Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Biography
Review: "Swaggart" is readable, carefully researched, and objective. The media focus on the scandals, and these are covered in the book. Ms. Seaman also discusses many of the good things this minister and his ministry have accomplished, such as feeding the hungry, building churches, and supporting missionaries overseas. Mrs. Swaggart is often portrayed as a "dragon lady," but Ms. Seaman is quick to point out the important, positive and supportive role she has played in her husband's life and ministry. This book is well worth the price.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Biography
Review: "Swaggart" is readable, carefully researched, and objective. The media focus on the scandals, and these are covered in the book. Ms. Seaman also discusses many of the good things this minister and his ministry have accomplished, such as feeding the hungry, building churches, and supporting missionaries overseas. Mrs. Swaggart is often portrayed as a "dragon lady," but Ms. Seaman is quick to point out the important, positive and supportive role she has played in her husband's life and ministry. This book is well worth the price.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Intro to Pentacostalism, Televangelism and their roots
Review: C. Ruth's review, below, says much of what I had planned to write about this book. In addition, I think that Ann Seaman, as a woman, is particularly well suited to write about the influence of Frances Swaggart on Jimmy and the Swaggart Ministries. Frances comes across as an iron fist inside a velvet glove, responsible for much of the success of Jimmy and the organization, and Seaman's revelation that Frances prefers women to men goes a long way towards explaining Jimmy's dalliances with prostitutes. The Lewis-Swaggart-Gilley family is just as complex and interesting as the Kennedys, and may also justifiably be described as part of America's "aristocracy". If nothing else, they have come a long way from those tiny shacks, without running water or electricity, in Ferriday, Louisiana. How many of the rest of us could do as well?
Rating: 
Summary: A Decent Book on Swaggart
Review: I bought and read this book in two days. The story of Jimmy Swaggat captures my heart because I too am an Assemblies of God pastor. I too have seen the fall of many sincere Christians because they got focused on power, money, greed, sex, or anything other than preaching the Word of God (Col. 3:16). This book offers the reader an inside view of the life of Jimmy Swaggart. It is rather long though from his family background until Swaggart becomes the world famous evangelist he was to be prior to his fall into sin. The details of the sexual fall of Swaggart are troublesome for those who are not use to strong sexual language. The negatives of this book is that Seaman does use offensive language at times and she is very harsh on Pentecostals and other conservative Christians. Seaman, at times, seeks to put the blame not on Swaggart himself but upon the Assemblies of God and the Church of Jesus Christ. This of course is not the case for anyone who is committed to being a true disciple. One final note, I do not doubt Swaggart started out with a sincere heart for people and for God but he allowed his unconfessed sins and unrepentance to keep him from obeying God. Be sure, the Bible says, yours sins will find you out. And in the end, God exposed Swaggart to the world but thankfully we serve a sinless Savior. As Jim Elliott once wrote, "We are all nobodies seeking to glorify somebody."
Rating:
Summary: Pentecostal insights
Review: I found "Swaggart" well researched and a good read on the whole. I was privileged to help Ann Seaman with some of the research, and appreciative of her acknowledgment of me in her book. As a Pentecostal and an Assemblies of God minister like Jimmy Swaggart, I understand that many of the motivations which drove Jimmy to both succeed and fail are true. I would disagree with some of Ann Seaman's observations that "the religious ecstacy of Pentecostalism" brought down Jimmy and other t.v. evangelists, but do recognize that Pentecostalism in America is in need of reform. Seaman's book demonstrates from the life of one Pentecostal evangelist this need of much needed correction within our own ranks. Having been a "televangelist" of sorts myself, we Pentecostals who have for so long been deprived of power, position, prestige and attention don't realize the difficulties that being in the public eye brings to us. Ann Seaman is both empathetic and sympathetic to Jimmy Swaggart, yet does not white wash his failures. As with any life, a Pentecostal preacher's included, it is filled with failure and success. Jimmy probably handled it better than most Pentecostal preachers, including myself.
