American Notes RELIGION

This time there were no tears, no tortured confessions, no anguished pleas for forgiveness. As Jimmy Swaggart took the podium outside his World Ministry headquarters in Baton Rouge, La., last week, the Pentecostal preacher seemed serene. The 13-member executive presbytery of the Assemblies of God had just voted unanimously to defrock him. The televangelist responded by announcing his resignation from the church. "I wish it were possible to erase the ledger and start over again," said Swaggart. "But of course it is not."

The presbytery had ordered Swaggart to refrain from preaching for a full year after he acknowledged "moral failure" last February. Although church officials and Swaggart have not revealed the details, a prostitute claims Swaggart paid her to pose nude for him. Swaggart had agreed to a three-month suspension but refused to comply with the one-year ban. Such a long absence, he feared, would cripple fund raising for his Bible College and $140 million- a-year Worldwide Ministries. Swaggart said last week that he still plans to honor the original three-month suspension and not return to the pulpit until May 22. "Unless," Swaggart added, "the rapture occurs first."