And last year Swaggart gave $12 million to the Assemblies of God's foreign missions program - far and away the largest contribution from a single source. His $142 million ministry reaches 3.6 million American viewers and perhaps hundreds of millions worldwide. Swaggart'sinfluence, by at least two measures, is unsurpassed. Swaggart, the country's most watched televangelist and, like Jim Bakker, an Assemblies of God minister, is striving to purge his church of what he sees as "false doctrines," "sorcery" and "fads" - all alleged hallmarks of PTL, which stands for "Praise the Lord" and "People That Love." But some clergymen warned last week of a denominational split. In the midst of the PTL scandal, evangelist Jimmy Swaggart has launched what some ministers see as "a Pentecostal inquisition," with Swaggart playing the role of "grand inquisitor."Īt stake is the future of the Assemblies of God, a comparatively young movement founded 73 years ago this month in Hot Springs, Ark., which boasts 2.3 million adherents nationwide and until now has been one of America's fastest-growing Protestant churches. The fall of television evangelists Jim and Tammy Bakker has provoked a religious controversy with few equals in modern history.
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