Jimmy Swaggart Bible College (now World Evangelism Bible College) would lose many of its students by the end of May 1988. It was then that Swaggart decided he would be an independent, non-denominational Pentecostal minister and Family Worship Center would become non-denominational. Believing that Swaggart was not genuinely repentant in not submitting to their authority, the hierarchy of the Assemblies of God immediately defrocked him, removing his credentials and ministerial license. His return to the pulpit coincided with the end of a three-month suspension originally ordered by the Assemblies. The national presbytery of the Assemblies of God soon extended the suspension to their standard two-year suspension for sexual immorality. The Louisiana presbytery of the Assemblies of God initially suspended Jimmy Swaggart from the ministry for three months. The clip of Swaggart’s confession was played repeatedly on news and tabloid television programs.
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On February 21, 1988, without giving any details regarding his transgressions, Swaggart gave his now-infamous "I Have Sinned" speech as he tearfully spoke to his family, congregation, TV audience, and finally his God, saying, "I have sinned against You, my Lord, and I would ask that Your Precious Blood would wash and cleanse every stain until it is in the seas of God’s forgetfulness, not to be remembered against me anymore." On a New Orleans morning news show four days later, Murphree stated that while Swaggart was a regular client, they had never engaged in sexual intercourse.