Numerous young leaders within the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), the largest Black Pentecostal denomination in the United States, are calling on evangelist Donnie Swaggart to issue a public apology.
Their demand comes after Swaggart criticized the Black church and Bishop John Drew Sheard, COGIC’s presiding bishop and chief apostle, over Sheard’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris and President Biden, whom Swaggart accused of promoting an anti-biblical agenda.
Swaggart, who serves as pastor at the Family Worship Center Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is the only son of the well-known televangelist Jimmy Swaggart. Former President Donald Trump recently praised him as a “talented guy” at the National Faith Summit on Monday.
“We are well aware that the Scriptures speak of the last days as a time when ‘people will not put up with sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths’ (2 Timothy 4:3-4),” the young COGIC leaders argued. “Tragically, Pastor Swaggart has, at least in the instance of his viral commentary, positioned himself squarely within verses 3 and 4 of that passage.”
Earlier this month, Swaggart took aim at COGIC and the black church, in general, after Sheard publicly revealed his endorsement of Harris’ campaign to become the first female president of the United States.
“When the largest African American Pentecostal denomination, when that leader stands up and said I endorse that woman, he was saying, I endorse murder, I endorse homosexuality, I endorse lesbianism, I endorse transgenderism, I endorse every evil that Hell could prosper or bring up to [be] right. That’s wrong folks!” Swaggart said to applause.
“The black church votes predominantly for the party that is anti-God. What’s going on here? What’s going on?” he asked.
“Why will not the African American Church stand up for righteousness and stand up for the Word of God? Come on Church, come on! You can call me a racist, you can call me every name under the sun, but I am right! I come against you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You don’t vote for somebody just because mama voted for them or daddy voted for them, but you vote according to the Word of God.”
The young COGIC leaders argued that Swaggart’s reductive view of the black church based on political allegiance is “not only an oversimplification of the faith but a theological distortion that borders on idolatry.”
“The Gospel is not the handmaiden of any political party or political movement, and the Kingdom of God is neither Republican nor Democrat. Such a mishandling of the Gospel is erroneous at best and heretical at worst,” the leaders asserted.
“The black Church exists as a byproduct of a nation that refused to acknowledge the inherent value of black lives. It was birthed in an era that actively rejected the sound doctrine of Christ, replacing it with doctrines that upheld segregation and inequality. To see the black Church disrespected and maligned by a figure who claims to preach the Gospel is not only deeply offensive but is a reprisal of the same spirit of exclusion and oppression that the black Church has fought against for centuries,” they added.
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