Rating:
Summary: Pentecostal insights
Review: I found "Swaggart" well researched and a good read on the whole. I was privileged to help Ann Seaman with some of the research, and appreciative of her acknowledgment of me in her book. As a Pentecostal and an Assemblies of God minister like Jimmy Swaggart, I understand that many of the motivations which drove Jimmy to both succeed and fail are true. I would disagree with some of Ann Seaman's observations that "the religious ecstacy of Pentecostalism" brought down Jimmy and other t.v. evangelists, since sexual failure exists among non-Pentecostal clergy who do not embrace religious ecstacy. However, I do recognize that Pentecostalism in America is in need of reform. Seaman's book demonstrates from the life of one Pentecostal evangelist this need of much needed correction within our own ranks. Since the book is a biography, the need for reform is not addressed. Having been a "televangelist" for four years, we Pentecostals who have for so long been deprived of power, position, prestige and attention don't realize the difficulties that being in the public eye brings to us. Ann Seaman is both empathetic and sympathetic to Jimmy Swaggart, yet does not whitewash his failures. As with any life, a Pentecostal preacher's included, it is filled with failure and success. Jimmy probably handled it better than most Pentecostal preachers, including myself.
Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: I found this account of the saga of Swaggert to be both educational and eminently readable. Seaman is fair and thorough. This is a good read.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and insightful analysis
Review: I have long held the theory that there is little difference between a popular televangelist and a rock star. They just play to different audiences. Both undergo the same temptations. Both face the same potential pitfalls that are the side-effects of fame. The life of Jimmy Swaggart is in many ways intertwined with that of his cousin, rock-and-roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis (and, to a lesser extent, with his other famous cousin Micky Gilley). This book gives insight into how these relationships, along with his poor Southern upbringing and his youthful religious experiences shaped him into to the well-known Christian celebrity he later became. Soberingly, it also points out that the seeds of his downfall were planted early in life, and the demons that would gain victory over him were the same ones he struggled against his entire life. What really impresses me about this book is the fact that it is anything but a hatchet job. In fact, Jimmy Swaggart had many admirable qualities, despite his struggles with anger and sexual temptation. The author points out many times that the media was unfair in their assessment of Swaggart. She bends over backwards, in fact, to be fair and even-handed. The book does make it fairly clear that much of the ambition to make it to the "top" and the later drive to maintain a lavish lifestyle comes from his wife, who rules the Swaggart empire with an iron hand. If there is any fault in this book, it's that it barely mentions the years since the scandal, where Jimmy maintains a more modest, scaled-down ministry. But that is a minor fault. All the important stuff is here.
Rating:
Summary: Great Intro to Pentacostalism, Televangelism and their roots
Review: I read this book because I'm a liberal Protestant and I want to understand where the evangelicals are coming from. This book did as good a job as an outsider could do of letting me see the inside. The intertwined story of the cousins Jimmy, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Mickey Gilley, growing up in Delta poverty, is compelling. The "competition" and contempt for Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker is clearly explained. The relationship between Jimmy and his wife Frances, while implicit about its sexual aspect, is very explicit in its positive effect on his ministry. I was most fascinated by the implication that the appeal of televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart is inherently sexual--as is the appeal of his musician cousins. He has to "work himself up" to do his job. Then if your wife is only your business partner, where does the pressure go? If Seaman is correct, Jimmy chose to channel it into visiting lower-class prostitutes. It was this, of course, which led to his downfall. He is still doing what he believes God calls him to do--and Seaman doesn't doubt his sincerety. But if you look at his web site now, his ministry is very basic, compared to the size and complexity before he got caught. Now I think I want to read one of Swaggart's many books, to see his point of view of his ministry. I wonder what his fans and other Pentacostals think of this book?
Rating:
Summary: Well-deserving scholarly work executed with personal insight
Review: The first word we see on this book, which probably entices many to buy, is that word "UNAUTHORIZED," with it's promise of a titillating expose' gleaned from the gutters of old-time huskster religious revivals and rock 'n roll honky tonks. The last thought we have on finishing the book is that this is one of the most AUTHORITATIVE and probing biographies we have ever been privileged to read. The parallels drawn between first cousins Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Mickey Gilley are striking. Ann Seaman is a cunning Southern story-teller who, in spite of the weight of her volume, manages to tease us along from chapter to chapter, guiding us to her own intelligent and sympathetic conclusion: that Jimmy Swaggart was a victim of his upbringing and for all his faults, ultimately strove to do good and was an inspiration to millions of people. Books like this help us to better understand the absurd hypocricy which afflicted generations of Americans to the end of the 20th Century (the absurd notion that anyone could or even should be "perfect") and paves the way toward a more forgiving and hopefully less pretentious future. This biography is well-written, insightful, and certainly deserving of its Pulitzer nomination.
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